Keep goin' and keep growin'

You might have noticed that March has been short on posts, pictures and general anecdotes.  Rather than fall back on one of my usual excuses ("I've been busy," "I haven't had the energy to write," "I forgot my URL," etc.), I'll break from the pattern and tell you all that I have been quite sick. 

Five visits to two different hospitals, a dozen trips to the pharmacy and 21 days later, I think I'm finally— barring a stuffy nose and strained foot— on the mend.  I'm not sure how socialized Argentina's health care system is, but I found their doctors to be overall quite competent and their medical facilities similar to those in the U.S.  My one complaint is the size of the needles.  Two blood tests left me with two bruised forearms (it's a good thing I haven't had any job interviews this month).

The first week of March I was supposed to start teaching half a dozen new classes; I ended up having to cancel all but two of them.  Luckily the language institute and my private students were all very understanding, but still, it wasn't the first impression I wanted to make.  Now I'm back to teaching and braving this crazy city each day.

So why am I sharing this slightly boring, slightly dramatic tale?  Simply to keep my blog (and myself) fair and balanced.  Some of that old journalism training rears its head when I write here.  It whispers, Keep it balanced.  Show both sides of every story.  Working overseas as an ESL teacher might seem like nothing but endless fun, frivolity and freedom (and yes, those are largely true), but it has a downside as well.  This is it.  Being sick in a foreign country, especially when the doctors don't speak your native language, your internet and Skype only work intermittently and you have no air-conditioning, is pretty freaking scary. 

But even a situation like this, which was so far out of my comfort zone that I had to take a bus to get back into it, reinforces the point of this whole adventure: Keep exploring, keep going and keep evolving.  Traveling overseas has the innate knack for putting you face to face with some of your greatest fears.  Once you confront them, you walk away (hopefully) a little wiser, a little stronger and a little more relaxed.

One of the friends I've made while living here has a small tattoo on the inside of her wrist that reads, "Sigue creciendo," or "keep growing."  I couldn't have said it better myself.