mal a la tete

Last week I had a headache.  I tried to sleep it off, but it was still there in the morning and I decided I would go to the pharmacy to buy some Tylenol.  I looked up the words that I would need and set off.  One thing that is different here (in a bad way) when one doesn't speak the dominant language is that a lot of stores are set up in such a way that the items to buy are behind a counter and one has to ask (and therefore actually speak) to get the hoped for object.  I stepped up to the counter and asked for what I needed, in French.  The woman looked at me with a horrified expression.  I was pretty sure that I knew the word, but I must have not pronounced it correctly.  I then said, "En Anglais c'est..."  She wouldn't let me finish, saying, "Non, non, non, non, non," and looking around desperately for help.  All of her coworkers were busy.  She then turned back to me.  I said the word again and then saw that there was a piece of paper and pencil in front of her.  She looked on with agitation as I carefully wrote the word in French with all of the requisite accent marks.  Oh!  Then she wrote on the paper "500 grams" and "1000 grams" which I am sure that I could have just told her orally, but we were beyond words at this point.  I pointed to one, she wrote down the cost, I paid, and I left.  If I thought I had a headache before...