The City of Lights

This weekend is Paris with Breanne.

I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about this, but the week leading up to it has been rocky, to say the least. I was incredibly sick (and homesick) after I got home from Strasbourg, but I started to feel better Wednesday after I got home from my awesome shopping afternoon. Thursday was awful. I got an intense rash that started on my chest, but it spread until it covered my entire body!

My arm, not my leg. I still shave my legs.
Just thought you should know.

Even my poor toesies weren't spared!
Poor little piggies.

Awesome, right? In a panic, I called Mom Thursday morning, not even realizing that with the time difference, it was 2:30 for her. She calmed me down enough that I was able to go to school, but as the day progressed, things got worse. The rash got hot, and I got a fever. It scared the hell out of me. I had Mathilde call a doctor for me, and she took me to go see him last night. As it turns out, I'm allergic to the penicillin that I took last week to get over my bronchitis! There's a delay before the rash shows up. Perfect. What's crazy, though, is that I took penicillin last fall for bronchitis, and had none of these problems! The human body is a wonderful and fascinating thing, boys and girls. So the doc told me to take a massive dose of a drug that, fortunately, I had left over from last week. So I didn't have to hit a pharmacy (yay), but the drug has made me incredibly puffy and sensitive to sunlight (boo). But now I know what's going on, and things are getting better (yay). The rash is fading from my chest, and it less itchy and warm. Which is good, because I have things to do this weekend.

As previously posted, here is one of my to-do lists:

Someone has challenged me to do all of this in one picture. I've accepted. It's on. And it will be legen- ... wait for it.... -dary! I've got all my bits and pieces packed up and ready to go. The weather is supposed to be alright. Warm and sunny tomorrow, rainy Sunday, and cloudy and warm Monday. I'll take oodles of pictures (dur), and post them ASAP. I still have some compressing to do from the Loire valley tour, but I'm ticking away at it. My train leaves in a couple hours, so I think I'm going to take a wee nap and be refreshed for the weekend.

Thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts and words this week. I really appreciate them, more than you know.

À bientôt!