So it’s been a while since I updated. Christmas is almost here. Well, there is a lot going on and a lot of nothing as well. I got my electric blanket from amazon! I now can sleep with it on top of my 3 blankets at night. However, it only fits half my queen size bed and yet it says its an extra-large. Um for who? I l know a lot of Spanish folks are small in stature but really? So I wear it all over the apartment wherever there is a plug; be it in the kitchen or my bathroom or my desk… it stays with me like a support animal. But without it, I can do nothing here. My apartment is 17C that um 65F? wtf….yes….

However, before it arrived I did move one of the spare single beds into the living room and closed off the doors in desperation to stay warm. I lay next to the Christmas lights with 4 blankets and a bucket of hot water next to me soaking my eyes. The cold and dryness have affected my Sjogren’s and now I look bloodshot all the time. My trip to Valencia with the wind and cold just did my eyes in…

So I had to see a doctor a week ago the day I got home from Valencia. I went to the local medical center in my little town and with one of the teachers got in but came right out, they couldn’t see me because I didn’t have a physical insurance card with me and a copy was unacceptable as they “don’t look the numbers up” and that was that. Apparently, they were the “public hospital” and since I was “private” it was not doable whether I paid cash or not.

It was just as well It looked like a 3^rd world waiting room, paint peeling, dreary, plastic molded chairs cemented to the floor…..why? sick people going to run out with the chairs? Or maybe it’s so they don’t throw any in exasperation……. So, I went to another town at the graciousness of my friend to a “private hospital” which took my insurance copy and passport and ushered me in. It was modern, clean with real chairs… that was a good sign. However, they don’t practice the “2 patient identifiers” there, and providing a translator is not mandatory.  But I did see a doctor, or I think she was one who spoke little English looked at my eyes and rattled off to my friend “bring her back to tomorrow to the eye dr.”

According to my friend she said my pupils were “sluggish” and was concerned…really? My eyes are blood red, I knew I needed steroid drops and maybe antibiotics. The sluggishness is dealing with the system…It’s not neurological but I was ushered out before I could say anything.

So the next day I paid $50 to go 9 miles on a taxi to see an eye specialist. He was another Dr. delicious and spoke English. My glaucoma is ok but stays out of the wind he says.

I was given a script for steroid/antibiotic drops just like I figured and told “soak your eyes to help the glands” don’t wear makeup…

So,I went to the pharmacy and they handed me the eye drops no questions, and handed the script back to me…this is no Walgreens folks… no name, no instructions, here’s the drops, and read the docs handwriting on the script yourself. Have a nice day…. But it was only $2.50. Good thing I’m a nurse is all I can say.

Anyway…

In 3 days I will fly to Mallorca island and will be there for 3 days for Christmas. I have decided to rent a car and get over my fear of driving here and see if I can merge from a dead stop on the highways (its their law not me) and not get dizzy on the roundabouts.

What better place to practice than on windy mountain roads on an island overlooking the Mediterranean. If I get lost well it’s an island, eventually it will circle around to where I started.

Thanks to covid and the holidays it most likely won’t be crowded and I’ll be able to parallel park like a pro in the back-your-ass-in parking spots found EVERYWHERE here as most folks drive a can-opener size car and there is no room. Woohoo

In light of my next trip, my mood has lifted. Although straight from Mallorca I’m to fly to Amsterdam with another teacher however now that its in lockdown we may not be going… darn I’ll miss the  3F I’ve been preparing for from my frozen apartment.

However, its possible if no Amsterdam then I will take a 9-hour train instead and go to Galicia, in the far north of Spain where its not just cold but wet like Ireland. But the views are fabulous. And they’re known for mineral hot springs!! Wow, a natural jacuzzi? Hot water? I’m in like Flynn.

But there is a method to my madness. At come end of January, I have to start the long-ass paperwork to renew my job here. And I have a few choices. We all like choices however I often break down and freeze trying to pick what to do. So choices often actually cause me a lot of stress.

I do however have sticky notes all over my apartment with pros and cons of every decision as if multicolored sticky notes would actually help. Right up until they fall off the wall and I don’t remember the pro of what fell off where and have to start over.

Many of my friends and you know who you are don’t seem to procrastinate like me. I wait till I finish a bottle of wine run out of ink in my pens and cry in my last beer trying to decide things I can’t predict all the while wrapped in my electric blanket wherever I am.

Well anyway… going to Mallorca and Galicia are actually places I could potentially get placed in if I choose for next year. During my stint in Valencia 2 weeks ago I wandered all over and got lost, met several other language assistants that well don’t just teach, but value edibles, and odd dating behaviors that well make me wonder if that is the place for me either.(we won’t go into that now)

 Valencia as a city is beautiful and historic, busy, crowded, and more expensive than my little town. So I pretty much ruled it out after losing my way leaving a pub with my new edible eating friends one night who assured me I was just 4 streets and 10 minutes’ walk from my hotel….of course the GPS failed, so I wandered every tiny cobblestone street at 1 am for an hour…until I passed the same woman 3 X on one corner, who was obviously NOT a tourist, and asked her to help me find a cab at 2am … good news is she was bilingual… go figure… but it pays to know your customers. 5 min in a cab and I was in my hotel. Thank goodness for the oldest profession in the world.

And then I spent the 2^nd worst night of my life in my hotel.no heat and it reeked of the sewer. What the hell is wrong with this country?

 Told the girl at the front her is no heat and it stinks. But at 2 am she was like so? I’ll send housekeeping tomorrow. So I slept in my coat with the blanket over my nose.

I got up in am went to have breakfast and I other than a fabulous view of the plaza well…  anyway Irritated exhausted… I walked out the door went across the street to the Melia asked if they had a room and they did.. at $165 night… shit.. I was desperate cold irritated. I said yes and they gave me a suite overlooking the Plaza…a big WARM room with a king bed… soft sheets. And a jacuzzi tub….

I jumped on it like a kid…..

Well I spent 2 nights there but slept the best ever since I got to Spain….it was expensive… but oh well…

I’m back home in my apartment in Albatera now… freezing.. and determined. I will find another apartment; I can’t stay here….2 nights in heaven have convinced me….

Time to brush up on more Spanish… how to say do you have heat? A bathtub? and sheets?

Until next time….

Somewhere in Spain