Where everybody knows your name...

Hola!

One of the things about Spain I love is that upon entering a store, doctor's office or really any shared space people give a general greeting to those around...Bon Dia (good day in Catalan) or Hola....sometimes Buenas Dias. It's pleasant...and people respond cordially and then we all go back to pretending we're alone. But for a moment it always reminds me of those scenes in Cheers when Norm enters and everyone calls out his name.

We've been to the doctor's a lot lately. I've put it in the "be careful what you wish for." category as the beginning of this year I made it a goal to figure out the medical system here...and get a pediatrician for the kids. Mission Accomplished. Thank you God. It started out with Alexa and this black stuff on her toe...sorry for TMI but there you have it. My friend Marilyn recommended her doctor's office in Sant Cugat because the docs speak English even though the office staff don't. Well, the office staff were incredibly tolerant of my very bad Spanish. Roughly translated to ...my daughter has black things on her ...um foot. And we were in to see a doctor without an appointment within 10 minutes. Score one for Socialist medicine. Our doctor did in fact Not speak English but was more than happy to use google translate to make sure we understood...." please to upload her foot on the chair." Note to self...don't trust google translate.
We walked a block to the farmacia where we got some ointment and oral antibiotic for for under 10 Euros...Score two for Socialist medicine...and we had an appointment to go back in a week.
Within the next two months I had to go to the doctor's for my back three times...(thanks to a weird zombie dream....or bumper cars, depending on which version you like better) saw two different doctor's neither of which spoke English managed to get an xray. Learned that I had to go to the farmacia to buy the anti-inflammatory injection and bring it back so they could give it to me.( weird)...and eventually found an English speaking chiropractor who is fixing me one vertebrate at a time...no small feat.
And I had to go back for a sinus infection..also twice. And the funniest thing about this whole ordeal is that I gave them my ID card when I first went...and it says my name, Brenda Ann Ruotolo...but because of the way they do names here. They continually call me Ann. (grin) It's like they gave me a nickname. I love that. And bonus, my Spanish is so much better than it was two months ago.