Segovia, Coto y más....

Hola todos! Well to say the least it has been a very interesting past two weeks. So interesting in fact that I haven't had any time to write! So where to begin...two weekends ago Amanda and I set off on another adventure to Segovia, but this aventura proved to be by far the most hectic we have taken. Now what should have been a fantastic 2 days in La Granja (a town outside Segovia) for our friend Elena's birthday turned out to be my first tried and true experience with the Spanish health care system. So in true I-am-obviously-incapable-of-taking-care-of-myself form we left for Segovia on Friday night, with me blatantly ignoring the fact that my throat was KILLING me for some reason. Turns out on Saturday morning the ibuprofen that I had taken hadnt touched the pain at all and now my throat was so inflamed that it has swollen shut. Poor Amanda had to call 112 (spain's version of 911) and try and explain to the operator what the hell was wrong with me. I think between all the panting gasping and 'No puede respirar' she yelled they got the point. Anyway, the ambulance showed up in about 10 minutes and I was promptly placed inside, stuck with all kinds of thermometers, pulse monitors etc etc. Of course in all my non-breathing glory I manage to amuse Spanish people, since I readily took the thermometer and put it in my mouth and instead of them continuing to check me out I received about a 4 second period of blank stares then uproarious laughter, not because I was practically dying but because apparently in Spain you put the thermometer in your armpit not mouth. Go figure.

Once it was determined that I wasn't about to go into cardiac arrest I was lucky enough to recieve a WHOPPER of a cortisone shot in my left butt cheek that I think hurt more than anything. After this I was transported to a Centro de Salud where I was told to walk in circles (to make the coritsone absorb faster) and given some medication. I also had to remind the nurses about 15 times that I was allergic to Penicillin. Anywho, they say 'take this, wait an hour you should be better'. An hour passes. My throat is worse, so off I go again in another ambulance to the hospital! Get to the hospital, wait for about 4 hours, the doctor sees me, I mention to him that the nurses in the clinic had thought I may need an IV drop of coritsone, I promptly get YELLED AT PROFUSELY for even DARING to tell the DOCTOR what to do ( THE NERVE!), get blood taken, leave the office on the verge of tears (still unable to swallow due to the pain), wait another hour, get taken back into the doctors office and told that there isnt anything more that they can do for me and I should just do what they told me to do in the clinic and send me on my merry way.

The rest of the night was pretty much a blur since I was pretty wiped out from the days adventures and on Sunday we returned to Madrid. I spent all day Monday and Tuesday in bed (more from mental exhaustion than my throat) and managed to get myself back on track by Wednesday.

Coto!

This weekend, Amanda and I (in GOOD health this time!) set off with our Brazilians to Coto! We left on Sunday morning and took the cercanias to Cercedilla and from there to Coto. WHAT A BEAUTIFUL TRIP! It really bums me out sometimes that I dont live in the pueblos outside Madrid because they are fracking precious! The train from Cercedilla to Coto looks like the train from CandyLand and despite the fact that it stalled at one point ('Hay que empujarlo! We gotta push it!) we arrived in one piece. About 5 minutes into the train ride up the mountain we started to see snow and when we arrived in Coto it was covering the tracks! It was FANTASTIC! Just imagine me in true Florida form freaking out about snow, hollering in English with about 12 Brazilian people all looking at me like I am crazy, it was pretty great. We walked towards the center of the pueblo, found a nice piece of grass and enjoyed our farofa that Junior had cooked us! Farofa is apparently a chicken dish, but in acutality it is fried chicken thrown into a tupperware of bread crumbs, with hard boiled egg, corn, olives and other things. It was damn delicious, so hooray to Brazlian food! Anyway we went hiking (aka walking on the side of the higway) for about 2 hours then made the long trek back to Madrid. All in all it was a lovely time and I am so glad that we went!

This weekend, we are taking it easy, staying in Madrid and enjoying the city! Events planned are : tonight! Spain v. Chile soccer match, tomorrow Bar La Frontera (country music!) in Villalba, Friday Prado Museum and Saturday picnic in Retiro...needless to say I think I am doing just fine here!

Sorry to write so much at once! I send everyone my loveeeeee and hope this post finds you all well! Until next time....

-LuLu