Perhaps My Immune System Just Needed a Baguette
French pharmacies are the best. You walk in, you tell them your symptoms, they recommend remedies. Everything should be like that. Just imagine if you could walk into an American doctor's office, and without having to sign your life away, step on a scale in the busy hallway, wait 40 minutes for the nurse to take your stats and another 45 for the doctor to actually show up, listen to a bunch of confusing terms, and finally get prescribed Vitamin C to pick up the next day at the pharmacy--imagine if you could just walk in, tell them you have a stuffy and runny nose, a headache and a fever, fatigue and pain, and they just hand you the thing that will cure it all.
Okay, the French are not that good. They haven't quite found the cure to the common cold, but they sure have come a lot closer than Americans, as they cut the time in half of the getting-the-medicine part. One problem, you have to realize, is understanding all the French packaging. First of all, you can get the Vitamin C "a croquer" (crunchable) or some other option, and if you didn't look up the definition, you might just swallow it, which could result in an acidic stomachache (you never know). Then they give you a nasal spray, which is really just this saline stuff, but if you saw it out of context, you might think it's hairspray or spray paint. Thanks be to context.
I bought my first baguette today. I know, it's been four weeks and I haven't bought a full-length baguette yet. But I must admit, I felt pretty damn cool toting it around under my arm, despite the infestation of germs that the Metro was probably imposing upon it.
My friend Annie and I went to a RestoU for the first time yesterday. It's a student cafeteria for French college students, but we invaded it like the proud Americans that we are, because c'mon--it's 2.80 euro for a whole meal, AND you get to meet French people who want to practice their English :) A pizza and a new friend named Sam for less than the price of a crepe? Not bad.
Okay, the French are not that good. They haven't quite found the cure to the common cold, but they sure have come a lot closer than Americans, as they cut the time in half of the getting-the-medicine part. One problem, you have to realize, is understanding all the French packaging. First of all, you can get the Vitamin C "a croquer" (crunchable) or some other option, and if you didn't look up the definition, you might just swallow it, which could result in an acidic stomachache (you never know). Then they give you a nasal spray, which is really just this saline stuff, but if you saw it out of context, you might think it's hairspray or spray paint. Thanks be to context.
I bought my first baguette today. I know, it's been four weeks and I haven't bought a full-length baguette yet. But I must admit, I felt pretty damn cool toting it around under my arm, despite the infestation of germs that the Metro was probably imposing upon it.
My friend Annie and I went to a RestoU for the first time yesterday. It's a student cafeteria for French college students, but we invaded it like the proud Americans that we are, because c'mon--it's 2.80 euro for a whole meal, AND you get to meet French people who want to practice their English :) A pizza and a new friend named Sam for less than the price of a crepe? Not bad.
posted by Maggie at
11:53 AM
2 Comments:
haha, i just really enjoyed the paragraph about the baguette. "tooling it around." haha, i love you. and i still can't believe you're in paris at this very moment. it's 6:53 a.m. there right now. i hope for your sake that you're still asleep. : )
i just looked at all 306 of your photos. you must update me. : )
oh, and your homestay looks aaaaawwwwesoooommmme...post pictures of your petit famille francais. i don't even know if that's right. my french is fading fast.
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