SpazzleNET

I am SO SORRY that I haven’t been blogging regularly!  Things have (once again) been crazy over the past week, what with traveling over winter break, and then having 7 people staying with me in my apartment!  Just to give you a heads up of all the super cool fun things I’ll be blogging about once I get the chance over the next couple of days:

• Dublin!  Guinness Factory, Kilmainham Jail, Temple Bar
• Galway!  How I’m moving there.
• Wine Tasting!  And how I want to know anything and everything about all wines everywhere (also known, perhaps, as connoisseurship).
• Other…fun…stuff?  Can’t think, too tired…but, more soon…I PROMISE!!!

I haven’t even gotten there yet, and I already LOVE Ireland.

I heard about this great guided tour out of Dublin to Wicklow, run by OVER THE TOP Tours.  I’ve been e-mailing back and forth with the woman, and I called her today to give her my credit card info to make the final reservation.  We had a GREAT chat; she used to live in France for 5 years when she was younger, and we were talking about how cold some French people can be, and how excited I was to go to Ireland, where most people are ready and waiting to help you with a smile.  Sweetest e-mail response after, too, telling me how “lovely it was to chat.”

Note to all those who care about me/will be looking for me: I might go to Ireland and never come back.

I bought a new Moleskine journal!

I haven’t really figured out what kind of impact this is going to have on my blogging, but we shall see…

Two exposés done!

Planned more Ireland stuff today…going to do a walking tour of Dublin, grab some lunch, and then check out the Kilmaingaol Jail!  Or maybe the Guinness Factory, depending on what Chrissy and I decide to do Saturday. We’re thinking of making a day trip to Wicklow, which is basically nature at its finest.  Sunday we’re heading to Galway and spending the day there.  I’m planning on doing a tour of Connemara and the Aran Islands on Monday, and then Tuesday I’ll spend half the day exploring Galway some more before I head back to Dublin to fly to Paris.

Sorry my blogs have been lackluster as of late…I’ve been crazy busy!

I have been doing work almost all day…I have to give TWO ten-minute oral presentations in my French class tomorrow in order to make up for the one that I missed last week while I was on my death bed (read: big, comfy red couch) with that stomach flu.

Anyways, I’ll give you some more details about these things tomorrow after I’m FREE!

I know you can’t wait…

I saw Valentine’s Day.  It was no Love Actually, but it made me smile and kind of wish I were married to Ashton Kutcher (don’t judge).

Also, I’m going to Ireland with Chrissy from Friday to Tuesday, and I’m SO EXCITED.  More details to come! :)

This weekend, I have received my first visitor à Paris…Erin!  She’s a friend, former and future roommate from BC who’s currently studying abroad in Madrid.  She got in late Thursday evening, as I was making a lame attempt at recovery.  I feel bad that I haven’t been 100% to be the greatest host, but I’ve been giving her maps and directions to a lot of different things so that she can see some of the stuff without me.

Today, we got up early and actually ended up going to Breakfast In America with Chrissy and Kelsey (note: I feel this is going to become a regular occurrence).  Since my stomach is still on the mend, I decided to order some pancakes with berries, and I had my first official meal in days!  Afterward, Erin and I headed towards Place de la Concorde.  We checked out a Longchamp store, where she bought a lovely bag for herself and one for her mom.  Then I showed her the Champs-Elysées and the Arc de Triomphe, and we eventually made our way over to the Eiffel Tower.

Today was the first day I climbed to the top since my trip in high school.  It was BEAUTIFUL, but a tad chilly (as in, I think I only have 8.75 toes now, courtesy of frostbite).

I’ll fill in some more details tomorrow…just wanted to write a bit to keep track of the day! G’night!

Ahhh, another enthralling day on my big, red, Buddha couch in an effort to recover completely from this stomach bug.

Although I didn’t do anything too exciting, I did spend a few hours uploading and editing my pictures from Belgium, which are up on my Facebook!  I can’t believe it took as long as it did, but it’s tough going through 530 photos and picking the best ones.  I also spent a while going through my messages and wall posts and answering people that I should have answered days (if not weeks) ago…so I’m just going to apologize for the absurd amount of times I have probably popped up on your newsfeeds this evening.

I also finally managed to upload the pictures from the National Archives trip I took a couple weeks ago.  Although I inserted them in the original post (dated February 5th, if you want to read it), I’ll put them here too (since I’m going to assume the majority of you are too lazy to spare a few extra clicks).  Although I’m not sure which documents are which, here are two of them.

Even if I’m mistaken, both are awesome, and I’m still so psyched that I got to see them!  And that’s that.  I also added some pics to the Belgium posts below, but if we’re friends on Facebook, you’ve probably seen them; I just wanted to add some eye candy.

Alright, well I’m going to go watch a movie (or something that at least seems a bit more productive…?).  Bon weekend!

I can’t look at food.  I can’t smell food.  I can’t even THINK of food without getting nauseous.

For those of you who know me, these are three clear indications that I am NOT feeling myself.

I experienced something new today: a house call.  After throwing up all night again (this time I recorded a somewhat less impressive six trips to the bathroom), I decided enough was enough, and called Myriam (our program coordinator).  I told her I needed to see a doctor but that I didn’t have enough energy to leave my apartment and actually go to an office, so she made some phone calls and set everything up for me.  A mere 90 minutes later, the médecin (doctor) was here in my apartment, checking my blood pressure and asking me what my symptoms were.  He scribbled out some prescriptions for different medications, and also wrote out a note to give to my teachers so that I will be excused from missing class Tuesday and today.

I ventured over to the pharmacy for the second time this week, this time armed with my prescriptions.  15 minutes later, I was walking out with my little baggie of medicine.

Looking through my new stash of meds, I discovered that the doctor prescribed me an antibiotic to get rid of my sore throat (which I did not realize I had until he pointed it out), an antibiotic to calm and regulate my revolting stomach, and some other medicines to reduce my nausea, to lower my fever and to help my achiness.  I took a dose of them all a while ago, and they seem to be helping a bit; I’m not as dizzy or nauseous, although I am by no means hungry.

Hopefully this round of meds will help…being sick in Paris is neither fair nor fun.

As my recent trip to the grocery store proved, apparently I’m not quite feeling 100% yet.

I woke up this morning and groaned at the realization that we had zero food in the house, let alone food that would sit well in my still somewhat-of-a-mess stomach.  After eating our last banana, I grabbed some grocery bags and ventured over to Monoprix.

I knew I was in trouble as soon as I walked in and was hit with a wave of nausea: too many smells were bombarding my nose, and I felt my stomach turning over itself, begging me to forget about food shopping.  I thought to myself, I can do this!  In and out in no time flat. As I started gathering my vegetables, I began sweating profusely.  It’s nothing!  Ignore it! I threw off my coat, pulled my hair back into a very American, very un-Parisian messy bun, and began to haul ass up and down the aisles, grabbing bananas, applesauce and bread among other things.

A record 20 minutes later, I was outside walking in the refreshing, chilled Parisian air towards the apartment, grateful that I hadn’t tossed my cookies in the middle of the baked goods aisle.

I’m planning on going to class this evening, so hopefully my tum remains calm.  Exposing my stomach’s contents to my fellow French classmates is the last thing I should do to make friends.