The low point

Having said I wasn't going in and being in near agony from stomach cramps the entire time I didn't get up and dressed until about 10am. To be honest I had no intention of getting up but for the fact that I had almost run out of water from attempting to keep hydrated and the juice I'd bought (of which there wasn't much left anyway) had got warm and I didn't fancy drinking it in case it made me worse. 

I decided I would have to venture back to Panda but ended up waiting another hour for my stomach to calm down enough for me to risk it. I had gone to have a shower but no sooner did I touch the small diverter to send the water through the shower hose and not straight down onto the floor did the plastic nut shear off rendering it useless. Just what I needed... I gave up and put it down to a run of bad luck. By this point you can imagine my feelings being in a completely alien country, having a bare aparment with only a matress and two suitcases to serve as furnishings (you really miss chairs when you don't have them you know!), feeling like death warmed up, spending the vast majority of the time sitting on a toilet seat that had not been fitted correctly and with no internet to even speak to anybody back home. Very depressing! The fact that I managed to drag myself up at all to leave the flat was clearly only out of desperation. 

Lucky I did though because on the way to Panda I noticed a huge pharmacy about the size of a small boots in the UK and went in. Looking around initially to see if I could find anything myself I soon came to the conlusion it must all be behind the counter so made my way toward the man in the lab coat. The first thing I asked (as I do with anybody here) was if he spoke English and thankfully he did very well although I assumed he probably was likely to have been educated for his pharmacy degree elsewhere anyway. I explained my symptoms and he gave me four different types of medication, painstainkly ensuring I understood the different dosages and when to take them etc. Asking me to go back on Saturday and let him know if it was better or not I agreed and paid the $100SAR (£16 ish). 

Stocking up again on snack items in Panda I also bought some mince to make a bolognaise that evening although it was only when I got home I realised I had forgotten to buy any cutlery and wouldn't be able to eat it without using my hands. 

I headed back to bed, lying there the entire day watching films I'd now seen a number of times each. I ended up having chicken noodle soup and drinking it from my solitary bowl (though to be quite fair I enjoyed it and it was easy on my stomach) before resuming my previous assignment and basically giving up on the day at that point. This, I can honestly say was the lowest point I have been since arriving here and had me genuinely second guessing my decision when coupled with the fact that it had started to sink in that I was actually now a teacher and not a trainer to all intents and purposes, something I had not really thought enough about before I got here if I'm honest. Had someone offered me the chance to go home there and then I'd probably have been sorely tempted...