Friday, July 09, 2010

the pharmacy

This stupid cold just keeps coming back. I had a wicked sinus headache on Monday; fortunately, most of the medicine here has its English scientific name so you can just write down the name of what you need (sudafed! or pseudeophedrine) and go to the pharmacy down the street and get it.
The poor pharmacist and I were definitely speaking to cross-purposes. He speaks a very "educated" Chinese, and you know, my head hurt. So he said something, and I didn't understand it at all, so I said OK. Then he said something that seemed like tomorrow, and I said I didn't understand, then he said something else that had something to do with the second time, and I started to think about how you have to sign papers in the US to say you won't make crystal meth out of your sudafed, and I thought maybe he was saying he could only sell it to me my second time there, so I said, "I've been here before! Last year, I bought... uh... I don't know how to say." Then he said something else, and I said, "Can I just buy one?" And we stared at each other blankly.
It turned out he was saying that the pills he had, had the sudafed ingredient plus something else. Ah! So I bought them at last.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Get well soon :-)

Maybe a nice soak in a Hot Spring would help you?

Anonymous said...

Have you considered "gua sha" (spelling?)..or cupping? I have found it accelerates the process so instead of being sick for 5 days you are really sick for 1 day (after about 18 hours of sleep).
RW

Unknown said...

Or a Chinese foot massage. I have been told they are very good for many health issues. I had one once,,,was an akakening experience. lol..

Christina said...

I did do the guasha. I've also had my share of foot massages- eeek. Once in conjunction with the guasha. Unfortunately I didn't think of it for this illness and I wound up getting better with antibiotics.