A TRUE Spanish test

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Well the folks at Intercultura Language School could NEVER give me an exam that equaled to the true test I had this week in Samara. For those of you wondering why I haven't blogged or emailed much in over a week. . .here's my story:

Last Saturday night I began to feel a sore throat that I knew was a tell-tale sign of worse things to come. I had prepared myself well for all kinds of intestinal issues that I'd heard were so common in Latin America. Of course no where in my ziplock of medicines could I find anything for any ailments snot-related. I decided it best that I befriend the little man at the farmacia. Boy was that an experience! Now I can proudly say I'm coming along quite nicely with the language acquisition thing. I can carry on a simple conversation and usually can get my point across. However, when it comes to medical terminology, I was completely sunk and of course this little man knew not a lick of English. The pharmacist brought out all kinds of things for a variety of ailments. With lots of pointing and inspecting of boxes (all RX as no prescriptions are needed here), I finally settled on what I hoped were throat lozenges. I was too scared to go with anything hard core at that point.

However, things went downhill. By Tuesday morning I just knew in my heart (head?) I had a true blue sinus infection. As I saw it, I had several options: (1) Go to the doctor here (scary); (2)Call Dr. Enriquez in Austin and pray he could/would recommend me an antibiotic (in Spanish) over the phone or advise me to take the ones he'd given me if I should have a stomach bact. infection; or (3) Do nothing. I opted to call the states. Dr. Enriquez's office was actually very helpful and eager to respond to my unique plea for help from so far away. After making the initial call (which by the way is a challenge in itself), waiting in the rain for 40 minutes for Dr. E. to advise his nurse, and calling once again, I finally had a plan. He told me the symptoms sounded viral, NOT to take antibiotics, to get myself some Sudafed and wait it out. Great. . .of COURSE this wouldn't be a quick-fix! And I laughed at the "get yourself some Sudafed" part-- No problemo, Dr. E. . .I'll just run out to the nearest Walgreens--HA! I returned to the farmacia and grabbed the only box that was in English--Tylenol Flu. Then, I went to the last 2 hours of class and headed home to bed. I was VERY thankful that (a) a tropical storm system was over Costa Rica and therefore I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything exciting; and (b) my school schedule at that point allowed me 24 hours before I had to be back in class. I let the thing run its course from throat to snotty head to coughing from the toes. They don't sell Kleenex here so I had to make do with some very rough, diner style napkins--ouch! I eventually went back to my friend at the farmacia for some cough medicine. . .that was probably the scariest purchase of all! My parents raised me to never, ever take medicine in the dark. You should always be able to read the name and directions. Well, selecting a prescription-strength cough medicine that may or may not knock me out until next Tuesday EN ESPANOL, was definitely the same (or worse) than taking medicine in the dark. But thankfully, I chose correctly and got me some really good stuff! It helped pull me out of the funk and by Thursday and Friday I was well (and it was sunny enough) to take my naps on the beach.

I've finally cracked the code on uploading pics to this thing so I'm including some photos of where I live since I spent so much time in my room while I was sick. I'm also showing off Samara a bit while I have your attention.

Now I'm back to normal and living life to the fullest once again. That one goes in down in the memory book for sure. It's funny how so many of my experiences in Costa Rica are making me recognize how blessed I am to live in Austin, Texas, USA!

Stay tuned for my next blog in the very near future. . .my trip to Rincon de Viaja! What an adventure! For now, I must run to the beach for a few PTH's before class! Hasta luego mis amigos!!!!

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