Mi Viaje A La Dentista

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I haven’t done much here this week. I have been hanging out with another Dutch girl. She actually left yesterday but I will be meeting up with her in Santiago, Chile in one week. Her name is Elisabeth and she is a vegetarian. No one is perfect I guess. It was kind of nice to hang out with a healthy eater for a week or so to straighten out my eating habits. I made her dinner one night and had a difficult time deciding the menu. Food is pretty hard to figure out in the first place here due to the vague package labels and the vegetarian thing just put it over the top. I ended up just buying a quiche and making a salad. She liked it (or she said she did) so it was all good. While we are on the same topic of food I will mention my dental problems.
My homestay mother, Lara, made me dinner the other night consisting of fish and baked potato thingys. Kind of like potatoes au’grautin. I was in a hurry that night for some reason I cant remember, so I was chowing it down. The potatoes were pretty tough and I ended up hearing the horrible crack as I ate them. I had cracked my crown. I had the tinge of dread when I heard the clink of the piece of tooth in my mouth. It didn’t hurt or anything but I was still pretty worried of it becoming worse so I called the dentist the next morning. We found a dentist fairly close to the school and made an appointment for that afternoon. I showed up and had to wait for him. Long lunch I guess. I didn’t ask. Real nice guy. He barely spoke any English but I can speak a little Spanish now so we met halfway. He took me into his office/operating room. You’d think that they would be behind the times for dental care but it was nothing like that. Everything he used was modern except for the spit sink which I really enjoyed. He poked around at the tooth and then he started to drill. He hit the nerve a couple of times but nothing like when I got a root canal. I can’t think of anything worse than getting a root canal so this was a walk in the park. At one point the phone rang and he stopped to pick it up. As he worked on me he talked on the phone. Just think, some places in the States it is illegal to drive and talk on the phone and here he is drilling holes in my mouth yapping on the phone. I really shouldn’t complain though. He did a great job in under twenty minutes for $30, American. I tried to use my insurance but they wouldn’t take it. Oh well, 30 bucks is nothing. I think its $50 for a check up in the US. It has been a week now and it feels great. Gotta love cheap health care.
No other happenings worth mentioning this week. I avoided most of the events to save cash. I danced Tango of course, because it is cheap and I am so damn good at it. Today we are going on an acrobatic plane ride. I am curious to see what types of planes they are using and just how crazy they will get. I am translating “GET SOME!” right now. I want my moneys worth. I will add some photos of my parrilla dinner (BBQ) and the house I am living in. Hasta Luego. -Eric

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