Alain got sick, then the boys got sick and when the kids get sick...so do I. The only thing bad about Schaffhausen is that nothing is open past 7 or 8 pm. So when I was in Bern (the capital city or Hauptstadt), Sunday I got the boys cough medicine at the Apoteke (pharmacy) since the Rail City (the mini city underneath the Bahnhof) is open 24/7. And on Monday, i had to go to Herblingen, to their Apoteke to get me something too, and i slept all day and all night, not waking until 11am on Tuesday.
Now in Europe, its not like back in America where you go to Walgreen’s and grab anything you want and the only time you go to the counter is when you have a prescription. For any kind of medicine, prescription or not, you have to go to the counter and tell them your symptoms and
they recommend something. If anyone saw Bridget Jones Diary where she's trying to buy a pregnancy test in Switzerland but she doesn't know German, it’s exactly like that. Except that no one joins in...That’s in Italy where no one minds their business.
In a way, it’s good and bad. I can see the pros and cons of it. You just have to be stern if you want something specific. When i came back from Italy and that crap those people gave me didn’t do anything; you had to figure that I had an infection in my lungs and sinuses, fabulously green snot, i spend my whole night hacking up stuff and all I can think of is that I need antibiotics...in America I would be paying hundreds of dollars for medicine that didn’t work because I can’t afford amoxicillin or a Z-pack.
I was skeptical when Libby went with me the day after Italy and she translated my symptoms. The pharmacists comes back with a tiny box that costs 7.50 CHF, it contains 20 effervescent tablets, a total of 600mg a day. For the first time in my life, what only antibiotics could cure, 3x a day for 10 days fizzy tablets did. My goodness, too bad none of that OTC crap back home could cure an infection. If you can do math then you would have been like, "Bekah, wait 20 divided by
3 is not 10, silly!" Alain had some left over from a year ago and I finished off his.
So this time, the second i felt the "gross, icky taste" in the back of my throat (Monday), i went to Herblingen and got the same thing again. Since i caught it a week earlier, today, i only have a stuffy nose. Yay for awesome medicine without a prescription.
Like i said, I was in Bern, Sunday. You can tell that it’s a really old city, very different architecture from Zurich and Schaffhausen. I saw the exhibition, "Kust der Kelten" (Art of the Celts), and I will say that its one of the best Celt exhibitions I have ever seen. I have yet to see one with a complete burial chamber back home, and to see one here was amazing. Too bad I had no one with me to go Art History psycho with.
Afterwards, I walked up quiet streets lined with Victorian row houses <3!, to the largest rose garden in Switzerland. They have a small cafe there that’s open until midnight and it was beautiful. The view of the city below was spectacular and I enjoyed a cold sunny day while eating the much I brought with me.
Again, since i only seem to draw all the weird people, I had planned to enjoy my ride back from Bern to Winterthur by going on the IC so i can work on some revising. So it’s a packed train but i did find a seat with a table. Then some old guy sits across from me. So i expect him to enjoy his coffee, gipfeli (croissant), and French translation of some American murder book. No, instead that he decided that he was going to talk with me and when he found out that i could speak English, the next hour was torture until he got off at Zurich. I heard all the demographics and population of every city in Switzerland, he even pulled out maps...pulled out maps. I swear it was to torture me. Can he not see that I had a 200 page stack of papers and a red pen in my hand, like dude, seriously...
But from him, I realize something hard; i consider myself a very intelligent person, but you never feel dumber than when you come to somewhere like Switzerland. These people NATURALLY speak at least 3 languages. This guy spoke, (he's from Lausanne (in the French part)) French, French-German dialect, Swiss German dialect, High German (what I’m learning) and English - pretty darn good English. You feel like and idiot when you can only speak ONE language, then they know you're from America. Yay for living in a xenophobic country! And these people ask you things about your own country that i don’t even know. Makes you seem like you live under a rock you're whole life.
Oh well, my other adventure, went horribly. I attempted to hike the Shilwald forest but it was raining (which doesn’t bother me) and i was okay with my jacket that had a hood and its waterproof, waterproof boots, thermals BUT my backpack isn’t waterproof and it’s big and bulky. So I had to return home, with a soaked backpack and everything got went, realizing that i can’t hike in this country without a waterproof backpack. So there will be a second attempt as I am going to borrow one.
Winter's here, the leaves are turning and yesterday the temperature was 40 F, tomorrow when i go to Luzern, it will be 30 F. Oddly enough, since I've been here to experience the transition in the temperature drop, its not very shocking. I was actually surprised that it was as low as 40 yesterday since it didn't feel like it.
Remember that in one of my earlier emails, which i mentioned about the boosters? It just so happens that Alain's boss’s secretary gave them something even better. Over here, they have these wooden chairs that you can adjust so it grows from infancy to the age of 12. She gave them the two she had since her children don't need it anymore. Libby was so excited since that was what she originally wanted but it 75 Franks each without the trays and straps (they would have needed it back then) and they couldn’t afford it. Libby and Alain keeping everything clean are going to sell the two highchairs since they also kept the original boxes.
Hrm, since I always seem to add a German conversation on here:
My trip to the Apoteke on Monday:
A pharmacist approaches me since her counter is open and i can't see her because of the support beam in the way:
"Grüezi! Kann Blah Blah Blah ?" (She’s asking if she could help me)
I reply, "Ja, kann Ich habe das? Aber in zweihundred, bitte."
She takes that package from my hand that says 600mg. She smiles, "Genau."
And I follow her to her counter where she hands me the 200mg box, "Das ist?" she reaffirms.
I take the box, "Ja! Genau, vielen dank.”
“Bitte shörn.” She types on the register. “Seiben und fünfzig.”
I hand her 7.50 Franks, repeating what she said (it helps me with my numbers), “Seiben und fünfzig.”
She takes it and counts it, “Danke! Tschüs!”
“Ciao!” And I leave with my medicine.
Pic 1: Aiden and his wooden chair.
Pic 2: Rafi and his wooden chair
Pic 3: The boys.
Pic 4: the boys.
Pic 5: Bern from the rose garden.
Pic 6: Otterngutstrasse, Libby's street.
Pic 7: Horgen, the town of water ferries (not fairies, ferries).
Now I was asked why am not in any of the pictures? Well, i travel
everywhere alone.
Ciao,
Rebekah
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