Remember that affliction I mentioned in my last post? Well, I went to the doctor today. Coincidentally, orvos was a vocabulary word.
Anyway, again, the AIT student coordinators are fabulous. One of them came to the clinic with me to help me navigate. Since I went to see a specialist, it was not at the regular place but it was within walking distance of both the regular place and my apartment which was convenient. Less convenient was the DMV-esque waiting around forever. Dorka waited with me so she could tell the person how my bill needed to be filled out or something. This is extra nice when you realize that we were waiting around for about an hour. It's times like these that require having a book on your phone.
Anyway, when it was my turn, Dorka said something in Hungarian to the nurse/assistant person that included "amerikai" and left. My doctor didn't speak great English but she spoke enough to tell me to strip and what my medication would be. I don't think she knew how to say "gargle" but she got the point across. It turns out that I have a virus. And it's pretty common in Europe.
Payment involved me handing cash over to the doctor and getting a receipt to present to my medical/insurance people for reimbursement.
Next stop was the pharmacy across the street. In my usual manner, I presented the necessary forms to the necessary person and hoped for the best. My strategy is to speak snippets of English that isn't particularly needed but is enough to inform whoever has to deal with me that I do not speak their language. I'll have to go back later today to get something that they have to make. But what I have so far seems to be cold cream, anti-allergy medication, and some kind of ultra-concentrated Listerine. I'm not sure how much I actually need the meds, since my condition has been improving since yesterday, but half of the cost is covered by insurance and viruses is bitches so I might as well. I do wish I read the labels though. I googletranslated stuff, but it's not great and has a habit of leaving some words untranslated. Also there's a lot of stuff, so I didn't even bother trying to translate it all.
Next up: the regular medical place to get reimbursed. When I got there, the receptionist was not at the desk so that was cool. Again, I presented forms to whoever would take them and did whatever I was told until the situation resolved itself. Sajnos, in the course of this, my carefully varied bill sizes was destroyed. Sadface. Now people will get mad at me for trying to use use a bill an order of magnitude greater than what I'm trying to pay for.
UPDATE: So I went back to the pharmacy and got my thing which is apparently another cream presumably not of the cold variety. But I noticed something else at the pharmacy. The first was a glass thing (a table, perhaps) full of what looked like some massive quartz crystals and other, smaller crystal type things. Like healing crystals. Next, I saw a word that looked suspiciously similar to "homeopathy." This word I believe was on a cabinet. Not off to the side or in the back but front and center at the counter. When I got to the counter, I noticed a pamphlet that entreated me to go to "www.homeokult.hu." Promising. Those who go to this website will find an offer for a four year graduate degree in homeopathy. WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN. Recall also that I myself was purchasing medicine from this place.
In other news, I recently learned that some people at AIT play League of Legends, so I made an account on the Eastern European servers (with the same name as my NA account, lulz) and everything is SO HARD without runes or masteries. Ungh. Apparently there is racism against Polish people on this server. I don't know this first hand as I don't have all team chat enabled, but I believe it as that would make Poles the Mexicans/ Brazilians of the EU East server.
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