Mal de chien

Darth Sprite

I have been under the weather for the past several days. I woke up on Wednesday night after what might have been an our or two of sleep, with what felt like a slightly scratchy throat and something like a mild headache. As I woke again and again in the night, each time with a drier and drier throat and what seemed to border on a fever I began to consider cancelling class. It still did not seem all that bad by the time my first class was to begin, so I bundled up and gave that and the following class sipping on Sprite the whole way through and randomly quoting Emperor Palpatine¹.

These, my seniors², have a major oral exam at the end of the year, during which they are to present one of three notions using several documents from their class and one of their own choosing. I need to look or some documents that might be worth talking about, but for the most part I’m giving them a chance to speak and practice speaking aloud in English. This is similar to the style of presentation I had them working on last semester but with a less stress. Last time they were supposed to focus on correctness on form, and so they were put under pretty intense pressure by myself and their classmates. But this time I am focusing on content, fluency, and duration. They need to be able to hold their own for five to ten minutes in English, so this time there are fewer or no interruptions. Most of the class are doing quite well, but I do not have a good bar to set them against. I am glad to be able to give them what I can, but I am not certain how much better my time with them is spent than being with the teachers who know what they are to be tested on.

It may be telling that I have little faith in the exam givers’ fluency, having seen and learned nothing about them, given then general French competence in English. In fact, most French yutes are competent in English to some degree; which is a lot more than can be said for most American high schoolers taking Spanish. This should not come as a surprise, however, since by terminale French students have usually had six or seven years of English classes³. The only reasonable length conversation I’ve had in Spanish with any of the students was with an exchange student from the Dominican who had arrived only a few weeks before.

Ibuprofen by any other name

After those classes, I walked the hundred or so feet back to my bed, wrapped up under the blankets (trousers, sweater, scarf and all). This was when it really began to hit. I got up a few times, but the mild nausea was just strong enough to suggest I wouldn’t be able to make it to a sink, toilet, or other drain. So I got a bowl. Each time I laid back down, a headache hit worse than before and took a good ten minutes to subside. I half-slept and half-dreamt for several hours, never quite able to hold on to any of the dream. Feverish and lightly delirious when asleep, I felt quite myself when awake. I went ahead and called in to cancel my afternoon class and spent the rest of that day, the next, and the one after that in bed sweating and hurting.

On Friday, I got some Ibuprofen and over the counter lidocain lozenges to alternate every five or six hours each day. The pharmacist wrote out the instructions on the box, which was a nice touch.

I had been able to eat a pinch of pizza on Thursday night, but by Saturday that pizza and a quarter of a second was gone.

I’m feeling much better now. Nearly all of my symptoms are gone, except for my throat. That, I think, may be an angine strep, so I’m going to have it checked out tomorrow. the

Arc en ciel

I’ve started archery for the first time. I’ve always fancied myself the kind of person who would do archery, but I gave up far too quickly in middle school after two or three rounds.

Here, they started me at ten yards two weeks ago. I did alright, and had a blast doing it, so I moved back to fifteen last week. I’ll stick there for a little longer I think, as there is a lot still to learn. Technique has to be ingrained not simple picked up on, whereas accuracy and strength will have to come from practice. I have been quite fortunate to have a member of the archery club offer to lend me a bow, arrows, and an arm guard. Another has lent me a plaquette which means I’ll no longer have to wrap my fingers after fifteen minutes. The first evening, I shot for an hour and a half: at first barehanded, then with wrapped fingers. I felt that for the rest of the week. This past week was far more comfortable. I will likely be changing bows next week as well. The bow I have been shooting with is two-thirds of the draw weight I am supposed to use, and far under what I have drawn in the past. At twenty pounds, it is a comfortable draw and I can go for hours and hours without tiring. But I’ll be happy to move up to a thirty-two or thirty-three pound draw.