After reading my darling friend Allison's blog, I've decided I need to be more proactive about posting things. Just things from my day to day. So here it goes. Today, I am sick. I have a bit of a cold. Being sick in France is not fun, but amongst other things it is also difficult to remedy. Why you may ask? Walgreens and CVS don't exist here, but there are Pharmacies that are indicated with a lovely bright green neon cross. Before I ever came to France I was warned about these mythical places. Basically most American medicines cannot be found at these places and you have to know what you're asking for to ask the pharmacist. That can be very difficult if you don't know what "I have a runny nose and I'm congested" is in French. Well the other day it wasn't that bad, just a sore throat. I braved the pharmacy and told the pharmacist that I wanted to buy some vitamin C and I had a sore throat. She gave me some vitamin C instructing me to take one in the morning and some lozenges and told me they had vitamin C in them and to take 4 a day. So that seemed easy enough, yes? Well the vitamin C has to be dissolved in a glass of water so I have yet to try those and I didn't necessarily want lozenges, but they worked better than any that I've tried in the US. Since I've become more sick I haven't been out of the house long enough to go back and the walk is not a short one from my house. To get to the nearest pharmacy I have to walk at least 30 minutes just one way. Sometimes I miss my car and the convenience of it. Sheesh. Luckily though Annabelle gave me some saline nose spray which seems to be working. At least i can breathe out of my nose again.
Today was a hard day because I had to work at 7:50 this morning. Working at 7:50 in Trith St Leger requires me to arise at 5:45am to get dressed and ready myself. This sounds awful, which it is, but it's worse because when I have to wake up this early, my body doesn't let me sleep straight through the night. So sick little ole me woke up at 2 and 3:30 and 5 thinking it was time to wake up. I also had a dream that I had flown home instead of going to school and had to explain to my teacher why it was impossible to show up for school today. Anyway, so I woke up and got out to the bus stop in the frigid cold. It was 41ºF this morning (and no I still haven't adapted to Celsius) and the wind was a-blowin'! It was colder than the day when it was 32ºF outside! So then I waited, got on the bus, rode the bus for 50 minutes, and then had to wait another 5 for someone to let me into the school. Another 15 minutes of waiting for class to start. Then I get my little students who are quatrieme or 4th which is the equivalent to 8th graders in the US. They didn't seem to understand a thing I said to them in English or French for that matter and they generally refused to talk. I tried to play a game with them. Nothing. I also tried to be silly and get them to laugh, but they were impossible! Then the bell rang and I went to wait for the bus to ride the 50 minutes and walk the 10 minutes home.
Now I've had a nap and feel more refreshed but still sick. I didn't feel like eating a sandwich for lunch and I remembered that I had a bag of popcorn! It may be French popcorn, but man oh man is it good! Just what I needed today! Salty popcorn and coke. Oh, and the French prefer sugared popcorn. So when I found salted popcorn I was overcome with excitement and now I've found the perfect day to eat it. So I guess today isn't a total loss!
No comments:
Post a Comment