I've been MIA all week and here's why: I've been sick. Worst sore throat I've ever had (and that's saying something) coupled with general feeling of ugh and some nausea thrown in for fun. My first week in Paris has been spent mostly in bed or laying around my room, though I did drag myself out for a language placement test at the Sorbonne and class registration. I tested into the Intermediate level (I was severely ill while taking this test, so I'm rather proud to say that) and as a result, I'll be taking one class in French. One in English, because it's only offered that way. And apart from a French language course that will be everyday, that is my class schedule for the fall. Two once-a-week classes and one class everyday. Not so bad, really. Plenty of time leftover to explore the city.
Being sick has been an educational experience. I went to the doctor twice, on Monday and on Wednesday, wherein the same exact things occurred: I wait in the nice little waiting room, get called into his office (literally, an office, with a desk and chairs like you'd find in a bank), describe my symptoms, he looks down my throat, and says he'll give me a prescription (first time for throat lozenges, the second time for antibiotics). It felt more like a business meeting than a visit to the doctor. Also, I paid 50 euro for the first visit, and nothing for the second, because it was a follow-up, and thus free. Very different experience from going to the doctor's office in the States.
I have to say, I much prefer having a parent or friend around to drive me so I don't have to drag my sick self into real clothes and walk several blocks to the doctor's (and another several to the pharmacy).
I've discovered, too, that the Europeans have an aversion to ice. They don't use it, they don't make it in their homes, and they generally think you're weird for wanting it. One of the things I love best when ill is a machine that makes ice chips. They feel very good on a sore throat, or after you've thrown up. But the Europeans seem to think that cold stuff of any kind is bad for you when you're sick. I'm sneaking around to eat my ice cream and to put my water bottles in the freezer so they get nice and slushy with ice.
This morning, my host came in the room to say she was going to the grocery store, and did I want anything. I asked for apples (which she already had) and peanut butter (which she couldn't comprehend in the slightest). She insisted I needed to eat something more substantial than that (obviously she doesn't yet know that I don't eat much when I'm sick) and offered to buy some ham and cheese.
Ham and cheese. How French is that?
But I held firm that peanut butter and crackers and a nice apple would be plenty.
Another strange fact? They don't use shower curtains here. It's taking some getting used to.
Now, I'm sure some of you are aware from talking to my parents of my housing situation. The apartment is lovely, the host is very kind and generous, but I'm a good 15 minute walk from the nearest other student. And it's not a convenient walk, it's a going-out-of-the-way walk. There was the understanding, of course, that we might be placed in less centralized locations and have somewhat of a commute to the school. According to the AIFS website and their own program brochures, we were to be placed in a Parisian home with another student, unless specifically requesting a single room (and paying the $600 fee for a single). I did not, in any form or fashion, request to be in a Parisian home by myself. All my forms that I filled out at various stages say, quite clearly, that I requested a roommate/housemate. I did request a room to myself, with another student in a separate room but in the same house, as that was an option. But where I am is very isolating.
I've talked several times now with the AIFS people (while sick) and been rather politely blown off. They dismissed my concerns about walking back to my apartment, by myself, in the dark, in a city, on streets that are residential so not well lit at night. They insisted that having another student 15 mintues away was the same as having a roommate, as I could do stuff with them. And then they keep saying that I said I wanted a single homestay, which I never did, at any time. An individual room with a housemate, yes, I said that. But there is a huge difference between the two, and I expressed on the forms quite clearly my preference (I said "Double, with individual rooms" as my first choice and my second choice was just "Double".) Granted, a lot of the kids in the program are not friend-material for me, but that doesn't mean that I want to be isolated in a foreign country.
So it's going to be a bit of a fight, I think. Once I feel up to it, I'm meeting with the AIFS people again. Because I seriously do not want to live here for a year, isolated and way far from the school. If I were closer to the school, and to an area where there were lots of little restaurants and places to shop, it'd be different. I would be able to stand having no one else my age living with me. But I have to walk at least 10 minutes to reach a restaurant or shopping street. There's a grocery store right across the street, but other than that, it's all residential. And there are no other students close (I don't care what they say, 15 minute walk and an entirely separate train station do not equal "close", unless we're comparing it to, say, the distance from where I live to Italy. Then they're close. But walking around by myself at night to get back? Not so close).
Ah, the neverending drama that is my life.
And a note: can I not, please, be defined as shy? The AIFS people here have all decided I'm "shy". I'm not shy. I'll get up on a stage and sing in front of hundreds or thousands of people, no problem (in fact, I'd love to, point the way). I'll speak up to anyone and inject my opinions because I have no problem sharing, and I like to argue. I will call a guy I barely know and ask him to go to the movies with me ;) and I will butt heads with pretty much all authority figures. I am not shy. I'm quiet. Most of the time, I prefer to listen and observe, and I don't always have something that I just have to say. When I feel like it, I'll speak up. But don't label me shy because I'm not giggly and outgoing.
No comments:
Post a Comment