Last month was a doozy. Here’s the story:
//Ringing In The New Year Then Getting Sick
I rang in the New Year dancing with my cousins in my mom’s childhood home. It was such a memorable night. I wish I could say New Years Day was that great.
I couldn’t sleep the night before. In the morning, I told my cousin, who was sharing the bed with me that I felt like I had a rock in my stomach. I was sure it was because I had eaten so much the night before and had danced almost immediately after.
My cousin went to have breakfast with the rest of our family, while I laid in bed. It felt really hot, so I went to the adjoining room, which was cooler and laid in that bed. My aunt and baby cousin came in to brush their teeth, so I decided it was time to get up and get ready too.
Once I started brushing my teeth and I felt horrible. Standing up for that long was painful and all I wanted to do was collapse into the bed with the toothbrush in my mouth, but my aunt and cousin were still there, so I waited till I was finished before doing so.
I told my aunt that I thought I was sick, so she checked my temperature. It was only 99 degrees, so I didn’t have a fever. I spent a few minutes laying on the bed with my phone, but then I felt like I was going to throw up, so I got up off the bed quickly and threw up on the tile floor (I didn’t have time to make it to the bathroom).
I felt instantly better but spent the rest of the day at home sleeping or lying around. My cousin (He’s only a year older than me) said, “And you didn’t even drink last night?” Which made me laugh. I would’ve said the exact same thing to him if the situation were reversed. (And that’s exactly what I did)
I was fine after that. It turned out that it was a virus that all of us caught in the next few days. (My two younger cousins from Australia had to go to the Hospital) I was the least sick of the lot, which was good because I had a flight on the third.
That was an unexpected way to start 2018. It’s a good thing that I don’t believe in signs because that would’ve been a terrible one.
//Enjoying My Last Few Days In Bangladesh
I’m going to do a whole trip recap in the next few weeks. My last three days in Bangladesh were still fun. I went to the beach with my cousins on my last day in Chittagong and went to a Sri Lankan Restaurant in Dhaka (It was really good) and did some last minute shopping.
On my last day, I got a Thai Massage for only $25. I had never gotten a massage before and I was told to get one while I was in Bangladesh because it’d be way cheaper. It was. I also got a facial and my hair blow dried before my flight.
That pretty much sums up my travel activities at the beginning of January. It’s crazy to think about the fact that I was on the other side of the world just a month ago, and now I’m back in my room writing blog posts.
//Saying Goodbye to Everyone
I think I’m just going to quote from my most recent post:
“Half the people I spent time with in Bangladesh were people I’ve never met. I’m a child of immigrants, so I understand the feeling of loving someone you’ve never met. That just comes with the deal. A lot of people come to America and never go back to their home countries, so their kids’ only relationship with their family is through phone calls and face time.
When I was leaving Chittagong, I was surprised at how much I was going to miss everyone. There was a huge difference between my reaction to leaving my family in Chittagong and in Dhaka. I grew up with or have met my family in Dhaka before. I knew what it was like to miss them, but I had never felt that before with my family in Chittagong because I had never met them in person before. It was very emotional, but it’s priceless to have the ability to miss them.”
The girl on the right is like my little sister. We grew up together in Atlanta. She spent the rest of the day crying the day I left Dhaka.
//The Two Day Plane Ride
On January 3rd, I flew from Chittagong to Dhaka. The next day I flew from Dhaka to Doha Qatar. I spent 10 hours there. Thankfully, I was able to sleep there before my flight to London. I got a seat on the upper deck for that flight, which was wonderful. Especially since that’s when my period decided to start.
So that was it’s own battle, but I kept my medicine bag with me in my backpack, so I was fine after taking a Midol. I was experiencing a lot of back pain, which I will explain later on in the post. Once I arrived in London, I waited for my flight to Atlanta to be announced. Once it was, I headed to my gate (The London-Heathrow Airport is HUGE). The plane ride back to Atlanta wasn’t that great. I definitely prefer Turkish Airlines and Qatar Airways over British Airways. The food wasn’t as good, there wasn’t as much leg space, but the movie selection was amazing.
I got home the night of January 5th. Going through immigration was a piece of cake. My luggage didn’t make it on the plane. It was still in London, but I couldn’t care less because I was so tired. (It was delivered to our house the next day)
Related – What I Read And Watched On The Plane
//Jetlag
I surprisingly didn’t experience any jetlag when I got to Bangladesh. I just took a nap on the second day I was there, and I was all good. It was a completely different story when I got back. Thank goodness the first day of the Spring term was canceled for inclement weather because I would’ve been dead tired.
//Back Pain
While I was in Chittagong, I started getting this dull pain in my lower back that would worsen the longer I’d sit. This would mostly happen in the car, so my family would let me sit in the front seat whenever it got bad. It still really hurt there.
Then I noticed that it hurt on my 50-minute flight from Chittagong to Dhaka. I started to worry because I was about to be on a plane for 2 days. My back would start to hurt after sitting for thirty minutes. Then it would progressively get worse, so my flights back were not a great experience (Especially since I was sick just a few days before)
When I got back, I was home and didn’t sit for prolonged periods of time, so I didn’t notice anything. It got worse once school started. As a student, I have to sit for over an hour because I’m in class. The first day of class was torture. I couldn’t focus at all. I just kept waiting for class to end so that I could stand up. After the first day, I told my mom to make a doctor’s appointment.
It kept getting worse and worse as the days went on. My mom moved up the first doctor’s appointment when I told her that it was getting more painful to drive. Then I was referred to an orthopedist who did an X-Ray.
For me, the worst case scenario was that I had scoliosis because both my mom and grandma had it. I do not want to have lifelong chronic back pain, so I was worried. Thankfully, my spine is straight, but I probably pinched a nerve in my back while traveling. I was given an anti-inflammatory and was told to come back in a month.
My back still really hurts, but it’s gotten better in the last few days (not by much). We’ll see what happens.
//My Grandparents Left
My grandparents go traveling every few months (They’ve been to over 50 countries). They left to go to Bangladesh a few weeks ago and will be back in Atlanta in six months.
//My Childhood Best Friend Couldn’t Visit Atlanta
I saw my childhood best friend (Her mom is my mom’s best friend and were pregnant with us together) when I went to Dhaka after ten years. A piece of the video is below. She went to Canada shortly after I arrived tp Bangladesh and spent a month and a half there. She was supposed to come to Atlanta over MLK weekend, but there was a huge snow storm in Canada and her flight kept getting delayed (She was at the Airport for over 24 hours). The flight was eventually canceled, but she got a refund before that because she just couldn’t do it anymore.
I was disappointed, but this was the weekend after I came back from Bangladesh, so I was still super exhausted. She’s also moving back to Atlanta in the Spring, so I wasn’t too sad about it.
//Lack Of Routine
I wrote about this in a post-travel update last month, so I won’t get into it here. The constant back pain dominated this month and I was pretty jetlagged the first few weeks. I was doing the bare minimum. I think the only productive thing I did was finish 3 out of 6 research credit hours for my biopsych class (We’re required to be apart of psychological research studies for a grade and I finished half of the hours I need for this semester.)
//What Made It All Click For Me
Things started to click near the end of the month after I read this quote in the book I was reading.
“I don’t have to do it all. Done is better than perfect and good enough is good.” – Cultivate by Lara Casey
That quote was like a kiss on the forehead. Especially when it came to writing. I was so overwhelmed by all the blog posts I was planning to write, I didn’t know where to start. There are twenty drafts for blog posts open right now and I’m finally getting a handle on them. I’m finally starting to finish blog posts and publish them instead of letting outlines sit in my drafts folder. It’s very motivating.
//Posting Monthly Goals Again
I think I’m going start posting my monthly goals on the blog again now that I’m using Powersheets. I stopped posting monthly goals last year because my schedule revolved around school due dates, so it wasn’t helpful for me or you to post them. My goals are a lot more structured now and I think it would be useful to share them. It’ll also hold me more accountable to them.
This means that my monthly reflections will be at the bottom of the goals posts. They won’t be as long-winded as they are now, but they’ll still give you a short life update.
What fun memories did you make in January? How are you doing on your New Years Resolutions?