trying to tutor

[macrotwentytwo]

Everyone has a cold at school right now... I think they need to clean better, actually, because something is always going around.  You can tell this wave includes a very chesty, phlegm-y, cough, a very sore throat, hoarse and congested, sneezing and some people look flushed from a fever but I can't be sure.  I would guess that at least 1/3 of the class is at some phase with it - again, the hygiene isn't great here.  This time it's mostly the girls so far. 

The resource center was packed today so everyone was crowded in with their tutors.  I was there for an hour or so.

The first girl (petite, long blonde hair, athletic) kept rubbing her throat, sipping water, and wiping her nose.  At the beginning, she was surprised by a set of three sneezes and the first went mostly on her homework and the table in front of her.  The other two were mostly covered by her hands and her pen.  I'm not great at spelling sneezes but they were abrupt and grew in intensity.  ASHEW.  Ah-Ah-ASHEWW.  ASHEEW.  A few tiny coughs, several deep sniffles and she just tried to constantly clear her throat.  Sometimes she just leave her hand below her nose.  When the tutor would come over to help her with her studies, he would take her pen and paper to draw out explanations for her on the table in front of her.   At one point she gave up on the sniffling and just breathed out of her mouth but you could hear pure liquid any time she did need to sniffle to keep it all contained.  Near the end she sneezed another triplet into her hands.  You could easily see her spray just went everywhere, though. She just wiped her hands on her jeans and called the tutor over for another question 

Another girl (brown hair, again petite, dressed comfy) was sitting closely with a boy friend (boyfriend?  who knows).  She gave out a few of those chesty, pure phlegm, coughs and was really caught off guard so she didn't realize she should be covering until the end.. her face looked flushed and pale.  She started sniffling and discretely wiping her nose.  Like 30 minutes later she really started coughing, though.  You could tell that she just needed to let it all out but wouldn't because of the environment so more coughs just kept escaping every 30-60 seconds.  She tried to cover with her hand first, then elbow, but it was so frequent and you could just tell she was praying for it to end.  She leaned away from the guy a little bit but not really.  She ended up deciding to just cough straight down into her lap a whole bunch and let her hair fall down on the side the boy was sitting on.  Her sniffling got intense, too.  I couldn't believe it but in the middle of all of her desperation the guy takes out a water bottle and starts drinking it in front of her.  Her face was even turning red from trying to not cough and, I bet, being embarrassed about her hacking cough.  She basically ended up coughing all over the guy for a good 25 minutes because she wouldn't just cover and let it all out.  The sniffling soon turned into the, "snuuurkkkkk, snxxxtxt" situation and she was basically coughing to some degree every breath.  Even when she had her hand up by her mouth she didn't do a full cover of anything because she was too busy wiping her nose on her hand or just praying that it ended soon.  I saw her wipe away tears with the collar of her t-shirt.  I really, really wanted her to sneeze sitting so close to her guy but I'll take what I can get. 

One girl just looked up and sneezed in the middle of a table uncovered.  No shame, and she didn't even look that surprised.  Followed by two small, dry coughs and a series of extremely gurgle-y sniffles.  She didn't bother to wipe her nose.  She just continued on with the homework.  "aashhheeewwww".  She looked so tired and her eyes had that glassy look

A girl a little farther back just had occasional wet sniffles that were lovely to hear every once in a while.  She was breathing out of her mouth the rest of the time.  I heard a few dry coughs from her but that's it. 

A girl across the room couldn't stop coughing... it wasn't as bad as the brown haired girl and it wasn't the phlegm-y cough.  Just a normal cough but it was like something was stuck in her throat.  She kept drinking waster but kept coughing.  She covered at first but gave up later.  Her friends seemed to inch away from her but I bet it was already too late.

One of the tutors had an extremely raw, wet and red nose but I didn't see any action from it.  He looked so sick and so miserable... so pale with bags under his eyes.  I felt bad for the healthy students in there because it was so cramped and so he breathed on everyone he helped.... ooh, and took their pens/paper to show them how to work stuff out.  Gross.

The girl right behind me stifled a sneeze.  She always gets sick... and really sick.  I might move my normal seat.  Last time she had no shame about chugging nyquil in class.  

There were lots of other sneezes and sniffles - but the coughing.  Everywhere.  Everyone is sick.  No one covers the coughing.  And most of these guys just sneeze uncovered and down towards the floor... but I guess they don't notice were in lecture halls so they're really sneezing on someone else's neck when they do that.  No one uses tissues.  I don't even know what to think.... No wonder this happens every 4-6 weeks.  I don't live in the dorms but omg it must be wild over there

 

 

 

[Travel]

It does sound like a mess! It's already easy enough to get sick protecting yourself, just imagine how easy it is with nobody covering their coughs and sneezes! I especially feel sorry for the brown-haired girl. If I had been the guy, I would have offered her some water or a lozenge or hot tea. 

[ZakuConvoy]

Wow, that sure does sound like a mess.  Sounds like you're pretty lucky to have escaped it so long.  

[etechie]

Talk about going to the "Danger Zone"! But I wouldn't mind seeing the women sneezing and sniffling though, if this was in a college setting that is.

[RedVelvetHeart]

My office is like this too right now! There was one day when this whole section of the office was just sneezing, one after the other, ping ponging around the room. It got to where people would just laugh when yet another person sneezed. And make comments like, "It's your turn now, Cindy!"