Today. Not sick.

A quick ten-point commitment of the day:

1) I found a bus. Bus 90. Bus 90 takes me from my door to class. Do you know what this means? My commute is no longer three busses. I no longer fight for a seat on the mini-van, battling for fairness in culture wars. No more protecting the person who was there before me. Nope. None. Just one big fancy bus half the price of my previous three. Deeeeep breath.
2) I might be making friends. I am the least sick that I have been since arriving, which is pretty un-sick, and that means I smiled today, like a real wide smile. Smiles bring friends. I made one from Belgium. There are other potentials. In my language class they range from Brazilian to Thai to French to the American boy that everyone loves but I know better than to love him too much because he has the face of a man and the body of a teenager. That is trouble. I smell it from here.
3) Motorcycles on sidewalks are allowed here. Motorcycles on a walking strip are scary.
4) I saw a Chasid on rollerblades on Ben Yehuda street.
5) I found the Black Hebrews today. I walked into their vegan organic restaurant and said it reminded me of Everlasting Life in DC. The man asked, “On Georgia?” I said yes. He said he used to live in DC and his uncle bought that place out. No more Everlasting Life on Georgia.
6) Then I found an organic food place next door and was given a tour of their clinic in back, acupuncture, shiatsu, etc. They said I was going to slowly fall in love with this country. I gave him a very dubious look. We debated US voodoo Vs. Chinese medicine.
7) Habib, my very best student, brings in the lyrics to songs by Miley Cyrus. He also brings in quotes from facebook in need of translation. He is amazing and showed videos on his phone of himself breakdancing.
8) Habib walked me to the bus tonight because I no longer feel safe walking alone. I teach Sudanese refugees in a very sketchy neighborhood. There are a lot of skinny white crack-heads and weird suspicious activities, and cats. I had Habib walk me to my bus.
9) I asked Habib about the marks on my students. Everyone has scars and burns and other marks, and a few have these intense lines around the circumference of their skull at the hair line. I figured they had been tortured with some sort of string, but Habib told me they are tribal markers. I asked more questions and he revealed that we have two Southern Sudanese tribes represented in our class, explaining the circles scars and the protruding forehead dots. Habib is good.
10) I went home at 9:30. Arrived home at 9:30. I left the house at 8am. Today was a full day and I was healthy today. Can you imagine? After over a month of mystery illnesses and hives and infections and fevers, I had the strength to walk the city, take a class, teach a class and then some.