Inferma

Being sick at home is bad enough, but being sick here is the worst! I hate that I have to spend such a beautiful day laying in my bed, but not nearly as much as I would hate spending the weekend in bed, especially with the World Cup starting tomorrow!

I honestly have never really cared about the WC, but since I've gotten here it has been nearly as infectious as this stupid cold I picked up. It's like there is a tremor underneath the city, and tomorrow I feel like something is just going to skyrocket out of the middle of 9 de julio!

Drastically changing climates will make you sick. I keep hoping that while I'm asleep my body will just magically adjust and I'll wake up with a clear head and no fever. But no such luck. But you don't want to hear about my illness, so I'll give you some new updates.

Okay so I've been talking a lot to my roommate Ilaria, and recently our favorite topic of conversation has been our love lives-or in our cases, lack thereof. She dated this (gorgeous) guy for 10 years; he was an actor, she was a lawyer, and they were in love. But--when she wasn't working, he was and vice versa, and she wanted to be a judge, and that meant more schooling, and after 10 years (!!!) of making it work, they broke up and she came here.

I think it is so cool, and I admire her so much for not settling for less than what she wants. She definitely wouldn't have had to work, she could have lived an extravagant life-jetsetting across the world, but she wants a family, security; that's what is going to make her happy! When I listen to her talk about it, I think she's so brave, and so smart.

I just can't imagine being with someone for that long, and ending it all to do something else! I guess maybe it's not that love trumps all, you know? I'm kind of starting to wonder what kind of skewed views I have in my head that I never realized before. For example, why am I so baffled by the fact that she would leave someone she loved to pursue her dream? I guess I have this notion of "sacrifice" engrained in my head when it comes to love.

It's funny, next to her my own ramblings (or complaints, more like it) sound so petty, granted she has 9 years on me so I guess I'm petty in my own right. She has given me some very interesting perspective, which is good.

I keep having this weird temptation to create a different "self", like, I can be any person I want to be here, and nobody knows any different. I am however proud of myself for sticking to the actual me, and I feel like I have a better idea of who that person is after coming here alone.

I can't believe I've almost already been here for half of my trip. It is absolutely flying by! Don't want to talk about that now though...guess I'll lay back down and try to get over this cold.