I Have a Cold

At the moment, I am fighting off a somewhat terrible cold over here in South America. I thought that being sick in my host country would be very hard, but it turns out that like everything else here, it's just different. I have been staying in bed a lot because its the only place I can stay warm and my host mom has been taking such great care if me. She tells me that since I am her daughter, she worries about me and just wants me to feel better soon because she loves me. Every few hours, she brings tea up to my room and asks me of I need anything else! She takes such great care if me and if she is ever sick I will do the exact same for her, because she is my mom and I love her like one. It's so weird for me to be treated like this while I am sick. In the US, I often try to hide my sickness because having parents that work in the medical field makes me feel like I have nothing to complain about. However here in Chile, I have to use all my energy to convince my host parents that I am not dying and that I will be okay soon and just let them take care of me. Even my host dad comes into my room occasionally and just sits down and talks to me so that I am not lonely! What is even weirder is how I am not sad while being sick. I am still in love with Chile and I do not wish I were anywhere else! It's very hard to speak in Spanish with a soar throat and stuffed up nose, but realizing that I, at age 16 in a foreign country, can overcome sickness while speaking my second language and still be smiling, gives me a sense of accomplishment and makes me feel strong. 

While thinking about this, I realized that there are probably a lot of other exchange students who are going through similar difficulties but don't have the same enthusiasm that I have realized I have had for the passed month. We have a Facebook page where hundreds of Rotary exchange students an share their experiences with each other, and a lot of them have been posting things about how homesick they are. I decided that since I was sick and had a lot of time to do nothing, I might as well help them out by cheering them in a little, so I wrote this for them: 

It felt nice to help out my fellow intercambistas and many if them messaged me telling me that my words had helped them a lot. 

This morning another super cool thing happened to me, and since I don't feel like rewriting the whole story, I took a screenshot of it for you:

This was an almost magical experience for me and made me feel very happy. I'm going to try and get some rest now. Wish me luck with fighting off this cold! Have a great rainy Saturday. :)