The Best Meal of My Life

That wonderful dinner I mentioned in my last post – turns out it wasn’t so wonderful. I woke up the next morning (Tuesday) with some serious stomach issues. Spent a little time in the bathroom and I thought things were taken care of. Enough said. Mander and I had booked a bus tour of the English countryside for which I really wanted to do. About an hour after boarding the bus, we both looked and felt ill. The type of ill my grandmother calls “green around the gills.” I was gripping the seat in front of me for dear life while Amanda was hunched over in the seat beside me. The first destination was Warwick Castle. If you ever go, the staff and public facilities are excellent! A staff member walked us to the nearest doctor’s office, god bless her. I won’t go into all the details except to say that the doctor wouldn’t see us and sent us on a wild goose chase for the hospital. Amanda eventually left me practically lying on the sidewalk (I honestly could barely walk) and went to find a taxi. Somehow she directed the taxi to my location and we were whisked to the hospital. I was immediately admitted. Amanda was admitted about 6 hours later. I thought I was going to die. Think about the worst cramps you have ever had and multiply them by 20. I usually don’t react to pain, but I was screaming. Even the nurses had scared looks on their faces – one told Amanda that I was extremely sick and not to go into my room without gloves and a mask. You would have thought I had bird flu. God bless those nurses though. I was not in control of myself and it scared me. When they put whatever magic drug in my IV to numb the pain, I really didn’t know if I’d wake up.

Fast forward to today. I am still sick although I can walk. I am in France. I was told I had a severe gastric infection from food poisoning. I was stubbornly determined to come to France today, although I should have stayed in bed. Amanda left for the airport early this morning. She feels better, but is still a bit unwell. I took the Eurostar into France around 12:00 PM. I slept for the duration of the trip with a giant water bottle in my lap. For the sake of those around me, I hope I wasn’t snoring. When the taxi dropped me off at my host mother’s firm, I was not in the mood to talk in English or in French. Of course, everyone there wanted to talk in English and in French. At this point, I am seriously questioning my reasoning for coming here. This is probably because I am still dehydrated and doped up on pain meds. All I want is to be back in the States.