Cold(s) in Germany

Two weeks into school, and we were finally getting back into the swing of things. Of course, I missed my family, but it was good to be back on a real schedule here. Besides, I was web chatting with them pretty often. The internet is a wonderful thing, and I’m not sure how my grandparents survived without it… or are still surviving without it, really.

Germany is colder than I remembered it. Snow is in the forecast every other day, which makes for rather unpleasant bike rides to school in the mornings. It’s times like these where I really miss my Mazda, though I doubt she would be able to handle herself on the Autobahn considering she fights to stay alive on the Garden State Parkway.

This German winter was also taking a toll on my health. A typical sore throat escalated into something my smuggled American drugs weren’t mending, so I saw a primary doctor in Melle. This trip required Alex to brush up on some of his medical vocab… yet another simple task turned complicated. The level of respect I have for foreigners is constantly increasing. The doctor ran several tests after my walk in appointment. Just when I thought she was finished, she handed me a cup, said something in German, and walked out of the room. Apparently, my personal translator spaced out, so we could only guess what do with that cup. It may seem obvious that the patient is supposed to urinate in the cup, but paranoia took over. I would have been mortified if I handed her a cup of urine when she really wanted a saliva sample, or even worse, just to fill it up with water to swallow a pill. Asking her to repeat the instructions was out of the question since we both nodded like we knew what she was talking about. Thus, I bit the bullet and peed in the cup. Rest assured, that’s what she wanted me to do. That could have been awkward! The doctor also prescribed me Prednisolone, a steroid to take down the swelling. I later learned that it’s only used in the US for veterinarian purposes. As long as I didn’t grow a tail and my throat felt better, I didn’t really care!

We met with our theater kids yesterday and saw some new faces. For the next few weeks, Alex and I are going to run some workshops to help the students with their English and acting skills. It’s also to buy me more time to figure out what I’m doing for the next show. I wanted to use an old script from a show I did in high school, but the language may be too complex. I also don’t want to deal with buying the rights for a performance. Hopefully we don’t end up writing the script the night before we hand it out to everyone!