Doctors here are amazing! And Differences part 1.

This morning I hadn't gotten any better (well the whole body ache things hadn't gotten better, but the crazy diarrhea had gotten worse) so I went to the doctor instead of school. I can't believe how quickly off the street, I got in, seen, and medication. And in addition to that I was able to pay right at the desk (no bill later) and it was ridiculously cheap. To see the doctor was 150 pesos, or $11.50 for those of you not up to date on the exchange rate. The two medications on top of that? 73 pesos or $6.08 for those same people mentioned above. The doctor was also extremely friendly and obviously very capable seeing as I'm not dead and in fact feeling much better.

Next up is my half tangent half segue. So right after the doctors office I my host family and I went to the club campestre (basically a country club) because la senora is taking a dancing class there. While she was in her class the Senor showed me around the place and we chatted a bit. After that he went and did something (when you don't speak the language you really only know about 1/4 of what is going on) and the Senora, finished with her dance class, showed me around briefly and then went into the gym to walk on the tread mill. Well I wasn't allowed in the gym, but I sat outside on the edge of a flower plateau (I can't think of a better word...) and half listened to what she said through the open window and half read her lips. Needless to say it was a fairly fruitless attempt. But I managed to catch enough to know that she was telling the guy next to her (while often pointing directly at me) all about my recent experiences with diarrhea and how pitiful I looked the morning when I first fell ill. The man just listened and they continued to have a conversation about it for some time. It was quite obvious that this is not at all a taboo like it is in America. We say diarrhea and people kinda wince or say something like "dude, I'm eating/about to eat/just ate" (as is always the case).

Differences part1:

This will be in no particular order and I say part one because I've been here for 4 days and I've already got quite a few.

-Everyone speaks Spanish.

-The green traffic light flashes a few times before turning yellow before turning red. Extra warning?

-The rules of the road are not.

-Light switches flip right for on, left for off.

-Hot for taps is on the right and cold is on the left.

-There are taxis EVERYWHERE it's like new york but they are all Nissin Sentras...

-...Nissin Sentras are called Nissin Tsuru here.

-The food. Drastically so.

-Apple juice, and the apples here, taste the same. Not like the "apple" juice in America.

-I think I had fried cactus for a snack before comida (which is basically a late lunch), like I said though, you really only know what's going on about a 1/4 of the time.

-Pesos instead of Dollars (the pesos kinda have a monopoly thing going on with lots of colors and whacky pictures) which includes the peso coins which go up to about 10 pesos (or a little less than a dollar).

-If you're white, people will stare. It's not rude, it's just a sorta "the hell is that?"

I know I have a ton more that I've been running through my mind all day but the second I sit down they flee like all my Spanish when some one asks me a question ("Como te llamas?" "uhh *points at self with a grunt* Connor"). I'll try to include the ones I missed in part 2.

Love you all, feel free to tell me about your summers so far in the comments below or in email/facebook. I do wanna know how you are, this whole blog thing has been very me focused... Perhaps I should have named it "little everyone in bit lots of places".

-Connor

P.S. I publish my blogs without going back over for mistakes, sorry but that's how it is.