Monday, May 27, 2013

Having a cold in Italy - 5/27/2013

So, I've been sick the last several days here in Italy. I had been fighting it for a while what with defending my thesis, graduating, moving out of our apartment, and getting ready for and traveling to Italy. My body finally succumbed to it and I've been sneezing, coughing and blowing my nose like crazy. I finally went to the Pharmacia when we took a tour of Pienza. One of our professors, Miguel Vasquez, (who has a much better grasp of Italian than I do), went with me to try and obtain some kind of cold medicine. I quickly learned the word for "cold" in Italian which is "raffreddore", "nose" - "naso" and "decongestant" - "decongestionante." "Posso avere un decongestionante per il raffredore, per favore" is basically "Can I have a decongestant for my cold, please." Fortunately, unlike when I lived in Mexico, I'm not suffering from "Montezuma's revenge" so asking for cold medicine was not as humbling as asking for diarrhea medicine in an unfamiliar language. The pharmacists here kept trying to give me nasal spray and I wanted pills (typical pill-popping American that I am). So, I also learned the word for "pill" which is "pillola" or "compressa." I think I'm on the mends but for the time-being, I'm laying low until I recuperate.

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