November 30, 2020

Monday

I didn’t even think about it on Monday, but this day marked the end of my first full month in France. It feels so different from my summer in Grenoble. Those weeks felt like a grand adventure. I was traveling every weekend with my lovely friend Jillian and the amazing friends we made in our program. We were seeing castles and museums while eating new and beautiful foods. This trip hasn’t had the same sprinkle of magic. Maybe it’s because I’m working, lesson planning, and struggling to set up a life here on my own. Maybe it’s because I’ve been required to stay at home and haven’t seen any exciting new sights. I’m hoping that as confinement eases I’ll be able to go out and start having those magical French experiences again. However, as it turns out, Monday wasn’t much help in that direction.

I do want to stop here to provide a ~content warning~ regarding COVID-19. If you don’t want to hear details regarding COVID, you may want to stop reading here.

I woke up around 8am with a bit of a headache Monday morning. I hurried along getting ready for work, setting up the coffee pot, and hopping in the shower. I got dressed, put on the news, and realized that I couldn’t smell the coffee brewing on the stove. My mind went instantly to the news reports I had been reading in previous weeks that stated loss of smell and taste were COVID symptoms. Still, I wasn’t sure. I thought perhaps it was just hard to smell coffee brewing in this new type of pot. I poured my cup, waited for it to cool, and took a sip. Nothing.

My mind went blank. Then, in a flurry, I flung open the fridge desperate to find something I could smell- trying to prove to myself that I still could. Pasta sauce? Nothing. Soup from the night before? Nothing. My jar of sliced onions? Absolutely nothing. I closed the fridge and sat on the floor. I didn’t want to overreact, but my heart was racing. My classes started for the day at 10, it was 9:20. I didn’t know what to do. If I was sick, I didn’t want to expose the students to COVID. Still, I worried about my ability to communicate what was going on.

I got all of my things together and headed out as if I were going to school for the day. However, before I got in the car I told Mme Bodet that I suspected I was experiencing COVID symptoms. Together, we called the school and filled them in on the situation. I got the day off and the teachers I was going to be working with were informed. We asked both schools to inform us of any positive cases that might have come into contact with me. Apparently, both schools had had students come down with positive cases. However, because they students and I were both wearing masks the school would not consider my case as one contacted there.

Madame Bodet drove me to her doctor’s office in Charvieu. I went over my symptoms with the doctor when we arrived. Slight sore throat, splitting headache, intense fatigue, and the loss of smell/taste. She gave me a prescription for both a rapid test and the PCR test. The appointment was 25 euros because I didn’t have French insurance. They apologized for the “huge” expense, but I thought it was really affordable compared to prices at American Urgent Care centers. I was shocked that I got such quality and efficient care for such a low price.

We left the office and zipped up the road to the local lab where I got signed up for the PCR test. (I’d post a little picture of the prep kit, but it has some personal information on it.) We went through the drive through, I got the little swab shoved to the back of my brain, and I got dropped off at home to await my results.

It was quite a nerve-wracking day. All I had to do was sleep and wonder what my results would be. Teachers kept texting me to ask if I was alright, which was sweet but also anxiety invoking. As the day went on, I tried to convince myself that I actually could taste something, but that ultimately failed when I realized I couldn’t tell if I was drinking a glass of wine with dinner or if it was actually just water. I went to bed hoping for the best.