Sick (and Other Short Stories)

Day 1 at home and I'm sick. Literally sick.

I have a messed up immune system I guess. Lost count already on how many times I've fallen sick in the past few months. Currently dealing with runny nose that turns itself blocked whenever it wants. Muscle pain on both arms. A pair of bloodshed eyes that my mum describes as keruh (tears keep on rolling for no reason). And the area around my eyes are a bit swollen. Sore throat leaves me cranky - feels like there's a sandpaper inside my throat. Scary indeed to think of all those people near to me at the airport and in the plane who were coughing without covering their mouths and the huge mistake I made upon coming home last night - the last thing I did was to clean my hands. In between that period of time I've been rubbing my nose, my eyes, and now, yeah, serves me right for waking up feeling terribly terrible.

And because of this, I don't have the mood to do anything. 

Was excited last night, tuning all three guitars and playing a few songs, singing at the top of my voice. That's one huge mistake as well. Been surviving the whole journey from SA (7.40am) to home (5.30pm) by only drinking one bottle of 500ml water from the water dispenser of Akasia. Now I have to deal with this sore throat.

Anyway, talking about home, 5 months has really been a long period of time to me. There are so many changes, from the arrangement of furnitures, to the detergent brand my family is using, and the little little things like errr..suddenly I feel like I've been changing too.

I have to admit it's hard to adapt, even in my own home. Suddenly you are waken up by the voice of a random neighbour who is yelling fiercely angrily to her child, suddenly you have to deal with cigarette smoke from your next door neighbour, suddenly you are not the whiner who complains and express your feelings to someone else (it turns the other way round - I'm learning to become a listener now) and suddenly you are tempted to say the things that you haven't been saying for a long time. 

Good thing is of course I can do whatever I want whenever I want to (not everything, but some things of course) like singing aloud, playing guitar and...ok that's it. The two things I've been really wanting to do in Akasia for a long long time. 

And I had two bowls of Kolo mee which the auntie didn't believe I could finish (kept on saying "If you can't finish it..you can tapao.."). Gah. Underestimating my ability. Haha.

Haven't been sitting in front of the tv or flipping even one page of the newspaper. Planning to study like crazy this break, and I really really hope I can fight all the temptations.

Seniors are currently fighting the coldness of the great hall for their first paper. I believe they're gonna do very well like our fast track friends. Next year will be my turn. Yikes.

This semester break, all I want to be is how I am in Akasia, if not even better.

I don't want to exploit the fact that now I am at home, I can turn into someone who is not me in the past few months.