Getting sick in a foreign country has been - among other things - really interesting. First of all, you have little immunity to the foreign germs, so they are especially vicious. Secondly, the plan of attack you have developed over the years to battle common illnesses like the cold are blown out of the water because your tried-and-true foods/naturopathic products/drugs don't exist here. After five days of trying a failed "rest" strategy, I finally broke down and went to the pharmacy. There, I am happy to say, my education in organic chemistry came in very handy, since they call drugs different things here (example: acetaminophen is paracetamol). I got some cough syrup and nose spray; the pharmacist who rang me up pointed to the two things and shook his head and said something very solemnly, but his accent prevented me from understanding what it was exactly, so now I'm a little paranoid of using either of them; however, I seem to have stayed alive so far, which I'm pleased about. Also, they don't have real chicken noodle soup here. How is a person supposed to get well without chicken noodle soup? Or, other sick-bed favorites, Jell-O and applesauce. Can't find Jell-O, and the applesauce is just weird. So, instead of these things I went a completely different route and bought a humidifier. This purchase may seem rather silly in one of the wettest cities in the world, but don't be fooled. Exactly the opposite of SoCal, they overcompensate the cold outside by overheating inside, and the central heating is dry. I'm pretty sure it's drier in my room here than my dorm in Claremont. There's a great irony in there somewhere, but I'm too drugged up on phenylephrine and oxymetazoline to think about it. And if anyone knows if it's ok to combine those two things, let me know. In retrospect, I probably should have asked the pharmacist to clarify...
P.S. Professor Johnson: observe usage of "however" : )
No comments:
Post a Comment