Celebrating the Fourth and an unwelcome visitor

For me the Fourth of July passed by rather quietly and I might not have noticed at all if my host mother hadn't mentioned it to me in passing that it was America's Independence day. It is always weird for me to have holidays that I always celebrate every year just pass by unnoticed while I am here in Moldova. But don't worry. Even though I might have missed celebrating the Fourth of July on the fourth. I did get around to celebrating it on Saturday. The same party as was organized last year with lots of Americans, food, music, and games. Made for a great excuse to not only get out of my village but to meet up with lots of volunteers, including a lot of the newbies that I haven't gotten to meet yet. This year the party was a lot more fun because I wasn't recovering from food poisoning, however, I guess as a sort of irony this year I got my food poisoning immediately after the party was over. As I headed out with a friend back to the hostel for the night I could feel my body ready to commit mutiny and it took all the will power I had to hold it off until after the trolley ride. 

This now being my second year in country I can now count this as my first sickness of my second year of service and it came about almost a year to the day from my first sickness. I hope it isn't a sign of things to come because if so this is my fourth illness overall meaning I could be looking forward to another two more bouts of sickness before I finally make it back to America. Let's hope thats not the case.

Of course hope is pretty much all I can do seeing as how I seem to be unable to avoid catching food poisoning no matter how careful I am. And no matter how many times I catch it it never gets any easier.  Nothing but misery as long as it last and not much helps to take your mind away from it even though I've tried. 

But anyway, speaking of illness, people always ask me in Moldova do I miss America. And my answer is always "not really." Which is usually not the answer they were expecting. But its the truth. Out of sight, out of mind. And at this point I have grown accustomed to Moldova and have hardly had any homesickness for America...hardly any...other than the times I am sick. And when Im sick almost all of my thoughts revolve around America and more specifically me hopping on the next plane out of Moldova and coming back to America. I guess deep down no matter how much I feel at home in Moldova, there really is no place like "home."