estaba enfermita!
just to follow up on the sick entry, i´m now doing better as indicated by the emergence of new blog entries. but, i actually got to experience a different part of argentina through being sick that i´m sure i wouldn´t have seen had a not been sick. in addition, i got to have some awkward moments which i always enjoy.
let´s see. black plague, how can i explain the symptoms...no need. general flu. but indeed, there is a whole vocabulary for sicknesses here that i was introduced to during my feverish weekend. i taught my brother the phrase hok a loogie (spelling invented) and in fact the word for loogie here is pollo, or chicken. ew. also, my family insisted that i try a special kind of hot tea that helps clear the sinuses which they said, spelled phonetically vik-wapu-voob. i laughed because what they were actually saying was vick´s vapor rub, but the argentinian pronunciation is so different it took me a while to understand.
hanyways, when i woke up monday morning and could not swallow (traigar) very well, i decided to take a trip with my brother to the british hospital, where our program had instructed us to go because they would speak english there. this was not actually so true in the end. i was very glad that my brother was there with me to do most of the talking since my voice sounded pretty awful. after a half an hour wait we waddled over to room 4, where we met my doctor who spoke broken english. i could pretty much make up for it with my spanish and we figured out that most medical terms are similar because they have the same latin/greek/whatever roots. in any case, i got to get an x-ray to make sure i didn´t have t.b. which i could have as far as my cough was concerned.
the x-ray was the fun part. the man who took it did not speak any english and i walked into the room as he babbled off a long train of instructions none of which i understood. i looked next to me and there was a closet with a hospital gown inside so i guessed that i should probably change into that? i poked my head out and try to say i don´t speak spanish very well and he just repeated something very fast and waved his arms up and down. so i retreated back into my cave and put on the gown. i emerged triumphant only to be greeted by another command given while pointing at a device on the wall. so i decided to walk towards this device, pensively. eventually what ended up happening is he pushed me to where i needed to be. he asked me to breathe in deeply and i did but i didn´t know to hold it, so then we did breathing exercises together so that i would know what was going on. the side shot was even more complicated. he said that was all, so i changed back and then he wasn´t there anymore. i wasn´t really sure what to do at that point so i just tip toed out into the hallway and saw my man walking away down the hall. he turned around and i waved goodbye and he waved back. friends for life.
in the end, i got some antibioticos and was set to go. i´m feeling better now, so it was all just a kind of classroom right?
wow, i look really sick in this shot with my x ray. see how poofy my cheeks were?
