Bologna... or walk?

I was picked up at an Autostoppe, running away from a kindly, though not all well-meaning Turk. Outside a shop, I stopped to ask a gentleman for directions to Paris, and he just stared at me like I was crazy. The Turk had told me I was in Paris, but in reality I was in Neuilly-Plaisance, a tiny town on the outskirts of Paris, approximately 18 kilometers away.

Eventuallty after some argument over the idea of me walking there, he and his wife invitred me to stay the night. And then the next few nights, so I have been seeing Paris by day, and spending the evenings with an amazingly generous family, with two of the most adorable little girls I have ever met. The children and their Grandmother speak no English and the parents a bit, and I of course speak only a tiny bit of French, but somehow we manage to have amazing conversations together. The Mother, Abigaïl, even went so far as to buy me soy (or soja) milk and yoghurt-- some of the best stuff I have ever tasted! If they could only have stuff like this in America, perhaps I never would have left.

I am very sick now, but we went to the store and, would you believe, medicine here is only the equivelant of $6??? I hope we get Universal healthcare, is all I can say. It would make things soooooo much better!

Today I leave. I was all set to pack my bag and follow train tracks to... wherever, but Abbi and her husband are intent on me staying at least one more night in the city, at a hostel that her husband used to work for. He is going to show me and intends to get me a discount, I think. I don't understand a hundred percent, but we all make due.

However, I just received an e-mail from another host family in Bologna who needs help for a week or two with picking grapes-- this sounds perfect to me, however, the trains, buses, and airtickets are sooo expensive, I wonder if I should... the warmth would do me and my cold all the good in the world, howeevr, so I think there isn't much of a choice...we shall see.

All my love,
~ Genevieve