There is something to be said for the medical system in America. I had never questioned things like prescriptions, insurance, or actual medicine until I moved here. Recently I have had many reasons to go to my local Apteka ( drugstore), and the "pharmacist" there has gotten quite acquainted with me. She is always entertained by my poor attempts at describing my ailments. This store is great- everything is under lock and key, but nothing in the store costs more than 10 dollars. No prescriptions are needed, just a convincing cough, sunburn, or some other visible symptom.
You can get ANYTHING there, but my Russian isn't good enough to know exactly what it is that I am getting. So the process for me is always an adventure. I walk in and do my best charades impression to describe my problem. My latest need was quite funny. I spent all day at a water park and got myself quite burned. Let me digress for a moment and tell you a little about this water park. You walked in to the most beautifully landscaped piece of land in this country. There were palm trees, plush grass, and pool boys that would get you any kind of drink you could imagine. It felt like you were not in this country anymore. It was amazing. There were slides, and more slides, and three pools. I mean, it was just like a place in America- only better. It was designed so that if you never wanted to leave your chair, you didn't have to. And I didn't plan on getting up at all! I got to people watch all day, and it made for some very interesting observations on this culture. A few things, and then I promise I'll get back to my original story.
1. People didn't care what kind of body they had- they were at the pool to get tan and beat the heat, so no matter what- short, tall, old, young, fat, skinny- they were going to accomplish that purpose. There were no cover-ups or attempts at hiding the parts of their bodies that they didn't love. It was kind of nice- people just wore swimsuits, because they were at the pool. The body image side of that was really cool.
2. With that however, came an interesting phenomenon which said that the fewer clothes you wore, the better things would be. I only thought that American women didn't wear many clothes. Here, I think the goal is to wear the most clothes while showing the most skin. This sounds a little counter productive, and let me promise you, it was!! They had the most intricately designed bathing suits, that showed EVERYTHING that God surely didn't intend to show and covered every part of the body that normal people show to the world every day!
3. The men- oh the men! Just a public service announcement for any of you that were wondering... THE SPEEDO IS NOT IN!!! There is nothing fashionable at all about this tiny piece of fabric. It is NOT flattering or attractive, and there is NO way it can be comfortable! You're welcome ladies- if I even saved one man from wearing that hideous thing, it was a good deed.
4. I was sitting in the pool, with some of my friends, when these two women came up to me. They spoke very quickly, and after getting them to repeat themselves two times, I finally figured out that they wanted me to baby sit their kid so that they could go to the "adult" pool. Now, let me be clear- I DIDN'T KNOW THESE PEOPLE FROM ADAM!! I didn't really say anything; I just sat there looking incredulous, so I guess they assumed that I was okay with it. I was not!! I got stuck watching that bad little girl for almost an hour. I was so frustrated!
Okay, back to my story. I was VERY sunburned. I've never gotten burned quite so badly. So I walked into the store and began to explain. After several failed attempts, I just pulled back my shirt sleeve to reveal my hot pink skin. She was horrified- and immediately began pulling stuff off of those locked shelves. After about 15 minutes, the counter was covered with things that were supposed to cure my ailing skin. All I really wanted was some aloe, but the "pharmacist" strongly disagreed with my solution. Instead, I left with a cream, a spray, and a pill- all of which were supposed to make me instantly better.
Haha! I should have known better. I tried the cream- and it didn't do much, so I tried the spray! This stuff is amazing- it foams all over you and stays put until you wash it off- but it does relieve the burning. I got curious as to why it took away the sting so fast, so I translated the back of the can so that I could GOOGLE the ingredients. Now, for my sweet dad's sake, I wont tell you what I found out, but I will tell you that I'm glad I'm in a foreign country, because in America you are not allowed to buy this stuff! haha. Needless to say, I'm not using that stuff anymore, but man, it was good while it lasted!
Just a sidenote before I leave, my fruit lady suggested something that she guaranteed would work. I was telling her my problem and she asked me to wait just a second. She walked around the corner and began to pick some weeds. I thought they were weeds until she brought them back... Apparently, her fix for a sunburn is marijuana! Ahhh... Just another day!