This is weird, but you will have to trust me. The school year for the kids ended one month before the school year for the teachers. The kids would just stop coming. During that time we would work on projects, socialize, and clean up our rooms. At the kindergarten we organized an annual trip to Dubai Mall. We would rent a bus and all the teachers who wanted to would ride to the mall and go shopping for the day. The second year I was there I went and it was the last time I went (with school anyway.)

Everything was fine until about 2 o’clock. My friends and I were shopping, we had lunch, and about one I started to not feel so good. I paid close attention to where all the bathrooms were in case of an emergency. By two, I was not capable of walking anymore. I had determined the location of the best bathrooms being next to Bloomingdale’s not far from the Caribou coffee, which would not mind if we took up a couple of chairs for several hours. I curled into a chair and lay there miserable and my friends took turns keeping me company.

At five, we were supposed to meet the rest of the teachers to go home. My friends and I were prompt. Several of the other teachers were not. The bus did not leave until seven. I had prepared for the ride with two vomit bags, which I needed. I curled on the bench seat of the bus in misery the entire ride home and went straight to bed hoping it was food poisoning that would go away by morning.

At 11:30, I woke up feeling just as miserable as I had all day. It was a sharp pain about the size of a quarter on my abdomen. I’m a bit of a hypochondriac, so I always think the worst, but I do you have access to the Internet. My sinking feeling was appendicitis. My brother-in-law had appendicitis and ended up confined to the couch for 6 weeks while my sister cleaned out the incision twice a day. So I Googled and Google agreed. It was time to seek professional help. I called my friend and told her, “I think something is really wrong with me. Can you take me to the hospital?”

It’s a long story, so more next week.