On the radio again, TWO TIMES...and in other news, Dante goes to ER

Today, Wednesday the 17th, I will be live once again in the "generation y" program that is an hour long run by some kids from the university. Today I join them in their discussion about tobacco and smoking, and the new smoking ban.


The whole thing you can hear at 1pm Chicago time at radiosanvicente.com streaming live. Click on the link "escuchanos" at the top of the page.

The discussion part of the segment regarding smoking is around 1:15pm.

And TOMORROW you can hear at 6:40am Chicago time my personal radio segment that I write every week, this one being about this past weekend's celebrations of Carnaval and Valentine's Day.

I will post the audio from the Carnaval/V-day segment, but the other one is part of an hour long segment, so I don't have any copy of that for you to hear.

But I can tell you this: the first time it was my turn to speak, I start talking about something completely different but have to ramble on towards a point b/c I can't rely on trailing off like I normally do when it's recorded live. The question was regarding kids buying tobacco, and I start off my response with the idea that tobacco should be illegal period, along with some awkward dialogue, and then smacking the microphone stand to make awkward noises all while the spanish university students stare at me intently.



And in other news:
Last night I met with my "under the table" intercambio Carlos, who I met at the English school I teach at. So I invited him to come to my friend's place to watch SKINS with us (a british TV show that I happen to have on my computer, with spanish subtitles) and he loved it. We had a nice chat afterward in spanish, but we spoke english mostly before that.

Tomorrow I meet with my "real" intercambio (number two) that I was pretty much forced to take b/c the USAC office had an abundance of spaniards who signed up. So this one is a girl, and I will meet her tomorrow. Since I never met her before, she told me she will be wearing a black coat, jeans, and she has brown hair and brown eyes. Gee, thanks, Ana Maria, you and EVERY OTHER SPANIARD HERE. So this should be fun picking her out. What is she gonna say next? That she will be wearing boots and smoking? That could SURELY pick her out of a crowd.

Also, my host dad Carlos (confusing, with the two carlos', I know) just told me that Dante fell today at school and had to go to the ER to get stitches. He said it was minor, but he somehow just hit his head when he fell. He'll be fine. I mean, I am surprised this hasn't happened already the way he wobbles around on steady ground, let alone stairs. Or when he takes plastic chair and tries to sit on it on the sofa. He is lucky that this only happened once.

It only kills your liver, no big deal.

The past week or so I have had a bit of a cold. I thought it was just allergies or something, but it turned into swollen tonsils (which really aren't that big of a deal since I get them ALL THE TIME). Since I am technically enrolled as a student at the University of Alicante, I can benefit from their free health care provided by the school!

So I went to the equivalent of a wellness center on campus (I have never been to one at Loyola, so I don't know what it's like back in the states) which seemed very professional. There were 3 or 4 doctors there, wearing lab coats, thin-framed glasses and fuzzy-grey Santa beards, so you know they were legit. After a little bit of a wait, I had my turn.

By the way, originally Luis (the program director for USAC) was going to take me and the other kid (who had a high fever for a couple days) to the doctor, but he was less familiar with what I had so he insisted Larissa take us (another USAC office worker) in case there was anything "private" or "womanly" that needed to be explained in Spanish. I insisted that all I had was a sore throat and a runny nose, but he insisted Larissa go.

So I let Larissa come into the room with me so I could communicate better with the doctor and in turn understand his instructions. He looked in my throat and said I had a small cold, not related to allergies. I told him that I lived with a little boy who seemed to have a runny nose and cough, so I probably caught it from him. He seemed to agree. He wrote me a prescription for this medicine that dissolves in water, told me to take it 1, 2 or 3 times a day depending on how I felt, and then I was done.

Apparently I didn't need the prescription. Larissa said it wasn't necessary, but with a written prescription it would be cheaper.

So onward to the pharmacy part. I walked in to the nearest pharmacy (they are on every street, marked by a large neon green flashing cross) and it smelled like cigarettes.


Cigarette smoke is something you love to smell in a place of health.

So I gave her the prescription and she got me the tablets. Then she asked if I needed anything else, so I got ibuprofen to ease the swollen tonsils (I assumed the other prescription meds were antihistamines for the nose and watery eyes). Then I got Kleenex (by the way, I have yet to see BOXES of kleenex anywhere! only little purse packets!), and some stuff called Lysopene or lizopene or something that are these minty tablets that relieve a sore throat (like cough drops). And it all was only 10 euro.

These tablets I got with the prescription need to be dissolved in water, and they are just like alka-seltzer tabs. But instead of putting it in 8oz of water like the instructions say, I put it in about an ounce of water and down it like a shot. Who wants to drink 8 oz of disgusting fizzy lemon water with a ton of small sips? This is a lot less painful.

So I was taking those tabs, along with the ibuprofen I got, with breakfast for the next few mornings.

I didn't get a chance to talk with my mom (who is a nurse) about these drugs I was taking, so I just took them once a day. I felt a little better, and I didn't have as much of a runny nose.

But then I talked with my mom, and figured out what I was taking. The fizzy tabs were the equivalent of acetaminophen, one gram. That one tab I took with breakfast was the equivalent of two extra-strength Tylenol tabs, or almost 4 regular Tylenols.
And the ibuprofen I was taking was the equivalent of three regular advils.

So I was waking up in the morning, eating breakfast, and taking three advils and four tylenols.

After I figured that out, I only took the ibuprofen.

I talked with my friends about it and asked them what they think would happen if one took too many painkillers like that. Mike said with a laugh, "it just wreaks havoc on your stomach and liver. No big deal."

And also I have been drinking coffee on occasion. The coffeemaker in my host family's house makes one cup at a time. I have been pressing it to make one full cup of coffee, only to realize that that is 4 espressos, or four whole cups of coffee.

Luckily my host parents have been making me normal cups up until recently.

But I am sure that's great for the stomach, too.