Home sick, not homesick

I have a nasty cold. You know how when people ask you what you have, and you say “just a bad cold,” they sort of go “oh, okay,” and lose sympathy for you? Well, I personally will never forget that having a bad cold feels like you're going to die. You have a bad headache, your head is filled with snot, your throat hurts, you have a fever that makes your thought processes far less than optimal, and you feel like if you even try to move out of bed, your body will just shut down on you.

Long story short, I am not going to school today. Fortunately, it's Friday, so I can sleep as much as I want this weekend and recover. I completely predicted this, too, but there's nothing you can do to prevent catching a cold except sleep a lot and eat right. First of all, germs are a little different everywhere, so just like how I got sick a lot in 6^th grade in my new public middle school, coming from a small charter elementary school, I expected my American immune system to fail once or twice against French viruses. Then when my little cousins were sick several days ago, and I carpool to school with them, I knew I was doomed.

Having a cold is completely different in my extremely scientific family at home vs. a standard French family. I think that my analysis of why I am sick is almost certainly correct and fairly complete (otherwise I wouldn't think it – so I suppose my logic is fairly circular, but oh well. I'm sick; what do you want?), but my host mother thinks it's because of the changing weather and because I don't wear shoes in the house (cold feet = sick). I also had to firmly turn down medications (assuming it was anti-bacterial stuff, which is obviously useless against colds, which are generally viral) until she told me it was just a fever reducer. It reminds me of my cousin's rather amusing story of living in the Czech Republic, where her dance partner's mom insisted she must be sick because she eats too many vegetables.

On a completely unrelated topic, I love having another American student at Truffaut (my high school). Not because I want to hang out with her all the time; I actually want to avoid her for the most part, because it would be all too easy to form Club Amurika and not force myself to make friends with actual French people. I like it because she and I are polar opposites, so it provides a nice amount of contrast to avoid over-stereotyping of Americans. I speak good French for an exchange student, and she doesn't speak a word of French. Therefore, people won't assume that all Americans speak great French or don't speak French at all. You see? I am athletic; she hates sports. I come from the Silicon Valley and think that the French are way behind in math; she comes from a bad redneck school in rural New Jersey, and has never seen math as advanced as this. She dresses impeccably and has a great sense of style; I prefer to avoid fashion, am terribly intimidated by the well-dressed Europeans, and generally look as plain as possible in jeans and a solid-colored long-sleeve shirt. Additionally, we can compare notes on our host families and the people we meet, so that we don't over-stereotype the French. It would be weird to go up to a random student and ask them “hey, so does your family also drink coffee in bowls?” but if I ask the other American, I can confirm what is normal or not normal. (I know, I know – two data points is not very scientific.) (Yes, all French people drink coffee in bowls.) And the last 2 reasons I like it are because it makes me look really good at French in comparison, and because I have enjoyed hanging out with her and her group of friends to help translate, thereby expanding my circle of acquaintances at Truffaut. (Wow, upon rereading this paragraph to check for mistakes, I remark that my parentheses problem is even worse when I'm sick.)

On another completely unrelated topic, here are things I miss that you might also miss if you go live abroad:

1. Peanut butter
2. AP and honors classes – work that actually challenges me intellectually
3. Hugs – la bise just doesn't cut it
4. Marching band and wind ensemble
5. Politics – it's so hard for me being away during an election year. Every time I have some substantial free time I've been watching a different part of the Democratic National Convention – so far just Michelle and Clinton's speeches. Last night at the dinner table, they asked me what I thought of the death penalty and if it was legal in CA, which I was only too happy to discuss, but it's so frigging difficult to discuss in French. Where would I possibly have learned the word for “death penalty” in all my different studies of French? Answer: nowhere. If you were wondering, it's peine de mort. Anyway so if anyone reads any good political or news articles, please send them my way. I'm feeling awfully out of touch.
6. Productivity – actually doing things during school so we can get out at 3:00 and then go do our homework or hobbies or whatever. (Homework and hobbies don't really exist here, because school goes all day.)
7. Ethnic food. They only eat French food here, except occasionally school lunches will contain something they call “American cheeseburgers” which are disgusting and both of us Americans will skip the main course and fill up on fruit instead. Right now I would kill for some tom yum soup, which is amazing for clearing out sinuses. My favorite restaurant at home was called Thai Pepper, and I wish they'd deliver take-out to France.

But then on the bright side, they have baguettes here of a much higher quality than the French bread you buy at Safeway, they eat a lot of tomatoes, and it's raining!

Today I give you not one, but TWO complimentary French pop songs, because I forgot the last couple times and also because they aren't very good. But just to keep you informed about French radio, the three most played songs are Call Me Maybe, Wati House https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIrRPLzDrHU and Bara Bara Bere Bere http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxF9PGRiabw