It’s the season to.....

 

Be sick, with a cold.  This is not a pleasant feeling in a foreign country.  Normally I would just pop down to the supermarket, like everyone else, and buy some strepsils and panadol or something similar.  Not in Germany.  You have to go to the Apotheke, the pharmacist.  The paracetamol is kept behind the country, along with the nose spray.  It was quite strange having to go in and ask for what I wanted and why.  The Apotheke is the shop where you can buy over the counter and prescribed medicines.  It’s quite similar to the pharmacies in New Zealand in that regard, except many of the over the counter things are display only in Germany.  Alas, I came away with paracetamol and a nose spray.  Now I can breathe!  If you wanted supplements and dietry requirement things, you need to go to what’s called a Drogerie, where they sell these, baby food, household cleaners and over the counter medications.

Because I’m sick, I took the day off from course (bad, but I thought it best not to infect others, and suffer through 5 hours of constant German).  This allowed me to actually get to the Apotheke, which is closed by the time course finishes otherwise I would have gone yesterday.  It’s also quite ironic, that in course we just started a new topic; on health.  I think being in a completely different country, constant exhaustion by the end of the day, lack of broccoli, a complete lack of exercising (I’m actually having withdrawals!) and the very cold weather has just run me down.  Speaking of weather, it snowed last night.  It’s a pity it didn’t set.  Now it’s just bitterly cold.

                I was gutted that I was not able to go on the culture programme excursion last night.  It sounded like it would have been a good, fun night out.  Jazz music on a ship!  It was a good think I didn’t go though, because it ended up being cancelled. 

                And finally, I have bought a pretzel!  This is a must do while in Germany.