In my history class, we are learning about the black plague, which in French they called "la peste". What a cute name for something so awful. Right now I'm experiencing a little "la peste" myself, though not nearly so severe. Just irritating. You know, like a pest.
Tomorrow I leave for Paris. Chuck is coming on Saturday. And I have pinkeye...what luck. This is probably why I've been tired and getting sick, too. I've never had pinkeye before, so I didn't know that's what this is. I thought I had an irritated contact or something, so I've been wearing my glasses instead. But when it lasted all day, I went to the pharmacy and they gave me medicine for it. It's a little different in France, where you go to the pharmacist for almost everything instead of the doctor. You tell the pharmacist the symptoms and they decide which medicine to give you to cure it. You don't necessarily need a prescription for most things. I like it this way, though, because I was able to go right after class and I didn't have to wait to get a doctor's appointment and go to the doctor's office in order to get a prescription for something that someone was able to help me with very quickly. In fact, if I had to get a doctor's appointment...if I had to find out where to go, then make an appointment and schedule it for some day in the future, I probably wouldn't have done it because I would have thought to myself "I'll feel better by the time I see the doctor anyway".
Thursdays are my busy day of class, so it was especially painful today. We had to watch a movie in psychology and staring at that bright screen in the dark room for over ninety minutes hurt so badly. Same in history, looking at the bright projector slides. And then finally in art, focusing intensely at the far-away still life and then back at the canvas in front of me. I finished my painting a little early and I was going to ask the teacher if I might leave fifteen minutes early so I could stop at the pharmacy, but instead he came over and said "how about you do another painting, a quick study". I know he didn't know how direly painful I was feeling, so I didn't kick him in the shin in response, even though I wanted to.
After that, Bradie and I had an appointment to talk to the director of that made-for-TV movie. We thought maybe this was auditions, but that didn't really make sense since he was having us meet him at the épicerie again. He had told us how to prepare for auditions, though, so we weren't sure. When we got there he talked to us a little about the script and told us his plans for the movie, trying to answer any questions we had, which we really didn't have any because we're not exactly serious actors. We started to get the impression he'd already found people for the roles because he was telling us that filming starts next week (as if everything is already ready to go and he's not worried about finding actors anymore) and that he'll send us an email and hopefully our schedules work together or something. That's too bad because that would have been an interesting adventure to experience and write about! But I'm also relieved because with Chuck and my parents visiting in the next two weeks, I had wondered if the movie filming was going to take up a lot of the time I would have to spend with them. Who knows, maybe we'll still land some small non-speaking role in this oscar-worthy piece.
When I got home, Colette was gone at a political gathering of sorts. She came home soon afterwards and told me all about it--the Vice President of France was there. And though I don't really know what this meeting was about, I know that the place was full of people and that there was lots of cheering at the speeches. Those are the details that Colette was especially happy about.
