In Sickness and in Health

The rest of my journal is basically me in mourning that my time abroad was coming to an end, and a not-so-pretty chronicle my sickness during the last week or so. I was actually sick a lot during that trip. Everyone in our group bought a cheap little notebook to pass around and sign a personal note for that person and give them your contact info...one girl said to me, "I will never forget how sick you were this whole trip." Ugh. What a terrible thing to remember about a person! I can laugh about it now, but it really was miserable.

So to reminisce about how sick I was, and to praise the heavens that this never happens to me anymore, here are a few choice stories that I originally ommitted:
[Reader beware]

In the beginning we were in the bus, a LOT. There was more than one occasion where we had to pull over because someone had to barf after a meal combined with a particularly bumpy bus ride. At least once, that was me.

We got soft-serve ice-cream on the street a few times...until we found out that they TURN OFF THE REFRIGERATORS AT NIGHT. Yeah, a few of us got sick from that. Curds, anyone?

In the Sahara I got extremely dehydrated. I woke up before sunrise to hike to the top of a dune and ended up dry-heaving and nearly passing out. A local Berber had to carry me back.

Before arriving in the village, our leaders warned us that everyone gets sick at least once. As a "precaution" I stupidly started taking Pepto-Bismol the first day we arrived, before I even showed a symptom. I ended up getting severely constipated - I wonder why - and not having a bowel movement for over 5 DAYS. When it finally happened, let's just say everyone heard about it, I was so happy. [Haha, by far my favorite sick-story. How dumb was that??]

Towards the end of our trip we were staying in a beach town called El Jadida. We were all laying out, enjoying the sun, before it was time for lunch. It was midday [extremely hot] and I thought I was fine, before I stood up. I immediately got wicked dizzy, my hearing was fading in and out, and I was literally seeing stars. My friend caught me before I passed out. I barely had enough energy to get to a public bathroom and had unpleasant things coming out from both ends [mind you, in a Turkish toilet AKA, squatting, no flushing]. Everyone told me to eat up, so I did [even though I really shouldn't have] and of course it didn't stay down. That night, and the next few nights were miserable. I had food poisoning, was barfing and pooing my brains out, and was severely sunburned.

So maybe it's surprising to you that I still walked away from that memorable month in Morocco and still rave about it. What can I say? When you're seventeen and all you've ever dreamed about is exploring the world, nothing gets in the way. Despite all my stomach turning illnesses, it remains as the most life-changing event of my life.