...shining with all his might. Another line from one of my favorite poems. This one applies really well, as it's actually been sunny in Petersburg the last few days.
I will continue my story from last time, but first a couple new developments from the motherland: my host mom's boyfriend is staying with us while her daughter and mother are on vacation somewhere (I can never really understand exactly what she says, I think its some kind of spa outside st. petersburg). Anyway, since his arrival on Tuesday he's said maybe 3 words to me. Today he actually managed a whole sentence when I returned from meeting my peer tutor. "Hello" (Здравствуйте) he always says, but today he also managed "You went out?" (Вы гуляли?) before walking into another room. I was both surprised that he continued beyond hello and slightly confused that he had addressed me "вы" which is the Russian equivalent of the French "vous". Usually people address those younger than they are in the informal "ты". So, put off guard by both of the aspects of his question, it took me a minute to understand enough to respond "Yes". Long enough that I'm now fairly certain he thinks I'm an imbecile. Whatever, such is the life a language student.
If I overheard the conversation correctly, I'm pretty sure my host mom chastised him upon her return home tonight about how he doesn't talk to me enough. Of course, with my language skills and hearing it through the door, they could easily have been talking about something else.
Now that you've indulged me that brief interlude, I'm sure you're all sitting on the edges of your seats waiting for the continuation of my illness story.
On Saturday, still feeling sick, I texted my resident director (Nathan, an American in his mid/late twenties who deals with all the bureaucratic stuff for us and generally serves as an advisor on all things Russian) and asked him to take me to the clinic. I then walked to the metro and rode downtown. From the metro stop, we walked a few blocks then took a bus for a while. I'm not sure how long it took to get to the clinic, but Nathan was sure to point out that a few blocks away was Smolny Cathedral.
Entering the clinic, it appeared like any doctor's office although it seemed slightly more upscale than the hospitals I'm used to in Boston. Probably has to do with it being for-profit or something. Filled out forms for insurance, which were, thankfully in both English and Russian. One of the main reasons ACTR recommends this clinic over some of the others in the city is that all the receptionists and doctors speak English. The lab techs are another story, but I guess they don't really interact with patients enough for it to matter.
After waiting several minutes, a young doctor came in and called my name. As he led me to the exam room, I couldn't help but marvel at his height (the man was at least 6'4"). He reminded me of the soviet actor who played Ivan the Terrible in the 70s and was also the jealous boyfriend in "Irony of Fate". He was very professional the whole time and while his knowledge of English was clinical which led to a few moments of semi-misunderstandings on my part.
Upon my explanation that I had a wet cough, sore throat and used to have a runny nose, the doctor proposed the following: he'd check my nose and throat, draw some blood, then do a chest x-ray. The last gave me a little bit of pause, as I've had several x-rays recently for dental stuff and radiation is bad for you, but I went along.
What followed was the most painful blood draw I've ever had, followed by more waiting in the waiting room with Nathan, and the single most embarrassing x-ray experience of my life. As this is a public forum, suffice it to say that the doctor's instructions upon bringing me into the x-ray room were "Now you will, please, strip from the waist up." If you want more of the story, contact me privately.
After the chest x-ray, which apparently revealed that I didn't have pneumonia, the doctor led me back to the exam room and left me alone for several minutes. Not sure what was going on, I sat patiently waiting for him. He returned with 3 medicines. One an anti-biotic, another to "dislodge the sputum" in my lungs, and the third "if you have coughing at night." From his intonation I thought the latter was a statement and he was going to give it to me, but when I said "OK", he looked up from the paper he was writing on and asked if I was coughing at night. I was and he gave the codeine cough syrup to me. Upon hearing that it had codeine, I was slightly concerned, because of my previous experience with the drug, but I figured it would be better to just take it and not use it if I had an adverse reaction.
Several hours after returning home, I looked at the piece of paper upon which he had written the dosage instructions for all my medicines. At the top was written "Acute bronchitis". 'Oh really,' I thought to myself, 'he never mentioned that bit."
Anyway, a week later and I've still got a bit of a cough, but I'm definitely far improved and will hopefully continue to get better despite the cold snap that's hitting Peter this week.
Again, I underestimated the amount of time it takes to write a blog post and I need to stop now to do some homework. Again, to be continued with the story of my allergy, debit card, worrying my host mom, laundry, peer tutor, and the Yusupovski palace. Perhaps also a tale of the Russian hockey game I'm attending on Wednesday.
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