thank you, angel-dog.

11:05 am, I'm already five minute late to tutor someone, and I'm 10 minutes away from their apartment. I have 70 euros worth of small change in my pockets, 4 expired metro tickets and 1 valid ticket which all look identical, I'm carrying 2 extra-long rolls of glossy wrapping paper, and my shoes are untied. You can probably tell where this is going.

I fell on my face, cut my knee open, and bent the wrapping paper all out of shape. I have fallen at least 30 times in France, so as an expert on the subject let me tell you what it's like. If you fall and laugh good-naturedly, no one will laugh with you. Instead they will stare at you with disgust. Normally I laugh anyway, but this morning there were 200 people looking at me. So I started sobbing.

It was the definition of sobbing. Loud wails and snot and so many tears my vision was blurred. Because wrapping paper so slippery and French is so hard, and dang it why can't anyone in this country be nice to clumsy people. And most of all, I miss my family, and I just wanted someone to say "It's ok, everybody falls." And I just wanted a hug and I'm sick of being kissed. I promise I don't usually sob. But I couldn't go home, I had to keep walking, and once I started crying I couldn't stop. I limped toward my tutee's apartment, leaving a pathetic trail of soggy wrapping paper and tears.

Then, straight from heaven, came a tiny dog in a turtleneck sweater. He saw I was in distress and his little ears perked up. Without a moment's hesitation he sprinted toward me, tripling his speed to keep my pace. He skipped alongside me, staring up at me with such sincere concern that he was completely oblivious to the benches, trash cans, and pedestrians he was running into. And for a minute I had a friend.

Until his owner yelled "Leave her alone!" and dragged him off. I should have said something like "No, that was just what I needed today. Also I like his sweater; that color is very flattering on him."

But instead I just kept sobbing. Today really wasn't my day.