life after Jan 4th...

Well my life has been pretty boring this New Year. I was sick with Bronchitis and the stomach flu from the 3rd through the 11th. During that time I locked myself in my room (I know, not healthy) and did nothing but Skype with the fam, watch Weeds, Gossip Girl, bollywood movies...I couldn't eat my stomach didn't want anything and I just kept hacking all this phlegm , it was disgusting but my bronchial tubes forced it out of me. I tried to be positive but it wasn't happening. I missed the first week of school and work.

On Monday the 7th I decided to go see a Doc. I called Nancy at MICEFA to get in touch with a Doc that spoke some English. She referred me to Dr. Wilson. I called and said I needed an appointment pronto, like today! He said "ouf! ok come at 16h45" he took my name and hung up. JERK! I'm fucking dying asshole! (I felt awful.) I don't know how I managed to get out of bed that day take a shower and stand the reeking smell of the metro, as well as the body odor, and coughs of all the stinky French people around me. I was stick to my stomach and by the time I got off I wanted to puke, instead I hacked another glob of phlegm. I walked for about 3 blocks and finally arrived 5 min early. He opened the door while I was still in the hall and said "come in" it was a messy office. He had a thick English accent and he himself had a cough (not as bad as mine). We went through the Q&A and he listened to my chest and said "looks like you got the two bugs that are going around" no shit fucker! Give me the meds! At this point I wanted to pass out! He said I'll give you a few days rest (I thought to myself oh hells no! I'm dying here, you better give me at least a week.) I demanded the week off and he consented. He made me pay 40euro (roughly $60) and buy 4 different meds including an antibiotic. I was out of there within 15min. What a diagnosis! (not!) I walked to the nearest pharmacy, where the pharmacist seemed to be moving at a glacial pace. I wanted to bust a cap in his ass for not moving faster! I spent almost 20euro on meds.

I got home in one piece. I crashed on my couch and popped the pills. I felt worse with all the meds in my empty stomach, but I couldn't stomach anything other than Orangina. I sipped through the corner of my mouth hoping I wouldn't puke out all the meds that would supposedly make me healthy again. My soeur came over and brought me edibles. The next day I still felt sick, Wednesday I still felt sick. Luckily, my soeur came by everyday that week to keep me company. This was the most grim week of my life here in Paris. I felt awful. I just wanted to go home. I didn't want to be here, I wanted to be home with my family, where people speak English, where I don't need a metro, where I have TLC, where my friends are...Get me out of here! I wanted out. But my soeur reasoned with me and my immune system kicked up and I was once again ready to face the fact that I was living in Paris.

Reincarnation:
Thursday things started to feel alive again, and by evening I felt ready to face the world. I went out to see Marion and catch up on gossip and her vacation. Then I was going to see play with my soeur but we couldn't get in. I was getting my life back...

Friday.
I returned to school. I really didn't want to face my professor, I had missed the past 2wks of the class. But I went and it was fine. I got my Marketing midterm back and surprisingly did really well, I got a B! Things were looking up! I had lunch with Loreto and told her about my travels through Spain. Then I headed to Phonetics, my professor had so much energy that I quickly regained my interest in French. She went around the room asking what we had learned in class and how had it helped us? She looks at me with her Bette Midler smirk and says "et toi Romina, en quoi est-ce que ce cours t'as aidé?" I was so down and out about my French that I didn't know what to say. How do you say "I hate French, I want to get out of here!" But before I could get a word out she said, "tu n'as pas eu vraiement un problème avec la phonétique," I didn't know what to say, I was so happy that she had said that, I shrieked "really?" The class burst into laughter. My confidence was renewed and I had again found encouragement in this roller coaster of experience.

Saturday.
My soeur and I somehow thought that going to a play was a fabulous idea. Derek, my soeur, and myself found ourselves at the Comédie Française (a theatre in Paris), buying the left over tickets to Le Mariage de Figaro. Tix were 5euro each. The theatre was beautiful. I expected to be able to understand the entire play...We sat through 3hours of jibberish. The audience cheered and laughed while we looked on baffled by the dialogue and the lack of set design. We were completely bored and confused. What a waste. Then we went to Gare du Nord to get some Indian grub. Our waiter was cute but slow. We were in a quartier bursting with color, I was surrounded by Sari shops, markets, bollywood posters, Indian pastry shops, and plenty of Indian and Pakistani restos. I was in heaven! We even spoted an Indo-Mexi resto, that's right it was a resto specializing in Indian-Mexican food! So cool! After dinner my soeur and I found a bollywood DVD shop 4dvds for 10euro! Oh for sure! I bought the latest Bollywood films.

Sunday.
I went back to Gare du Nord, alone. Not the best neighborhood to be in solo. So I put on my don't mess with me face and walked in the shadow of a thick Indian lady carrying her groceries. hehehe. I walked into an Indian Beauty salon to get my eyebrows THREADED (threading is the best!) I walked into a gold and purple room, it had two salon chairs. The room was a little small and 5 ladies were sitting around gossiping. I braved the xenophobia and said to the lady behind the counter "do you do threading?" She said yes. She sat me down and tore a piece of thread off with her teeth. I held my skin, without giving her directions, I knew she knew how to fix my bushy brows. She whisked away while still chatting away in Hindi. She did my upper lip too and that was a lil painful but no biggie. I walked away with perfect arches and no waxy residue! I was so happy! YES!!!!! and all for 12euro! I'LL BE BACK!!!!! :)
That night I went to mass. The sermon was about Jesus' baptism. For some reason I wasn't really feeling the priest. Afterwards, we had our Youth group. We had a gift exchange. We were all assigned a character from the Nativity scene and had to give a gift to someone from the Nativity scene. I was baby Jesus and had to give a gift to the cow. What does baby Jesus give a cow? Well I gave him a jar shaped like a cow stuffed with chocolates. Sister Pilar was the cow and she loved the gift! Awesome! Score! The crib gave me a vanilla scented candle. ummm cool. We're meeting next week to talk about, Immigration week, the theme is "Jeune de tout pays, quels sont tes trèsors?" so we have to think about our "treasure" that we have to offer the world. Well we exchanged gifts and had a Gallette des Rois, it was yummy. I really like Sister Pilar, she always makes me feel so welcome! :)

Monday.
Looking fab with my new brows I went to class and watched the worst movie ever. I went to work and ate lamb and potatoes with the boys. We read about Colombia's problems with coke and went over vocab.