The beginning of this story begins with my trip to Edinburgh. I had started to feel a little ill before taking off for that trip, but nothing serious, my glands were very swollen so I just figured it was the beginning of a cold. I Get up Friday morning to catch the bus to the airport. When passing a police officer directing traffic, not allowing cars to go down the road past the college, I did not suspect a thing. As I near Western Road (where the stop is) all I see is water, the street was 3 feet underwater. I backtrack and rush myself to get to city center to again try and catch the bus. Every one of my routes was blocked due to officers telling me there is no chance of getting near the river. I somehow make it to the other side of the river, (Cork City Center is actually an island) I see that the city is too under water.
The story behind the flooding (I discovered after coming home from my trip) was due to the release of the dam over night. If the dam was released any later though, the dam would have broke, and all of Cork would be under water. Everything near the river was damaged. UCC suffered a lot of damage, enough to close school for a week. Half the city was left without running water (including myself but more to that to come).
So while in Edinburgh my friends and I discover the news that school is canceled for a week, and we were all happy. In Edinburgh however, I started to get a little sicker. I was totally drained of all energy that weekend, lost my appetite, had the chills and fevers, and almost fainted in the bathroom of my hostel the morning I was leaving.
As happy as I was to head back to Cork (my hostel in Edinburgh was disgusting), what was awaiting me was even worse. My apartment was one of the buildings that had lost its water (the reserve center was 20ft underwater after the flood). It happened on Friday, so I was lucky to get some showering in over the weekend. My roommates brother did fortunately have running water at his house down the road, so we went to his place a couple times to shower.
This was the week of Thanksgiving, just to give you a time stamp. That whole week I was feeling miserable, and my glands were still extremely swollen and very tender. I decided to go to the health center just to find out what it was. My dad thought it was probably the flu, that is what the doctor figured it was too, but she took some blood tests to make sure it wasn't mono.
I went to my friends on Thanksgiving, this is when I noticed that my energy was completely zapped. She is about a ten minute walk from my apartment, and I hardly made it home when I finished my meal. (She was also the one to tell me before the doctor that I might have mono, and after the weekend she had me convinced that that's what it was).
So after Thanksgiving is probably the worst of my sickness. I couldn't get out of bed, I couldn't eat, I started to get tonsillitis (by monday my throat would be completely white), and I didn't have running water. I was severely dehydrated because I was living off bottle water, often time running out and not being able to get more some friends hours later. I had the week off school because on Monday the doctor confirmed that I had mono. I was miserable, and all I wanted was to go home.
By December 4th, the worst of the symptoms started going away. My apartment had running water again, but I couldn't drink from the tap. I still had no energy, but by the 8th I had enough to make it to Issaquah. I am thankful that I got to go home for Christmas, I just wish the circumstances were better.
In the end I dropped tow classes (a blessing cause I don't know how I would have gotten around to writing the papers and studying for the finals for both of them) and I have three more essays to write that I got extensions for. So I should get to those, but I am still not completely adjusted to the time change, so I decided to start them tomorrow. Wish me good health and luck in his New Year; I wish the same to you.
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