These are the flowers that I bought for Steffi while she was in the midst of writing her final paper. She gave me a hardcover copy as a thankyou, and is taking me on holiday to the North Sea at the end of the month. I'm spoiled! And all this for minimum effort... and minimum cost. Flowers are cheap here, and one of the flower stalls at the markets had an offer than was too delicious to resist: 20 tulips for 5 Euro. WIN!So, my week has been pretty standard. German class in the morning, afternoon study-prep class on Mon & Wed (I won't even tell you how little attention I pay, but the tutor understands that it's all completely irrelevant to me, so she doesn't begrudge me the extra facebook time) and little pieces of life in between. Today was one of two free days that we have free in the entire 3-month duration of the course (last term we only had one free day!)... I wasted it by going to the doctor to get my foot checked out. It's been giving me grief for a while; mostly just hurting a little while I'm jogging, or being really sore while I'm trying to walk somewhere in a hurry. But lately it's escalated to the point where it's a dull ache even when I'm not moving it. Ugh.
Anyway, it's been getting swollen after I walk on it, and it's affecting my knee now too. So I thought it was time to go to the doctor. (Ok, Kari bullied me into it, but whatever.) I could feel a massive lump on the bone (the one that connects to my big toe, in case you care) and was worried that I'd just cause more injury if I continued to limp around. So I went to the doctor at 9:40am... waited an hour. How do you run that late so early in the morning?! If it were late afternoon, I might understand. Ahem. Anyway, I went in to the doctor, and he prodded it, which hurt like fuck. And then I got sent to an X-ray place with the appropriate referral. I stopped by home for a coffee and some breakfast (had only eaten a banana, because I wasn't hungry when I woke) and then went to the X-ray place. That was actually pretty quick, and the staff spoke to me in English when it was clear that I wasn't catching some of what they were saying. They were all really friendly, and my longest wait was waiting for the print-out (on photo paper, not transparency) of the X-ray. Anyway, my foot isn't broken, which is the best outcome.
So I went back to the doctor, X-ray in hand, to wait for ages again. He prescribed me some Voltaren gel (all that for a 12-euro tube of fucking Voltaren?!) and charged me twenty euro for my time. Yep, it was my time, not his. Anyway, the surgery don't accept payments on bank cards (ahem, wtf?) so I have to do the bank transfer thing, which I think is what they prefer anyway. So, 4 hours later, all I had to show for my morning was a lot of stress, a rude pharmacy lady (if I ask you to slow down when you talk, I'm being serious, so slow the hell down, lady!) and a tube of overpriced sports gel. Ughhh. I came home and was glad to eat some lunch and relax. Not a good way to spend my free day, but it had to be done.
Guess I won't be running for a while. That sucks.
No real news to share. I found out that DHS ship baggage and parcels internationally for 114 Euro under 31kg, so I'm part way through packing a suitcase. It's full of my books, so I'm concerned that it'll be over 30kg. I need to borrow some bathroom scales from someone so that I can check, when I'm finished packing. Plus for a few more Euro, they offer pick-up between certain times, so I'm most definitely going to do that. Slightly cheaper when you arrange it online. Finally, my aversion to customer service is working in my favour! haha. So in go my books, a few winter coats, clothes I won't need now or in Singapore, and maybe my roller skates... ;) Don't tell mother dearest about that one. Heh.
In the meantime, I think I might catch the bus to the Sudring Centre, so that I can cash in the small bag of miscellaneous bottles hanging about in my room. I don't buy plastic bottled products often, so I think my ten or so bottles have been accumulated over about 6 months. What can I say? I'm a reuseable-drink-bottle kind of woman. Buying water is an epic waste of money and resources, and I only do it when I've forgotten to bring my own. I hate seeing people do it on a regular occasion. Ugh.
Time to get rugged up against the cold...
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