Getting Sick in a Foreign Country

My amazing weekend in Budapest unfortunately had one downfall - it left me with a sinus infection.  I've come to discover though, that dealing with illness in a foreign country isn't too bad.  I came across a few weird things (to me at least) so I had to do a full post of Fun Fact(s) #5:

I went to an english-speaking medical clinic to see the doctor.  After examining my symptoms he left the room and came back with a handful of drugs.  Apparently here they don't write prescriptions - the doctor just handed me all the medicine and I left.  I know it's prescription strength, too, because he gave me what would be comparable to a Z pack in the US.  Also, I left without having to pay a dime!

I went to the store to buy some soup (I miss my mommy!!!) and I had so much trouble finding something I wanted.  First, soup doesn't come in cans like we're used to.  Second, the dry packets of soup are mixed in with dry packets of other saucy-things like gravy and who knows what.  Third, the packets I definitely knew were soup all had pictures of an egg on them and it totally grossed me out.  I finally found what I thought to be plain tomato soup so I bought two.  When I got home I realized I had no idea how to make it because all the instructions were in Czech... Google Translate didn't help either, so I went for it and guessed.  Ended up working out, but it was far too much trouble for a bowl of soup!

I also wanted to pick up some orange juice so I'd get my Vitamin C.  I've bought juice before, but I never really read the labels because usually they aren't in English.  I found one today that was! I caught my eye because it was in the refrigerated section and they barely refrigerate anything (even milk! It's processed differently).  I'm thinking it was fancy or organic or something.  The thing that confused me was that the bottle read "with bits."  I had no idea what these bits were, until I realized that's what they say when they mean pulp.  I literally laughed to myself in the grocery store.  Deanne was not at all amused, so I'm blaming the dork moment on the sickness and lack of excitement for the day.  

Finally, when I asked for a doctor's note to be excused from class, the doctor wrote a letter saying that I should be excused through the 25th of February... 5 whole days!  I know I'm sick, but even I think that's a long time.  I guess the Europeans really value recuperation - Another reason why I love it here!!