Lovely Leora sat on a wall, Lovely Leora had a great fall...

I am not exactly the most graceful person in the world. I have never been a ballerina, nor have I won any gold medals in ice skating. In fact, I fall. A lot. Since I am such a pro in this area, I have developed numerous strategies of falling well, without badly hurting myself. Unfortunately, they did not work for me this time around.

I was in the metro on Wednesday night in Paris, rushing to meet my sister Ilana at the ballet, when I lost my balance on the stairs. Perhaps it was because of my 3 inch heels, or because I was sick and tired, or even because I was trying not to pay to much attention to my surrondings because then I would notice the smell of urine that is ubiquitous in Parisean subways. Whatever the reason, I fell. And hard. I tumbled down half a flight of concrete stairs, landing flat on my face. Although my first reaction was "I hope that my camera is okay!", when bystanders started coming by to see if I was okay, I realized that I was not. I was bleeding, a fair bit. Someone gave me a tissue, and people kept on offering me their cell phone or some type of assistance, but I hate being the centre of attention so I waved them away. And left to meet Ilana at the ballet, as planned. I finished my metro trip by holding various bloody tissues to my lip, and got to the ballet before Ilana so I sat in my seat and tried to watch the show. When I finally saw my sister, I started to cry and told her the story. Although I was upset, I was expecting to just "walk it off" but Ilana said that we should ask the Opera house's nurse to have a look at it. And when she did, she told me that I should go to the hospital right away because I may need stitches.

Since I do not have health insurance (it's for wimps), I wasn't thrilled at the idea, but Ilana thought that I should use hers, despite the fact that we don't look so similar. But I was bleeding, and desperate, so off we went...after watching the finale of the ballet, of course. I have my priorities! At the hospital, to my surprise and delight, they treated me, even though the picture on the file obviously did not look like me, and I do not speak more than 5 words of French, despite supposidely being a Paris resident. The doctors gave me three stitches, one on the outside, and two on the inside because I had a major gash in the interior of my upper lip. They also gave me an x-ray to see if my teeth were okay. I feel so grateful that I was okay. It could have been so much worse. And although I feel guilty about lying...okay, there is no excuse. No matter how I feel about the French government, what I did was wrong. But I am poor, so that is my rationalization.

Anyway, now I am feeling a lot better. For a few days after the accident and stitches, my face swelled up so much. My upper lip was about three times the size it usually is! And it hurt like hell, although I did not fill the prescription for painkillers that the doctors wrote for me. For a while I had to wear a band-aid over my stitch above my upper lip, which was not exactly fashionable. But I decided that since I am going to Germany, maybe I can paint it black and have the Hitler look that is so popular there. Or maybe not. Today, a little while after the whole thing happened, I feel a lot better. My lip is almost back to normal size and I am not too worried about the stitches. I am going to have to pay to take them out, probably in Germany, but whatever. At least I am okay, thank G-d. And I will strive to be more careful of the steps in the future!