I've picked up a little cold here in China, special gift to me from Emily. As I gave her all my Day-quil when she was sick a few days ago, I had to venture out to the local pharmacy to get some more cold medicine today.
Em came with me, mostly so that if a crazy driver ran one of us over while we crossed the street, the other one of us could tell Mom the sad news. (Because they're all crazy drivers.)
We'd heard there was a pharmacy across the street from our hotel, but we weren't sure which one it was. The first store we went in was a convenience store, and the guy working there gave me a crazy look when I pantomimed sneezing.
The second store we tried looked more promising, but in fact was just a larger convenience store. At least the woman working there understood my charades. She drew us a little map so we could figure out that we had to go around the corner.
We finally found the pharmacy, with ladies in white lab coats and everything. Then the pantomime started all over again, more elaborate this time- me sneezing and coughing, then taking an imaginary pill and feeling all better. Let's just say all those games of Time's Up came in handy, because the gal took me straight to the cold medication. Now it was her turn to act, demonstrating headache, sore throat and achy muscles as she read (in Chinese) the box to me. She was also very sweet and tried very hard to tell me how often it was recommended to be taken, but she hasn't quite mastered the actions for "take 1-2 pills every 12 hours".
Luckily our friendly and helpful tour guide was able to decipher the package, so I don't ruin this trip with an overdose of Chinese cold medication.
No comments:
Post a Comment