ggiller10

OK, so after days of promising an update of my France exploits, finally, here it is.

So: I am in Paris! But I’ve only been here since Saturday afternoon. The first 2 weeks were spent in Bordeaux; everyone in the group (about 35-40 students) took an intensive language class (between 3-5 hours a day, plus some excursions); we used the time to get to know each other.  Everyone on the program is really nice; the majority are from Vassar and Wesleyan (as it is the Vassar-Wesleyan program), but there are few (like me!) from other schools.  So, clearly, there was lots of wine-drinking (if you don’t know, Bordeaux is known for wines); we got to visit a chateau and tour around their wine-making facilities; we also did a “degustation” (wine-tasting/ teaching) which was informative, but I still can’t find all those different tastes/ smells. Whatever.
The living situation in Bordeaux was homestay; I was with a really nice family with 4 kids, ranging in age from 24 to 13; the older ones weren’t always around, but the 13-year-old had a good sense of humor.
In terms of my French (speaking and understanding): it has definitely improved since my arrival, but there is still a long way to go. The hardest thing is learning slang (l’argot), because, obviously, they don’t really teach us that in classes.
So, now I’m in Paris. I’m living with an octogenarian, who has grandchildren in their 30s; she’s very nice and a good cook.  The apartment is very old-fashioned, but it’s pretty awesome.  I’m not right in the middle of Paris, but the metro system is quite good, so it doesn’t really make much of a difference.  I actually prefer living with just one person, because at the homestay in Bordeaux, I really didn’t get much of a chance to do much speaking; at dinner, the family would talk, and the other student that was also living there was in fact French, so they would talk, and I would listen and try to follow the conversation.  Here, it’s just us two, so there’s no one else to talk (also, she speaks nice and slowly).
Being in Paris is amazing- there are so many incredible buildings every time you look up. It’s absurd.  More concrete details will be posted about my time in Paris; for now, enjoy the pics from Bordeaux! (For lots more pictures, check out my Facebook. Clearly).

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUVhpX70skY

Video upload didn’t work, so I put it on YouTube (naturally)- in any case, here’s a (low-quality) video shot on my cell phone of a chipmunk that, after being chased through the house by (at various points during its 2-day stay inside) my cats, my dogs, and me (to get it outside), seemed to want to get BACK inside after finally making it to the porch (it eventually made it outside).

It was really cute.

So this time, instead of a short ranty post about my shoulder, I will actually write one that has valid content.

Today, I finally went to see the orthopedist about my shoulder (if I haven’t whined to you about it: I keep injuring it when I lay out while playing Ultimate- I tend to land on my right side (and thus on my shoulder) instead of flat on my chest).

The orthopedist was vaguely helpful; he semi-explained what was going on after moving my shoulder around and seeing what made it hurt; he took a few X-rays to make sure there weren’t any issues with the bones (there weren’t), and he told me to try to get an appointment with the physical therapy people next door (I was unable to, as they were booked this week and I am going back up to Amherst on Friday).  However, this unavailability ended up being a blessing in disguise: I went to a different physical therapy guy (one who my mom’s friend had gone to, and whom she recommended highly).  He did more or less the same movement tests with my shoulder that the orthopedist had done; however, he then explained (with the use of pictures from an ‘Atlas of Human Anatomy’ (or something to that effect)).

Here are the issues:

1. The tendons/ ligaments that surround my shoulder joint have been stretched out from landing on my shoulder so many times.  These tendons and ligaments are supposed to somewhat inhibit the movement of the joint, thereby protecting it; now that they’re stretched out, they can no longer do that.

2. My when my arm is extended outward, it exposes muscles in my rotator cuff; this is the specific pain that I’ve been feeling.

3. My brachial plexus is also exposed when this happens; this is why I get a dead-arm/ weak feeling in my right arm whenever I re-injure it.

Solutions: Stop landing on my shoulder (sounds simple, but it means I need to retrain myself when it comes to laying out- not going to be easy) and strengthen the muscles around the joint so that they can take the place of the stretched ligaments in protecting my joint.

So, I’m glad to have a real diagnosis/ plan of action (I’m seeing the physical therapy guy 2 more times this week, and I’ll have a bunch of exercises to do this summer), it means no laying out for me this summer.  So it goes.

Despite my angry, drunken, rant-post, my arm actually feels pretty good today (sore, of course, but none of that sharp pain). Hooray!

I mean, there’s not much more to say that the title of this post. I hate fucking injuring myself all the time. And I hate that I have to choose between laying out, and continuing to play in the current game.

Maybe if I did some goddamn physical therapy. Fuck.

The view from Memorial Hill sometime last year, as captured by my (shitty) camera phone…

to see how this thing looks. Nothing to really say at the moment, but stay tuned… you never know what gems I might come up with to post on here.