Day or Night?

 We finally decided to take the little guys in to the doctor. Both have fought snotty noses and horrible coughs this month. With the holidays, Germany is about half way shut down- they love their holidays. The clinic on base was understaffed, so we were sent off base for their doctor's appointment. Practically every day we experience a new "first"... this doctor was no different. We were told to show up at the office between 2:30 and 3:00- in order to have less of a wait. We showed up a little before 2:30 only to see that their lunch break is from 12:00 - 2:30. The whole office closes down for lunch or their mid-day break. Kinda nice- for them. A reminder of the slower pace they move at in this country. We were second in line behind an older lady and still waited almost an hour just to see the doctor. Once it was our turn, we were taken in to the doctor's actual office. Kind of strange to sit down in front of his desk to talk. His English was ok, but he had his receptionist there to help translate. He was dressed in solid white which for some reason looked funny to us. He had on white jeans, a white v-neck sweater with white shirt underneath with white socks and slip-on {white, of course} shoes kind of like Crocs. No suit and tie here with the white doctor coat. Once he was ready to examine the boys, he took them one at a time to his little exam room just off his office- almost like a little closet. He said both have bronchitus, but Caden is definitely worse- so he started him on antibiotics. We let him know the coughing at night {all night} is horrible and asked for something. He asked what we had been giving them and to our surprise he had never heard of Nyquil. He explained he'd be giving them two cough syrups and what the doses were for each- one for the night, one for the day. Between his broken English and my little bit of German, I understood exactly what he was prescribing and even understood the quantities. If only I had written it down! Once we received them from the pharmacy, there were no instructions attached or dosage amounts! We couldn't even tell which was day or night... Jim's guess was the orange would be daytime? Good guess, we hope! In reading both labels- I get they're both for kids... still didn't get the whole translation. No teaspoons either... it's all in ml. Hopefully, we're close.

Not a bad experience, just a reminder to me that living here, there are going to be so many experiences not just in Germany but interacting with the German people. Re-learning the German language remains on my list of important things to do. We've heard over and over to really enjoy our stay here, we need to get out and take advantage of the things to see and do in Germany and Europe as a whole. To me, this means understanding their customs and language if only enough to get by. Even if you stay on base all the time and never get out on the economy there is still quite a bit of interaction with the Germans. Most civilian jobs on base are filled with Germans. With anyone, understanding along with being understood are huge- having a language barrier is frustrating to say the least- I better get to work!