German Diseases Very Efficiently Afflict Suzanne

Despite my warmest wishing and hoping, winter has yet to release its hold on Magdeburg and this weekend I woke up yet again to a few centimeters of snow. The natives insist that this winter has been especially long and cold, but they also tell me I won't be wearing my lighter jacket until April, so I'm not sure I beleive their assertions that winter is unusually harsh. This was the first Valentine's Day I remember waking up to snow. It is also the first Valentine's Day I remember that I could quite easily have fogotten was Valentine's Day. Around the first of February a small stand or two displaying red knick-knacks and chocolate hearts appeared in the main department store. The Valentine's Day preparations never advanced further. That was it. So, in rather the same way Thanksgiving could have passed uncelebrated and nearly forgotten, so Valentine's Day came and went. The benefit of being alone in a country where Valentine's Day is not celebrated much is that you are not bashed over the head with your aloneness, as happens to people in America on our commercialized Valentine's Days. You don't know what you're missing if no one is shoving it in your face starting January 2nd.

The kindergarten has been struck by some sort of horrible German flu/plague in the past two weeks, and unfortunately, I was unable to avoid contracting the illness myself. I attempted to call in sick and discovered that the Germans reputation for rules and order was well deserved. I could not simply call in sick by telling my boss I was not going to be at work that day. I was required to go see a doctor on the day I did not come to work, then obtain a form in duplicate that stated my exact date of return to work from the doctor and then mail one form to my insurance company and the other to my employers. To a person who just wants to stay in bed and sleep, this seems preposterous. For all the trouble I was going to have to go through to stay home, I might as well have tried to crawl in to work.

But I didn't. I actually had a high fever, the achy-all-over soreness indicative of the flu along with congestion and a horrible rasping cough. So, I started calling doctors. In German. When I found a physician who was taking walk-ins, I then had to bundle up and stagger off to the tram to find the place on foot. Once I did, the doctor gave me all the appropriate documents and told me I couldn't go to work for a week. I am fairly certain that this form obtained from the physician is not just a suggestion, it's an order. If I get a paper stating I shouldn't go back to work until Monday, then I actually am NOT ALLOWED to go to work. After this visit to the doctor, I could hardly stand up, so my fever and I stumbled back to the apartment and collapsed. The next day though, I had to venture out yet again to go to the pharmacy to fill the prescription the doctor had given me the day before. Again this involved wandering the streets of Magdeburg in a state of nausea with a brain foggy from the flu. One would have thought that by the third day, I could have finally stayed in bed, but the insurance company requires the form to be post-marked within three days of the visit to the doctor, which meant I once again exposed the rest of the city to my disease while I sought out a place to buy envelopes and stamps and then finally successfully mailed the form. This seemed to me to be a decidedly unAmerican flu experience.

The last two points I'd like to mention before posting this rather depressing blog will be quick. First, I can't find a way to make a German understand what a closet is. The parents of the kindergarteners tried to supply me with all the furniture I needed, but failed to provide any method of storing clothing. When they asked if I still needed anything I attempted to explain, but the only solutions I was offered were small chests of drawers or shelving units with doors on them. I have also found that even the Germans who speak English impeccably cannot remember the word "closet" in English. Should I search for the translation for the word "wardrobe"? I gave up.

Secondly, I overheard a three-year old girl and a four-year old boy playing house at the kindergarten. The boy brought over doll's cradle with a parrot puppet in it and announced,"I bought us a baby!"