Day 5 — Thursday, 2/5/2026 — Some Improvement

By Thursday, I finally decided to take a sleeping pill, and I slept for five hours. Five hours isn’t much, but it was enough to make me feel like a somewhat functional human again.

After school, I forced myself to go on a walk, even though it was still sprinkling. I wandered around aimlessly until I reached my 10,000 steps.

On my way home, I stopped by a cheese store — there’s a French name for it, but I cannot remember it now. Anyway, I asked the mademoiselle to give me a bunch of little pieces of cheese to try, and she was very nice and obliged. I’m sure she was thinking, “Ah yes, crazy Americans,” but she seemed happy to amuse me.

I also stopped by a store and got a white French bread, a croissant, and something my teacher mentioned in class called crème de marron. It took her a while to explain to me what it was… so of course I had to go buy it.

I dropped my sinful goodies at home and went to a restaurant and had some pho — my first real meal since I arrived. I know pho isn’t French food, but it was cold and damp, and I desperately needed the comfort of warm soup.

So day four was over.