Things You May Not Know About Paris & What to do if You Find Yourself Feeling Extremely Ill

I hope that this entry is useful to those wishing to come visit Paris.

Things you might not know about Paris until you get here:

• If you wish to use the public restrooms make sure you have money on you because there's a fee.
• You will do a ton of walking even when traveling through public transportation. The metro stations themselves are filled with stairs and long walkways, they are like M.C. Escher's Relativity but with gravity. So dress comfortably and light.
• Don't be afraid to speak French. No one is going to punch you in the face if your pronunciation is wrong. Just trying I think is appreciated.
• Almost everything closes after 6PM on weekdays and all day Sunday. We were not aware of this and thought we could leave errands for Sunday, mauvaise idée. A good grocery store to shop at is Carrefour because it closes around 9:30PM. There's food of course, but also some other household items. Unfortunately they too are closed on Sunday.
• Always carry a lot of change.
• If you are staying at Cite Universitaire you are going to share bathrooms with a lot of other people. Make sure to bring a towel and I suggest a caddy/bag.
• If you forgot to bring a water bottle (this was a personal mission of mine this past week) bonne chance finding one. I happened across one at an H&M near Montparnasse.
  
• When it comes to cellphones: Best thing would be to get a cheap disposable one that comes with some initial free minutes, Orange has them for about 29€. It's free to receive domestic calls and text messages it seems. For long distance stuff and long calls that you have to make, bet on Skype. You can call for 2.1¢/min in France and maybe for a little more to the US. Plus PC to PC is totally free. You can also text anyone using SMS on gmail. I have done this to tell my brother to get my mom on the computer for example.

I'm sure that having not known this stuff prior you'd do just fine. I mean we're all still alive and quite happy too. Collectively we've seemed to figure things out; it's definitely good to help each other out.


When Sick

This next section was inspired by the events that transpired last night and if you ever get really sick here this may prove useful:

My roommate, Michelle, and I were stirred out of our beds around 1AM by the sound of someone vomiting violently in the toilet adjacent to our quarters. Now, at first we thought "He must have been partying hard tonight." Well the sounds didn't stop and we got pretty concerned. So we set off and found this poor soul in the upstairs bathroom because the toilet next to ours was filled to the brim. We asked him if he was okay and the reply was a simple, weak, but definite "No." We took it upon ourselves to get this young man some help, we didn't know how difficult it could be.

In France the Emergency number is 112, 15 for police and 17 for ambulance/medical needs. The operator you get may not speak English so make sure you know how to ask for someone who does. This may not be fruitful at all since they ended up asking us what his symptoms were, decided he simply needed a doctor, and gave us the numbers to two dead ends. By this time REUers Sean and Lee came over to help and assist with French speaking and brainstorming. We called our HTH health insurance providers and they gave us the number to an American hospital in Paris. Thing to know about the American hospital, the ER is 400-500€ up front which you can settle with your health insurance provider later. The ill student did not have this kind of money available. But talking to someone at the hospital was not in vain. A doctor was able to tell us what French hospital to go to and she gave us the phone number of a taxi service. She told us to make sure to not have him appear sick or throw up, and to carry plastic bags with us. The taxi driver would probably not like this and kick him out of the cab. And the trains don't run at this time and I'm sure that the wait for the night bus c'est pas pleasant. Sean, Lee, the sick young man, and his roommate left with all the euros we could round up. Once there Lee says that the French doctors didn't mind taking him in as long as he had some form of ID or proof of being a student par example. They'd ask questions later.

The entire ordeal took about 3.5 hours to get him into a cab and on his way. From there I don't know the specifics. But Michelle and I just spoke to the young man this afternoon and he was all smiles. Not 100% but feeling a lot better. He said had we not been around to help, he would have never gotten to a hospital. So we wish him all the best and that he continues to feel better. The doctors are still running tests to diagnose him, and we hope it's nothing serious for his sake and all of the people who got involved sakes'.

So what to gather from this experience:

• Getting a hold of a doctor at the American hospital in Paris seems like the best thing to do. They can recommend hospitals and taxi services among other things.
  
• It would be a good thing to get the extension of the reception desk at the main house at Cite Universitaire. This we didn't have. My guess is that something like this is nothing new to them so they can recommend where to go and what taxi service to call.
• Make sure you have a cellphone or credit on your Skype ASAP! This way you can call whomever you have to call.
• DON'T BE ALONE. Always always always let someone know. Let your roommate know, let some strangers across the hall from you know. This poor guy was sick as can be and was going to stay that way because he didn't want to inconvenience anyone or thought he could handle it.
  

So that's our story. If you have anything to contribute please feel free. This is everything I've come to notice and learn in the past week in Paris. Like any new place you have to learn its nuances, or lot less subtle differences, but being smart and having people to depend on can make it degrees of magnitude easier.