Le Québec me fait mal.

Just à-peu-près 8 more days until I go back home. It's sort of bittersweet to think that; I've been in Quebec for 33 days and counting, but it hasn't been very good for me.

1. During my first week in Chicoutimi, I started out with a small rash-like thing on my right wrist. I later got painful/itchy bumps on my feet and ankles, bilaterally. Then it appeared on my knees and the lateral sides of my thighs. It would be super itchy, and then hurt like mad when I scratched!
I saw the nurse at school (the most flightly person ever; I was so nervous) and she diagnosed an urticaire - hives. She gave me Benadryl and calamine and cream, and over the course of about a week, the skin symptoms subsided. She said the most likely cause was food-related and she advised me to cut eggs out of my diet, but I have since decided that the most likely culprit is the beurre d'arachides that I started eating on a daily basis since my arrival in Chicoutimi. Boo! I don't want to be a peanut kid!!

2. The mosquitos here can't get enough of me. I guess it's not necessarily detrimental to one's health to be bitten by mosquitos, unless it spreads disease, but it's insanely annoying. And they hurt too! While rock climbing, it was important not to let go of the ropes to swat mosquitoes, so it was like a feeding frenzy. At Tadoussac I also got eaten alive by the little moustiques, mostly on my head. I even found a little red welt right in the strip of scalp where my hair is parted. Bite count: 10.

3. I got some weird cold the weekend before last, that still hasn't really gone away. I've felt fine for several days now and I was always able to taste all my food (thank goodness) but my voice still sounds slightly like a man's.

4. I am eating way too much ice cream and pie here. A couple of my t-shirts are feeling more snug than usual. I went shopping at Smart Set today and I no longer fit into the size I used to. Their fault or mine?

So while it will be sad to leave Chicoutimi, I think it will be best for my health.