foreign to familiar
31 October, 2011
living in czech for 2.5 years now has brought a lot of foreign to familiar. it’s interesting to live in a different country. there have been so many things that i love about it and so many things i have not loved. examples follow:
i have a human in my stomach. well, technically in my uterus, but we won’t go into that lesson today. i’ve never experienced this in my “normal” culture however, i’m pretty sure that the way i experience it is a little bit different than your typical visit to the OB in the u-s of a. what things that are now familiar to me in my only context of pregnancy are…
-knocking on the door to the OB’s office greeting everybody corporately with a typical and cultural ‘dobry den’ (good day).
-going to the back room behind reception, routinely grabbing a pee cup, going back to the waiting room to use the facilities and then proceeding to carry my own urine through the waiting room to bring it back again to the room behind reception. no lid might i add. good thing i’ve never tripped!
-having my blood pressure taken by the sweet receptionist who almost always wears a spearmint colored dress with matching knee-high striped socks on.
-never having a body cover-up during an exam. ever.
-enjoying ultrasounds with my amazing OB and translating baby Hughes’ body parts into english so that we know what we’re looking at. have you ever translated your own receipts from the doctor’s office? how about a letter stating permission for flights?
-leaving the OB with again another typical and corporate ‘na shledanou’ (goodbye).
my life is funny. looking forward to comparing these appointments with appointments in Arizona!
