sick and stuff

So, I was cursed with a touch of illness yesterday. Opinions vary as to the cause. I think it was too mild to be food poisoning, but I suppose it could have been just a mild case of food poisoning. We had our big ol' 4th of July dinner (and I had 2 glasses of milk, thank you very much) and then came home and chilled out. I had noticed earlier that day that (***SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT MY BOWEL MOVEMENTS**) my run-of-the-mill India diarrhea had turned into something a bit more intense and frequent, but I didn't think much of it. I felt kind of yucky that night, but I thought it was just because I was really full (and I hadn't been that full in quite a while). But then I woke up at 6 a.m., had some more of that lovely diarrhea, and puked my guts out. I stayed at home that day, drank water, pooped out all the water I drank (I'm sorry, I know it's gross, but this is part of my India experience too...), and dry heaved a little because I felt like I was going to throw up but there was nothing in my stomach. Oh, and there was some weird power strike so the fan was off most of the day, so I just lay in bed sweating and feeling miserable.

But, by evening I was much revived, and managed to eat dinner. I'm feeling a bit queasy after today's lunch, and things still aren't going very well with my "plumbing", but I'm not nearly as sick as E got, for which I'm quite grateful.

While I was sick at home, M and E came up with our surveying schedule for the first week. Our sample is not exactly as random as it is supposed to be, because for logistical reasons that would be sort of impossible (Shhh...don't tell our advisor). But things are all set to go for Monday, which is great.

Here are some pictures from Sparky's on the 4th. You can't really tell, but M and I are wearing sparkly bindis (those dots that Hindus or Buddhists sometimes wear on their foreheads...it's religious/cultural origin is as a representation of the Third Eye, but it is now not unusual for them to be worn primarily for decorative purposes, as M and I do). Anyway, M thought it would be funny to use the red frosting from one of the cupcakes to give E a bindi too (yes, I know, we're so culturally sensitive). And I'm sure E would want me to tell you that he was not happy about his frosting bindi and got it off of his forhead post haste.

Okay, just kidding about the pictures. Blogger is being annoying and not letting me upload them. I'll try again later.