Sick again... ugh!

Bonjour tout le monde ! Hello everyone!

I ended up with a sore throat and earache again this weekend, so I had to trek back to the doctor on Monday morning, missing three hours of class. Apparently, the antibiotic I got in December doesn't treat ear infections, so it has been lingering!!! Ugh! I don't trust French docs!!!

Another weird thing about French medicine is that they sell all the drugs in their original boxes with the pills in foil. So if I need 24 pills, I could end up with three boxes of ten and just have extra pills lying around... It seems like a waste to me.

Anyway, I spent Monday and Tuesday resting in my apartment, sleeping a ton. I felt much better by this morning, so I went to Vitré with Katherine to make funfetti cupcakes at Caitlin's apartment. First, we had a fishsticks and french fries meal as though we were toddlers again. We also took a walk to the castle because the weather has been rather springlike and clear lately! The cupcakes were made and eaten while listening to Glee music and chatting. It was a pleasant afternoon with friends :)

After a five-day hiatus, I have two long workdays ahead of me! Tennessee music, here we come!

Gingerbread, or pain d'épice!

Despite my illness, I trekked out to Vitré Monday afternoon to hang out with Caitlin before she left for her Christmas in Norway adventure. We made good spicy chili and cookies! First, her creation of oatmeal, raisin, chocolate chip, and walnut! Mmmm! Then we found a gingerbread recipe online and tested it out. Caitlin wasn't a fan, but I was! We also had no cookie cutters, so we had to freehand a gingerbread man, horse, tree, star, heart, santa hat, present, etc. I also kept half the dough to make later.

Oatmeal, raisin, chocolate chip, and walnut cookies! Phew!

Hand cutting the gingerbread shapes!

There was also a shopping run sometime in there so I could find a a last Christmas gift. Apparently, Vitré also blasts music through speakers on every corner, so I was serenaded by Lady Gaga's "Telephone," lol! I stopped by PA's mom's house to say hi to the whole family and share cookies. PA also tried to talk me into going to the doctor the next day... :/ I took the train home to Rennes for a good night's sleep.

I did feel kind of better the next morning, so I did laundry and cleaned up... Then, I noticed my ear hurting, so I went to the doctor that afternoon. Lucky me, I had a sinus infection that had spread to my ear! Tsss... I got five medicines to cure me and felt better by that evening. PA also came back to hang out with me, so it was a cozy evening of watching ninja movies and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

That brings us to Wednesday, which was PA's mom's birthday. We stopped in Leonidas for white Belgian chocolates for her. We took a bus to Saint Gregoire to meet PA's sister Nathalie, Samuel, and the kids for a ride back to Vitré for the birthday evening. I finished off the gingerbread cookie making there using shape ideas from PA and Clémentine, so we ended up with flowers, a star, a man, a sheep, a scooter (Clé's special request), a basketball, a heart, a cat, and some others I can't remember now. Everyone liked them :) We had a lovely veal and potato dinner capped off with gingerbread, a chocolate-strawberry birthday cake, and the white chocolates I had bought! Mmm!

Now, PA and I are back in Rennes to run errands. I'm going to take him to the Mairie (Mayor's building) for the lights show tonight! I'll try to film some of it to share as well! Tomorrow night is a Christmas dinner at one of his aunt's houses in Rennes, and Friday is another at another aunt's house! Lots of presents to come too!

Let me share some of my apartment Christmas decor with you:

Christmas tree surrounded by gifts!

Stockings on the "mantle."

My ornament wall says it all!

A nice French doctor

Today was yet another adventure in French—I had to go to the doctor! The owner of Caely’s (another assistant here) apartment recommended one to her, so I got the name and address. The medical office is run without secretaries, medical history forms, nurses, or even appointments! I just walked in at 8:30am, and the doctor waved me back as the first person of the day. He sat behind his desk, and I had a seat and just described my symptoms to him. I studied up on vocabulary the night before, but with some of the questions we switched to a bit of English and used his handy French-English medical dictionary. So without a physical exam, temperature, blood pressure or anything, he wrote me a prescription and said he hoped he never had to see me again! How nice!

Since it was my first medical visit, the doctor also had to fill out a form for me to deliver to my medical insurance office here. I also haven’t yet received my Carte Vitale, the social security card here for medical reimbursement, so I had to pay for the visit (22 Euros) and the medicines from the pharmacy (11 Euros) up front and deliver the relevant receipts to the insurance office to get my money back later. So yes, I also stopped by that office to drop all of these things off. Luckily, there is no line during the regular workday :)

Just ate a sandwich in my apartment, waiting to go to observe more classes this afternoon. My boss called to say that I will have a schedule starting November 15 since this week and next week have strange scheduling for some reason. Thank goodness! Soon I will actually have (steady) work to do!

Otherwise, things are quiet around here. I’ll try to get to some cultural notes soon, but I haven’t really been inspired by anything lately…