6 de Julio (viernes)– day 4

The clinic is very pretty. Upon entering you see a little garden in the center with a fountain and nicely trimmed hedges. There are blooming roses around the periphery, pink and red, que bonita. I went there today at 9 and sat in the hallway which encircles the garden. I stuck my nose in my Spanish-english dictionary and medical Spanish book for about an hour when the doctor decided to come in. I hope I have that type of flexability when I’m a doctor…probably not though. We only say 2 patients from about 10:15 to 1 pm. I guess Fridays are normally slow according to Susana. However, there were about 4 drug reps that came to visit the doc. It was much like the drug rep visit we have in the states except for less food. Another difference was that each rep talked about at least 5 drugs, sometimes even 10. The drugs were not related either. I recognized most of the types of drugs. There were some to lower blood pressure and lipids. A few antibiotics including what we would call augmentin (amoxicillin and clauvanic acid) and another COX-2 inhibitor. I think it was called lumoxib or something. I got a bunch of marketing handouts which I was given as a “leccion” from one of the reps. I think I’m gonna try and translate them. The swag I got were as follows: one orange highlighter, one box of tissues (which I left with the doctor but I should have kept because the clinic doesn’t stock the bathroom with TP or paper towels), and one mouse pad. I wondered if the doc actually gives out the samples that he gets from the reps but I don’t think so. When I saw him reach his stethascope from a box behind his desk I saw that it was overflowing with small boxes of drug samples. I’m pretty sure my stethoscope is the nicest in the hospital too (props to Fairview).

I think there is a dinner being sponsored by one of the drug companies being held today that the doc was invited to. I think he tried twice to ask me to go but I couldn’t really understand. Both times I said “oh, si” and nodded but I don’t think that was the correct response. There is almost no communication between me and the doc, it’s pretty rough. Although the clinic was exactly what I was looking for, I feel like a tool being there. It’s small and slow enough that I would I might actually be of use if only I spoke Spanish. May in the coming years as my Spanish gets better I might return and actually do something like draw blood or interview patients. Susana introduces me as a volunteer to everyone but I think “quiet gringo that watches with a blank look on his face” would be more appropriate. I’m pretty sure a volunteer actually does something, I do not.

I walked to the internet place today. Tia Carmen was afraid that I would get “perder” (lost). But I didn’t. After dinner Tio Luis brought me to another place for private Spanish lesson. The professor seems nice. We couldn’t start a lesson today so we chatted for a few minutes to see what I knew. He said something like this in Spanish, “First I need to know what you know and how strong are your abilities.” I understood most of it but not all so I answered, “no entiedo todo,” which I think means I didn’t understand any of it. He gave me a blank stare like he was think, “what did I get myself into?” We read a few lines in a book and that was that. I told him that I need to work primarly on understanding spoken Spanish and actually speaking it. He said he would devise a plan and we will start on Monday. He is very nice, it should be good.

Today is Manolo’s birthday but he is in Queretaro. We called him and he is coming over tomorrow with Silvia.

Oh, I remembered something that I thought was kinda funny that I saw when we all went to the new Mega (the equivilarnt to our supertarget). Tio Luis and Tia Carmen really like their good deals. “Ah, Tres por dos! Hay una gratis!” Which means we bought three 5-gallon containers of Clorox bleach for the price of two. That’s a lot of Clorox bleach in my opinion. Hasta luego