Sick in France

In my last post, I mentioned that I spent quite a lot of time hanging out with a sick little Prune-Prune as she fought off a pretty nasty flu. What I didn’t get a chance to tell you, is that Sunday afternoon, when I returned home after blogging in that Starbucks, Prune gave me a little gift: HER FEVER! 

This blog post will be short because I was sick alllllll week! I am even still a little sick now, but I am feeling much better which makes me very happy hahah. 

I have always had this thing where the world seems extra beautiful when I don’t feel well. It makes it seem like the only problem in my life is that I am sick, and once I get better, absolutely everything will be perfect and it will be even easier to enjoy without a fever! This week, I had a little break-through when I realized that the reason I probably feel this way is because the people around you become such angels when you get the flu. Because of this, I have decided to make this blog about all the nice things people did for me while I felt like dying for the better part of the past week. 

 

The first kind thing that someone did for me made me so happy that I turned it into a facebook status that read:

 

"So I am battling a pretty awful fever over here, and being sick away from home is never fun!
I couldn't sleep all night, so this morning I decided to walk down the street to the pharmacy to get some medicine that would reduce my symptoms and hopefully help me sleep a little. When I got there, however, it was all closed up! I felt shakey and cold and I wanted to cry because I could see all the medicine through the window but it was closed and that made me so sad hahaha.
All of a sudden, a lady appeared in the window with a concerned expression on her face, and she pointed to the side/employee door and then met me there and began to talk to me. She told me the pharmacy wouldn't be open until 2pm (it was 9am) and asked me what I needed. I told her I had a fever and what my symptoms were and she got all motherly and flustered and began to say some French version of "oh no no no! That is no good. Come in dear we will get you some medicine right away! I can hear your accent, you must be so far from home you poor thing. I am so glad I saw you outside! You would have had to wait for ages! Oh no no.."
She gave me some medicine and I thanked her about a million times for opening up early for me.
But can you believe that? She didn't have to do that! She doesn't know me and it isn't her job to care about me but what she did made me feel so loved and lucky.
Sometimes I cannot believe how kind strangers can be.
I love people a lot."

 

So that was super incredible and amazing!

 

It is super awkward getting sick as an au pair because it is not very simple for the families to find someone to take care of their kids. I can’t speak for all au pairs, but I felt terrible for feeling sick (even though I knew that was silly) because I didn’t think I could take care of Prune. I was sort of shocked when Cecile told me she would go get Prune at school for me so I could rest, and that even though Prune shouldn’t watch a lot of TV afterschool, we could watch movies together and just relax because anything else would be too difficult for me. To anyone reading this, it might seem like I shouldn’t have worked, since I had a high fever, a terrible headache, and I could hardly walk around without finding somehwere to sit down every 20 steps. But the thing is, Cecile making my job easier was a HUGE blessing! A lot of other families say “if you don’t have to go to the hospital, you can work” and it is difficult to argue with the people you live with about how sick you are, especially if you are a girl in your 20s who relies on them for a lot of things. So I felt very grateful this week that I was allowed to work at home and wasn’t forced to leave the house and take the train to get Prune at school every day!

 

Another thing that really kept my spirits up were all the messages I recieved. I got messages from all my friends in Paris, asking if I was okay, saying they missed me at school, and telling me to get better soon. Maira told me repeatedly that if I needed ANYTHING I could tell her and she would bring it to me, which made me feel a bit guilty for being so mad at her, but mostly just made me feel loved and taken care of. She said that that is what foreign friends are for when you are far away from home, and that we need to take care of each other, and she was right. I am so lucky to have her in my life.

Being so sick also made me remember the time I got sick in Chile and how well Lilian took care of me the whole time. She always brought me tea and brought my dinners up for me and even came into my room to hang out with me so I wouldn’t be alone all the time. Being sick and having to take care of myself in a foreign country made me miss her, so I sent her a message to tell her about all that and to say thank you one more time. She sent me back a lot of messages to say she loves me and would love to take care of me right now and other things and it was a very sweet exchange of words. I am so lucky to have that beautiful Chilean lady in my life!!

Then of course, there is my momma in the US. Something about being sick always makes me want to hug my momma and cry hahah. She sent me a lot of messages throughout the week to encourage me and remind me that I wouldn’t be sick forever. She also constantly reminded me that she would be visiting so soon, which made me very very happy too hahah. 

 

I also got to skype my beautiful Chilean brother Maxi this week! I was still sick when we skyped and my voice was terribly cracked and my Spanish has become… mostly French hahaha. It was so nice to talk to Maxi though. He is such a caring brother and he made my experience in his house so lovely. Talking to him was funny because we spoke a lot about awkward it is to be an exchange student. He told me how he never understood why I asked before I did so many things in his house (like ate the last piece of bread) and now he finds himself asking his host family the things I always used to ask! It is cool because now it is like he understands what it was like for me to live in his house. While we were talking, Cecile came downstairs and shut my bedroom door becuase I was speaking too loud, which made me talk more quietly, but made Maxi laugh a lot because when I lived in his house, he was always asking me to Skype more quietly! I am so happy to have my Maxi bro. :D

 

I don’t have any pictures to add to this blog because I really didn’t leave the house at all until Friday, when I decided to try to go to school again. My voice was completely broken and I couldn’t participate in class and paying attention was hard because I just felt SOOO tired still hahah, but since I pay for my own education now going to class seemed more worth it than staying home! I’m such a little grown up now hehe. 

 

So, as you can see, it really wasn’t a bad week at all. Being sick never fails to remind me of all the amazing people in my life and how lucky I am for always recieving so much support from those around me and those who wish they were around me. Life is good over here in France and my family is coming sooooon!! Loving life today. :) 

And I can breathe out of my nose now!!!