doctores, ferias artesanales, y comida hindú (jueves, 19 agosto)

When they called me in for my appointment, my host parents insisted on going into the room with me, even though I told them I´d rather see the doctor in private. The whole thing was really uncomfortable. The doctor introduced himself, and I started to tell him what was wrong. Before I could really say anything, my host dad blurted out, ``She doesn´t speak Spanish and you should talk to us instead,`` which made me unbelievably mad, because I could understand everything they were saying, and I have tried so hard to learn Spanish. I hate it when people treat me like I´m stupid or not independent. I told the doctor that I do speak Spanish, but I´m still learning and sometimes I don´t understand every single thing, but overall I can understand. My host parents continued to talk about me in Spanish like I wasn´t even there, telling their version of what they thought was wrong with me. She told the doctor that she doesn´t think I eat enough, and she´s worried because I go running. I haven´t ran at all since Sunday and it´s starting to get on my nerves because I have all this excess energy I need to get rid of.

Anyway, the doctor seemed nice and asked a lot of questions. He didn´t seem to think it´s a big deal that I go running or am vegan. He said it looks like overall I have good health. He took my height and weight and then I had to listen to my host parents go on and on about my weight, when I´ve always been this size, and I didn´t feel it was their business. Again, I felt like them being in there was not respectful of my privacy, especially when they weren´t being very nice. The doctor said there are lots of runners in Iquique, so not to worry about it. He asked about what I´m used to eating, if I eat raw vegetables and fruit in the US, etc. He said it´s fairly normal for Americans who come to northern Chile to develop stomach problems because of the food. He said vegetarians and vegans are more prone to stomach issues, but that I´ll be fine and prescribed some meds. Tomorrow I have to go back for a blood test just to rule out that it´s anything more serious. He thinks it´s just a normal bacterial thing that can be cured with the meds, but he wants to be sure.

Thankfully, the government / program will reimburse me for the appointment, tests, and meds. I have to save all of the paperwork and make copies of it to give to the program in order to get my money back. Hopefully I get it back sooner than later.

I´m starting to wonder if the host family thing is going to work out. I still can´t believe my host dad told the doctor I can´t speak Spanish. I´m not sure whether he just thinks my Spanish is that bad or what, but I am still mad about it. I´m definitely not used to living with parental figures. I´m used to having more freedom than what I have here living with a host family. I know they´re concerned, but I´m not used to having someone worry about me. My host mom worries more than my real mom!!! (I hadn´t thought that was possible, but it is!!), and she has this way of trying to make me feel guilty about things, like if I go running or decide to stay later at school to get things done for class. Today after the doctor´s appointment she started explaining about the reimbursement / medical insurance process, and I stopped to ask her what a word I didn´t know meant. She assumed I didn´t understand ANYTHING of what she said, when in reality it was just that one word. And then she started crying and asked my host dad to explain it to me, which made me feel horrible. Most of the time I like my host family a lot (I have no problems with my host brothers or cousin), but today it was just too much to deal with.

This afternoon, my host brother asked why I was in such a bad mood. He explained that his mother has always worried about them and sometimes isn´t very sensible. In Chile, women are not typically as independent as I am, and most women are dependent on other people (aka men), which is a cultural difference. Here, people´s kids usually don´t live alone until they are 30 years old, and until then they live with their parents, so that´s another cultural thing they aren´t used to. Here, 22 year olds are still generally viewed as ´kids.´ Most people my age have never had a full-time job, had an apartment, owned a car, or know how to drive. It makes me really thankful for the fact that I have done those things on my own. My family seemed shocked when I told them I have a car in the US and can drive. I can´t imagine being my age and still dependent on my parents. My host brother explained to my dad that I am used to fending for myself and how in the US kids ´grow up´ faster and typically move out when they turn 18. My brother also told me that my father probably told the doctor that I don´t speak English so he´d speak more slowly. I´m not quite convinced on that--I think my brother is just trying to play the peace-maker here, but for now I´ll let it go since no one can do anything about what already happened, and I don´t want to be mad about something if I don´t have to be. The rest of my day has been much better, and I´m trying to focus on the good things about here...I´ll only be here for a relatively short period of my life so why waste time and energy being ticked off?

My host brother decided to ´cure´ my bad mood by taking me shopping haha. It was pretty fun. We went to the mall and wandered around downtown Iquique (I found a piercing place, but didn´t get anything pierced, but it was fun walking around there and looking at stuff), and looked through the markets. My host brother had to find a new pair of dress shoes because he has to dress up for exams in school tomorrow. Here (like in England) students are required to wear formal clothing on test days...makes me thankful it wasn´t like that in the US every time we had a test!! I got to go shoe shopping, which was good because I like shoes, but I didn´t buy any because of limited room in my suitcase when I come home:) Sizes here are quirky. Here, my shoe size is a 34, and my pants size is a 36 or 34. I had to try on a lot of things to figure out how sizes convert, but think I get the hang of it. Strangely, shirt sizes are still XS, S, M,and L, even though in Spanish you´d think they´d translate them to XP (extra pequeño), P (pequeño) M (medio) and G(grande), but no. Yet another way American culture has influenced things here...(OH!!! To my horror Iquique has a McDonalds!!! Barffff!!! And the first thing one person told me when I said I was from the US was, ``Oh you have lots of fast food there!`` Pretty sad when foreigners associate the US with fast food:( ).

Then we found an artesan market (I LOVE those kinds of places) where I bought a purple bag (sorta kinda like the green one I got in San Francisco) that was handmade by local artists, and a sweatshirt, made completely of all natural materials and dyed with vegetable dyes (also hand made by a local artist who I talked to for a while). It´s colorful, unique, and no one else in the world has the same one:) I know, I´m a bit of a nerd when it comes to artistic kind of stuff, but to me it´s really interesting, and way better than all the tacky touristy stuff people buy.

After that I met up with a co-worker at the Croatian Plaza, and we walked to the only Indian (Hindú) restaurant in Iquique where I got rice, vegetables, and soy protein. It´s kind of funny that here if you order something spicy, it is only mildly hot. We also found it amusing because we ate up on the 2nd floor of the restaurant and heard some strange howling noises coming from downstairs. It was also entertaining trying to figure out what language the people there were speaking. At first we thought it was Hindi, but it sounded more like Chinese. At any rate, the food there was really good. We decided to go out for a few drinks after that. Fortunately rum has its ways of improving my mood too:) The place we went to had a straw / grass roof and was decorated really neatly. Then I took a colectivo back to the house, and it turns out the colectivo driver is one of my student´s dads. We talked about the school and places in the US the whole time which was nice since most cab drivers here are really unfriendly.

I have to go back to the doctor tomorrow for my blood test but that´s not a big deal because needles don´t bother me at all. At any rate, I need to go to sleep...gotta love 9am doctors´appointments on my day off from work. No sleeping in for me tomorrow:( I´m still not a morning person. I wonder if I´ll ever tame my inner night owl?

written by  Sara Florecita on August 19, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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