Always listen to the babushki

The weather was absolutely beautiful on Tuesday. Sunny and approaching 50 degrees. I was too hot with my winter jacket so I took it off and walked a couple of minutes before a babushka walking towards me on the street stopped to say "Put your jacket on! Put your jacket on!" to which I replied, "I'm hot" and she said "Yes you think it's hot now but the weather is changing and the flu is coming. You'll get sick. Put your jacket on." I said "ok, thanks" and sweat in my jacket all the way home.

The next day I came down with the flu.

Luckily I have my host family to take care of me. They made me tea and brought it to me in bed and I stayed under the covers all day. My host sister had me take my temperature when she got home from school and it was approaching 40 degrees celsius (104 F) so she called her mom and they decided I had to go to the doctor. The doctor's office was less than a 5 minute walk from our house which was great. My host sister went in with me and told the nurse and doctor what was going on with me in Romanian. Naturally, one of them made a snide comment about me not speaking Romanian, which I did understand. I feel like this shouldn't come up as an issue when you're dealing with someone's health. I talked to a Norwegian couple whose young daughter got really sick and they had to go to Hungary to have her treated because the doctor refused to speak to their nanny in Russian and they didn't speak any Romanian or Russian.

Anyway, I think they warmed up to me a little bit when they saw how freaked out I was when they told me they were going to give me a shot on the butt to bring down my fever. I feel like this isn't something we do in the US. The standard thing to do here though. The doctor gave me some flu medicine for free and I didn't have to pay anything for the visit. I also got some other medicine including these chewable vitamins that taste like seaweed. Yes I know what seaweed tastes like because this has become a common staple of food at our house and in the office lately.

Today I'm feeling a lot better and should be recovered fully soon. It sounds like a lot of other people are coming down with the same thing. Hopefully my host family will stay healthy.