I Have A Cold

A cold, and an oral Dutch examination today ... what are the chances.

I haven't a cold since hmmmmm ... earlier this year in Turkey. It's coming back to me, lying on the couch in Mecidiyekoy, feeling certain that this one was going to send me home in a bodybag ... not that I'm prone to exaggeration, I just felt really really bad. I was losing $50 us per day (which seemed like a lot of money there), for each day I stayed home feeling sorry for myself and waiting to die, so it must have been bad.

On the upside, and often there is one (although they are difficult to find when you are an adult at a childs birthday party) I can tell my Dutch teacher that I have a cold in Nederlands spreek, and this may impress her to the point where she gives me 100% for turning up and being able to say it.

'Ik ben verkouden' ... perhaps it's only worth 79%, but if I continue with 'Ik moet niezen en hoesten', quite frankly, I think she should give me the full 100% in recognition of the fact that:
1. I turned up.
2. I could give a basic explanation of my 'best viewed in dim light' appearance.
3. And I could add to the basic information with the stunning news that I am sneezing and coughing.

If she wanted to hang out with me, she would see me reading apotheek instructions on medicine bottles (I don't swallow pills, it's too difficult, especially when I'm fragile and slightly ill).

Will I take medicine ...? I don't know, I'm New Zealander, we're meant to pride ourselves on not taking medicine, on working through pain and illness, and never complaining ... somehow these things bypassed me, and I can give stunningly graphic accounts of my pain and the fact that this cold is Gert's fault. He suggested it was the people on the tram however, it is all too easy for me to recall feeling incredibly smug and healthy last week, when he lost his voice and destroyed his nose with this same cold.

Ik ben ziek ... poor me.