Warning: Warning Labels are Usually Relevant

At 5:30 this morning, my annoyingly chipper alarm clock woke me up to the reality that Barrett was really back in the States and work was really starting back up for the first time in 2 weeks. I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed and threw myself back into my usual Indian morning routine: shower without swallowing a drop of water, pick out teacher-tastic outfit, take malalria pill, put on make-up, make microwave oatmeal, blow-dry hair, and Skype with the boyfriend-all before 7:05! Having been without a maid for the past 2 weeks and therefore completely unable to fend for myself, I was bummed to realize I was out of oatmeal but settled instead for a granola bar that I munched on my way out to the van.

As I waited for the van to pull up, I noticed that I was starting to feel increasingly nauseous. Living in India, you're almost guaranteed to have your stomach feel upset every once in awhile, but this was an out of the ordinary tummy ache even for India. I decided to lay down on the long seat in the back of the van, but the streets of Mumbai are more crater-filled than the moon, and the bumpy ride was not helping things. Suddenly, I got that awful feeling; the one where you know you're going to vomit and there is no stopping it. In a panic I looked around for a way out of the van, but the windows don't open, I was way in the back, and we were still 10 minutes from school. I was left with only one option: I quickly dumped my school materials out on the floor just in time to vomit inside of my favorite C.K. Bradley tote-bag. As Charles Moore (one of my former fun teamers) would say, "Dat's gwoss."

After arriving at school, I had washed out my bag and then laid in the nurse's office drinking electrolytes until I finally started to panic about the number of emails I had to go through and decided to tough out the day. With the emails answered and some food in my tummy 2 hours later, I was finally feeling back to normal. That afternoon, I was having lunch in Marie's office telling her the story of my crazy, disgusting start to the day and thinking out loud about what could have made me so sick. When Marie, who is clinically addicted to handbags, finally took a break from being horrified that I had thrown up in my bag, she contributed more useful tidbits to the conversation like asking what I had eaten for breakfast that morning.

"Well, I hadn't really had the chance to eat anything before I started feeling sick. Besides, I was out of oatmeal."

"That's strange," Marie replied, "had you put anything else in your stomach this morning?"

"No, nothing at all! Well, besides my malaria pill and some water," I added nonchalantly.

Marie looked like she didn't know whether to laugh at me or slap my wrist. "Tyler! You can't take those things on an empty stomach! They'll make you sick! What are you, insane?"

I thought about this for a moment and realized that I was fully aware of the warning label on my malaria pill bottle yet had ignored it for all of these weeks knowing that I would have a big bowl of oatmeal soon after taking a pill. The lightbulb went off as I realized that the granola bar probably hadn't filled me up as much as the oatmeal usually does, which would then explain my disgusting performance on the van.

As a teacher, I fully embrace the lifestyle of learning something new each day and what can I say-I learned something today! It just probably would have been better for me (and the rest of my van) if I had decided to take the warning label's word for it instead of figuring out that lesson through experience. At least one thing's for sure though: from now on, I'm taking my malaria pills at night.