That Time My Professor Force-Fed Me Cake For The "Pain"

I find this blog difficult to write sometimes, hence the lack of consistent entries. I want to give you all a rounded idea of what I am doing... but I dread filling out the boring details to the point of simply not writing anything at all. Sorry if this blog seems abrupt... but I find it impossible to write a novel here.

The latest news in my life: I'm lying in bed with a swollen ankle propped up and iced.

<<Che è successo?>>, you ask yourselves with grave concern. Did Louisa beat away a gypsy woman with her ankle from stealing an infant? Did she slide into home base at the wrong ankle (oops, I mean, ANGLE)?

I wish. That sounds kinda dignified.

Nope. I opened the door to my classroom, knowing there was a deep step immediately past the door frame, and fell down anyway with a GIANT SNAP to my ankle as I went down for the count.

Oh, and it gets better. I started crying out of pain and shock to the sound of all my classmates jumping out of their seats to help me. Did I mention I was interrupting class because I was 5 minutes late from the break?

So my Russian classmate Sergei is my new hero/doctor/official class badass. Once I identified my ankle as the source of my misery, he got my shoe off in record time, ripped off my sock and felt it to see if it was broken. Fortunately, I had a PERFECT PEDICURE STILL (yessss, some remaining shreds of dignity) and clean socks on.

My classmates are absolutely gems. They all instructed me how to take care of my foot, whether it be ice, Italian icy hot gel (my professor wrote the brand name ON THE BOARD and then Sergei copied it and gave it to me with the instructions "twice a day"), and elevation. My Korean classmates stuck a special Korean bandaid on my foot. The best moment was when Sergei noticed it and said, "What is this?!" as if he was actually saying "What is this bit of nonsense in this time of gravity?!"

But because we are in Italy, we sent for the university doctor... who had already left for the day. It wasn't even 2 PM yet. Someone went to the cafe for ice... they didn't have any. My Irish classmate Avril went across the street to get a synthetic ice pack at the pharmacy across the street.

Throughout this ordeal, I couldn't speak Italian. I was so shocked. I was supposed to go to Verona in 2 hours. What if I broke my foot? I'll have to leave Italy. How the hell am I even going to get back to my apartment if I can't walk? How the hell will I get that damn gel if I can't walk? Oh, I'm so embarrassed right now. Everyone is looking at me. I just want to disappear.

 So I sat at the front of the classroom with my foot on a chair, a blank face with tears sneaking out every 4 seconds. My professor tried to keep teaching, I guess to distract me? She brought cake that day and she kept offering me some and finally I took it so she would shut up haha. She said I should take some to help my "dolore" (pain/sorrow/suffering). That at least made me laugh.

My American classmate Bill, who is a dad and used to his kids injuring themselves, was so kind to me. He helped me get out of the building and called a cab so I could get home. He tried to get me to go get an X-ray but I couldn't bear the thought.

I turned to him and said, "So, Bill, what do you like? Wine, food, chocolate?" which made him laugh.

This happened yesterday. I've been icing it, put the gel on it, wrapping it, elevating it...

...and it still hurts whenever I move it or try to put some weight on it. Normally, 24 hours of a wrap helps sprains. I'm worried for sure. If it isn't better by tomorrow night, I'm going to go get an X-ray and hopefully a boot of some sort. If I can't go up a flight of stairs easily... I might just go back to the US. (If I can't get to a grocery in under 40 minutes, living here will be my personal hell. How could I do anything?! I live on a flight of stairs. I'm not kidding.)

That seems super dramatic to me but I am oddly not too upset. My sole regret would be that leaving Italy closes the door on my Italian fluency goal. I would probably get a refund of some kind since I got injured in a university building haha. I don't need the Italian credits for a degree, but personal enrichment. Ironically, the 24 hours before I fell, I had thought quite seriously of staying in Perugia for an extra 2 months...

Awesome!

I'll be home all weekend, possibly until Tuesday! If anyone would like to Skype, now would be a great time!