French Healthcare and French Exams in One!

Hello again! 

I will pick up from where I left off…exams! 

Yes, it was slightly brutal to have five exams in one day. But, as long as you get enough sleep, it’s manageable. One important lesson learned: If you attend every class, do no extra studying but still get a really good sleep before the test, it’s a guaranteed pass. Fellow students, remember that…I tested it out. 

How? I did practically no studying before the eight exams that were about to hit me like an avalanche of rocks. Oh no, not because I am a slacker (I had “perfectionist syndrome” as a school girl) but because I was terribly sick; which brings me to my other topic: French Healthcare. 

On the Friday before exams, my throat started hurting. One of those regular, “it hurts to swallow, my lymph nodes are sensitive, I caught a cold,” types of sick, except that my gum was starting to hurt too. By Saturday morning it was “my throat is closing, it’s covered in white grossness and my gum is so swollen (where a wisdom tooth was taken out five years ago) that it is ripping off my tooth…and I can’t move my mouth”. This is where my experience in the coveted French Healthcare system starts. First trip: pharmacy. For 15CAD I got lozenges, anti-inflammatories and pain relievers. Unfortunately they didn’t help, and I decided to wait another day. Sunday was only worse, and I didn’t sleep all night, so I called a taxi at 9:06am, the taxi was at my flat at 9:20 and I told the cabby to rush me off to the hospital. There are two hospitals in Lille: a private one, run by the Catholic University, and a public one (where I went) just outside of the city.  

Inside a real French house converted into medical clinic. Very welcoming for a usually quite sterile environment.

The public one covers a territory similar to our Main Campus and was something I was quite impressed with. Instead of having just one Emergency section they had an Emergency building for children, for adults, for pregnant women, for cardiac problems, for dental emergencies, etc. I thought that that was great, because it broke up the waiting lines accordingly. Actually, I was the only patient signing into the emergency room, which gave me a lot of hope that I would be looked at soon. Unfortunately, the throat-mouth-and-ears doctor was not in yet, and I waited for over an hour (still better than the eight hours I’ve had to wait at the U of A hospital). Diagnosis: an exemplary bronchitis and the strep test took only 5 min, not one week. Price: free. Prescription: three more types of drugs and direction to see an emergency dentist the next day for my gum. With detailed explanations on how to get to the only pharmacy open on Sundays, and where the dentistry faculty is, I metro-ed home relieved. The next day, the student dentists fit me in, even though they were booked full, and took care of me well. Diagnosis: unknown. Price: 28CAD. Prescription: kill-all-germs mouthwash (13 bottles) and a freezing-gum tissue-regeneration spray. Those last drugs were the best, and after 4 sleepless nights and 4 days without eating anything but 1 Activia and 1 soup a day, I could finally breathe. 

After just two days of getting medication (half of my loot)

Next problem: that was Monday, exams started Wednesday. The symptoms only started to let go on Tuesday, which is when I started studying, and was by then having a break down. I don’t fail exams, and now I was thinking I would fail all and would have travelled all the way to France to study and would have no credits to bring back to show for it. Tip 1: this is panic. Never let it get in the way of thinking, just push on forward. Lesson learned 2: This experience in France enriched me more than I ever thought; the credits would just be the cherry on top. Just making it through alone was a huge accomplishment in itself. Never get discouraged. 

The exams did go well though. I did get enough sleep every night, I reviewed over some notes the night before or the morning of, just lightly on a fresh head, and because I attended every class, I was able to recall the big lines of the lectures and regurgitate them on paper. However, I purposefully didn’t study for Finance. Not only was it the last one to write, but out of the 15 rooms assigned for the exam, 5 of them were make-up exams, including two lecture halls…and the students making them up dated from 2005. I thought I had no chance of passing anyway, but, when I received the copy and realized that it would have been easy had I just spent a little time, I learned Tip 1, which I will never forget. No panic should ever stop anyone…just keep pushing on and studying, even if you think it’s futile. Always. 

The organization side of EDHEC still baffled me, as they did forget to assign us “French Track exchange students” into rooms for two exams, and we had to start 20 min late, and only posted rooms the night before or the morning of, but that is just something that will probably always have to baffle me. 

Also, I did have to go back to the doctor the day before I left France, because the first antibiotics weren’t strong enough. In one week, I accumulated 130CAD of medicine (or 35 boxes, bottles, pills, capsules, washes, and sprays). But I learned some valuable lessons along the way – this sickness being paired with exams taught me that I can handle a lot when in a foreign country by myself. (Just know where hospitals and doctors are in advance and learn/write down those key words!). Never get discouraged. I am feeling better now. 

The street where I live...finally warming up in Lille (can almost smell some flowers)

Blogs to follow: my arrival into the gorgeous Oestrich-Winkel, where Sid is currently studying, and a trip to Hungary – a country of contrasts and my trip down memory lane. 

Healthiness to everyone, and until next time, 

Elena

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