I'm sick in Japan . . . my rendition of a Tom Waits song

I knew I would get sick here at some point and finally it happened. Right now (as of today), I'm at the sneezing phase, which is much better than the hoarse voice stage. Wednesday was terrible as I had a random coughing fit in the midst of teaching my lowest level student (aged around 70ish). Thankfully, my day off on Thursday helped me recover a little and I bought some throat medicine which worked instantly. It then moved to my nose and now the stuffy nose made it difficult for my students to understand me on Friday and Saturday  ..  . I pissed my boss off on Saturday because I had some extra overtime hours left so she let me come into work later on Saturday. Apparently, she had tried to call me so that the manager could take me to the doctor (for a cold? I thought that was a little ridiculous but apparently they go to the doctor for colds here), but I had my phone on silent (since I was going to work) and she was mad that she couldn't get a hold of me. She was even more mad when she found out I had thrown my house phone away because it didn't work even though I'd told her before that it didn't work. I was  really too sick to even care that she was upset with me. Now I have to buy a home phone though, which I haven't had since I lived in Memphis with my parents.
That's a gist of my week, besides hanging out with my friend, Maiko, Marc's girlfriend. We went to a Hawaiian restaurant on Sunday then looked around at some cool shops. We tried to go to Ohori Park but it was so windy and started to rain that we couldn't even walk straight without being slowed down by the wind. I was just beginning to get sick, too, so we decided that was enough and went home. It was fun though, and nice to hang out with her one-on-one since I think this might've been our first time. She was sad about leaving her sister whom she'd just visited the week before and I was sad about leaving my brother, so we decided to get together. It was really fun and nice, especially since I've been stuck inside ever since from being sick >.<  I have pictures on my cell phone that I will post once I figure out how to get them off my phone . . . As for now, here are some pictures from my mini video cam:

 

Saturday night I started feeling dizzy and the sore throat coming on. I wonder if this was why . . . :P

I only had a half hour lunch break that day 2 hours before I was going to get off work (at 5 and I got off at 7, so I was starving by this time). I found some event happening at the park down the street. This guy was funny, he was asking people to stop and taste these things, and of course everyone was squirming and laughing. One old guy started eating some of it . .. 

 

I had a more sane meal, although I kind of wonder if this was what made me sick. I thought it might taste like fried rice, but it was extremely sticky rice that didn't have much taste, unless that was because I was already starting to get sick and lost my sense of taste . . . either way I missed my mum's rice. I think I'll make it again this week since I hadn't made it in a while. Unfortunately, peas are hard to come by here and that's what makes the fried rice, but I'll just use carrots. 

 

What do you do when you're sick? Where cute, thick penguin socks that your mum gave you ^_^

 

One of my students is a flower arrangement teacher and she gave us this for our Christmas flowers!

 

I'm sure my mum will know what all of these are. Some are olives, obviously roses, and I forget the others.