French Health Care Hooray!

So it turns out that that pharmacy trip was far from adequate. By Monday night, I was in quite a bit of pain, and when Tuesday came around and I tried to go to class, I had to go home after my first class because I was feeling so poorly. My host parents got a doctor's appointment for me the very next day at their family doctor's (and my little host sister gave me the good advice to come when they called my name. She's so helpful). By that time I had a fever, extreme pain when swallowing, and I could literally see my tonsils in the mirror when I opened my mouth. I felt terrible. I was missing class, too, which made it worse, and also was so overwhelmed already from being in a new country I just felt homesick (in France! I know! Crazy). Luckily my host fam and actual family were very lovely and helpful.

I walked over the short walk to the doctor and checked in and all I can say that a visit to the doctor's in France, while effective, is very different. First of all, there was no nurse. Secondly, he did a much less in-depth examination--he didn't even take my temperature! He did take one look in my mouth and go "Ah, c'est une grosse angine", and prescribed me four different medications. On the way to the pharmacy I looked up what an angine was and my dictionary said it was tonsillitis or pharyngitis so there you go I'm not really sure but the antibiotics are like MAGIC and I am already feeling so much better, basically now I just feel like I'm getting over a cold! Also all those medications cost less than 20 euro so hooray for socialized health care.

I've also started classes at the University of Grenoble but that will be a whole different blog post (to be looked for next week). Suffice it to say I am very excited about both real French University classes as well as my CUEF classes and it shaping up to be a great semester, now that I am over this initial evil hiccup.

To cheer up this rather dull post, a list of Things French People Like/ Don't Like

Things French People Like
Orangina
Clementines
Yogurt
Giving judgmental looks
Eating MULTIPLE helpings of everything
Talking in class constantly
Ham (for serious, there is a whole ham section in Monoprix. Just ham. That's it.)

Things French People Don't Like
Eating on the go
Convenience
Being late to class
Really curly hair
Vegetables other than lettuce in their salad
Snacking casually

Again, post on classes to follow! Miss you all!
Love,
Miriam

PS For all my darling friends at home and abroad, do let me know about skyping/ talking sometime soon! (this means you Lizabel)