beterschap...

While I think I had learned the meaning behind the untranslatable Dutch gezelligheid back in December, it seems that my body isn't sure I've learned the meaning of beterschap yet...

So, after my very busy week last week, I wake up this morning feeling a bit sick. All the early signs of a cold coming on: sore throat, fuzzy head, extra tired, a few aches and pains....

After having such a full agenda last week, this is where my mother might say that getting sick is nature's way of telling you to slow down.

But seriously, how slow do I have to move in the Netherlands? I think I have never been moving more slowly, due to repeatedly getting sick, than ever in my life!

It feels like once a month or so I wake up with a bit of a cold. I had my first one (a nasty head cold) in the beginning of August, on my first full day of living in Amsterdam, and during my first week of my intensive Dutch classes. (Let me tell you, Dutch is even harder to learn when your head feels like it will explode.) And since then, it's felt kind of like a broken record, skipping a beat, and tirelessly repeating itself in October, November, December, January, and this month, I have even been sick twice!

So, this has got me wondering, why?!

Is it because I am wearing myself thin with the active and stressful life of a researcher? Somehow, I don't quite think so. I mean, I am pretty busy, but I don't think I'm running myself into the ground by any means. And, while I am usually buzzing with a certain level of research-related stress (which I think I have mostly been repressing), as a perma-student, stress isn't really anything new.

Perhaps, it's simply the fact that my poor little Canadian immune system doesn't quite recognize or know what to do with all these Dutch cold germs? I'm beginning to think that this is the most likely answer. I seem to catch anything that's going around (except, curiously, thankfully, that H1N1 thing that was taking the world by storm...). I think I eat pretty healthily, but I'm also hanging out with a lot of different groups of people that probably put me at higher risk for exposure to different bugs, at least lately. I volunteer twice a week now. On Monday mornings, I cycle over to a school in the Oud West neighbourhood to help kids learn and practice speaking English. On Wednesday afternoons, I head over to Amsterdam Noord to help with a painting activity hour at a senior's home. (More on these things another time, when I have a less fuzzy mind.) I also usually have some sort of various academic talk or reading group to attend once a week. And, the rest of my time gets spent hanging out with friends (which sometimes includes a healthy dose of train travel).

So, yeah, I guess getting sick so often does make some sense, but it has me wondering if anyone else living abroad (or who has lived abroad in the past) is having the same cold-germ hassle as I am?

I think I will go back to my mug of tea and cozy bed for a little while...