Posted by Dani in Saturday, February 20, 2010 Late evening – Moscow time
I’ve never been one of those women who packs everything but the kitchen sink when going on a trip. You know, the kind that are prepared for everything. But I am rethinking this tendency now that I’ve been to a country where their alphabet is so different than ours that it is impossible to pick out familiar words here and there and thereby get the gist of things.
Mike started out the trip with a slight cold that quickly turned into a full-fledged cold by the 2nd day of our stay in Moscow. Since I don’t pack in preparation for things such as bad colds in the middle of a Moscow “global warming” winter, Mike had to venture out in search of some meds to help him get by.
The “super market” was “right next door” which, of course, meant it was a 10-15 minute trek through the snow. This was no ordinary supermarket. It was huge. Think Walmart, Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Home Depot, Rooms to Go, and Toys R Us all under one roof.
After searching the mother of all supermarkets from end to end, Mike finally found the pharmacy section. It was a separate little store within the big store where all drugs, both over-the-counter and prescription were sold. There were no meds to browse through and select from. A shopper had to step up to the window and tell the pharmacist what they wanted.
This would not be a problem under normal circumstances. But when the pharmacist only speaks Russian and the shopper only speaks English, it becomes something of a challenge.
How do you pantomime that your head is stuffy and your nose runny and that you have a sore throat and a bit of a fever? And how do you act out that you would simply like some Nyquil and Dayquil please?
After some failed attempts at communicating to the pharmacist, Mike ended up with a sample of some medication in a blue packet. We had no idea what it was or what it did. He was left with no choice but to take the medicine and wait and see.
I will admit I was anticipating some sort of major change in my husband within 30 minutes of his ingesting the unknown med. I watched closely to see if he would start having hot flashes or his hair would thicken before my eyes.
Nothing happened save for the fact that he did fall asleep and awoke hours later with fewer aches and pains. I don’t know what he took, but now I have the nasty cold so I am suspicious that whatever it was just transferred the sickness to someone else, namely me.
I think next time I will be one of those women who packs everything but the kitchen sink for those just-in-case situations.
