Cough Syrup Mishaps...

For the most part, living abroad has been an absolutely wonderful experience for Brian and I! We love learning about the German culture and being able to travel to so many different places... places that we never imagined that we'd ever be able to see before we moved here! So, as a whole, we really enjoy living over here... However, I have to admit, that there are times when "homesickness" rears its ugly head and sets in... This week has been one of those times. :(

Not only has there been alot going on with my family back home (and I feel completely helpless on this end!), I've also come down with some type of German "crud" that I just can't seem to get rid of.... Grrr! I've had a super sore throat, headache, crazy coughing spells, etc... Not fun! (But, on the bright side, I know how to say all of that in German... Ich habe Halsschmerzen, Kopfschmerzen, und der Husten. The smallest things can just make me so happy over here... Breaking through the language barrier is one of them! :)) Needless to say, it's definitely made me miss being at home...

I miss being able to walk into a store when I'm not feeling well, and knowing what kind of medicine I need in order to feel better. Or at least if I'm not sure what kind of medicine I need, I can at least read the labels on the packages to figure it out. And the fact that nearly every grocery type store sells some type of cold medicine over the counter is very helpful. Here, on the other hand, they only sell medicine in a store called an "Apotheke"... It is in only these stores where you can find over the counter Hustensaft (cough syrup), cold medicine, and pretty much everything else that you would find in a typical pharmacy in the U.S. And, you literally can not find these types of things in any other type of store here in Germany... They are only sold in an Apotheke.

Let's just say that this past Sunday found me to be very irritated. I felt like I was coughing up a lung and all I really needed was some cough syrup, but I had no way to get any... Not only do you have to go to an Apotheke to get any type of over the counter medication, the stores (like every other store in this area of Germany) are not open on Sundays... Ugh!! So, unlike the U.S., where I could have run to my local Target on a Sunday and picked up some cough syrup, I was completely out of luck... My only option was to go to the Apotheke between class and work on Monday...

So, this is where the story gets rather entertaining. On Monday afternoon, I headed into the nearest Apotheke and I attempted to use my newfound German skills to communicate to the saleswoman what I needed. I figured that I would attempt in German and then resort to English for additional details... So, I went up to the saleswoman and said "Ich habe Halsschmerzen, Kopfschmerzen, und ich huste viel. Haben Sie Hustensaft?" (I have a sore throat, headache, and I'm coughing alot. Do you have cough syrup?) Unfortunately, that's about where my German ended... :) The saleswoman, on the other hand, had many, many more questions to ask of me, and when I asked her if she spoke English, she informed me that she spoke "very little"... And, very little English was pretty much all she did speak! We managed to have a hodgepodge, German/English conversation about what type of cough I had and where my throat hurt... And, I don't know if she honestly understood what I needed, or if she had just had enough of me by then, but she went into the back and returned with a bottle of Hustensaft (cough syrup)... After looking at the picture on the package, I figured that it looked accurate, so I made my purchase...

The next step was quite interesting. I walked out of the store and opened up my box of cough syrup. I opened up the little packet of information and attempted to figure out how much of it I would need to take... Well, I kept reading "3x5ml" all over the information packet and on the box, so I assumed that I was to take 3 capfuls of the medicine... Which I did...

However, unbeknownst to me at the time, I was actually supposed to have only taken one capful then, and then 2 more throughout the rest of the day... See, where I read 3x5ml (take 3 capfulls of 5 ml of cough syrup), it actually meant take 5 ml three times a day... Not all in one sitting! :) Nice! Needless to say, I was quite happy and giddy for a couple of hours before all of the medicine finally wore off, which then took me from being REALLY happy to REALLY tired very quickly! :) It was actually during my self induced "giddiness" that I finally realized what I had done wrong when taking the cough syrup... I had that hazy feeling that I felt when I was on Vicodin after my wisdom teeth were taken out, and after feeling that way for a short amount of time, I quickly realized my mistake. :) Needless to say, I now know the difference and today I've done a much better job taking the medicine at regularly scheduled intervals! :) Gotta love that language barrier! :)

Needless to say, it's been an interesting week... Definitely a learning experience! However, it times like this where you miss the feeling of being at home, where everything is "normal" (by our standards) and easy... And as much as we've made Germany our "home", it's just not quite the same as being at home.

And, on that note, we hope you're all having a great week! We miss you much! And we're looking forward to seeing everyone in a few short weeks when we come home for the holidays! :)