Pineapples! ..and salt and lemon and sleep and curry and homeopathy...

Spain posts will be coming, I promise!

Today I learned what I truly believe in. God. And homeopathy. Obviously something God works through. And I don't believe in doctors in the general sense.

I woke up this morning with a conundrum: it was day 6 and I still so sick I couldn't talk. FREAKING OUT.

I have responses in my email inbox from the hysterical messages I sent EUSA last night about feeling stranded in a foreign country and aren't they supposed to help with that??? I got the calm, logical, dude this sucks so let me give you a step 1, 2, 3, which was exactly what I needed. Not that I followed the advice, but it calmed me down.

They're like, dude, GO SEE A DOCTOR. They even called around and got a recommendation for me of a doctor in walking distance from my apartment which was totally sweet of them.

I'm like, ummm, I don't even know what to do with a doctor? I've been, what, like 3 times since I was born? What is normal medicine? I don't even know what to ask for at a pharmacy...plus, how much is this doctor going to charge me???

So...I made my own executive decision (because the decision to stay home today was made by my body, not me) to trust instead to self medication.

Homeopathy first. I have a giant bag of every remedy I could need, provided by my hippie-medicine mother. I've been taking some, but I hadn't realized quite what my cold was yet...Pulsatilla. This was totally a pulsatilla cold. Done. Sleep. Got another 14 hours. Water. Hot tea. Hot soup. Check, check. Total relaxation - reruns of Gossip Girl make that a check too.

Gargle with salt water...hmmm....I don't have salt. The Spanish dude who came to clean my room suggested that I gargle with salt and lemon which I didn't have either. (Speaking Spanish saves my life yet again!) Maybe curry would work?

So I'm sitting here googling what gargling curry will do to you (cure kidney pains?) and I discover that PINEAPPLE is my new miracle drug. Yes, pineapple can cure a really sore throat. Now, when people say doctor I think hmmm...ummm...I dunnnnoooo....but when they say pineapple? YES. RIGHT NOW. GET ME SOME PINEAPPLE.

So throw on my Spanish pants (to be covered in a later blog post) and immediately dash up to this fantastic drug store a block away and buy a pineapple, a lemon, salt and a zucchini...because I like zucchini and vegetables are good too, right? It comes to 2 pounds. I LOVE THIS PLACE.

I practically skip back down to my apartment, the clocktower of the British Library/King's Cross rising in the clear London sky ahead of me. Bliss. Pineapples are my new best friends. (and salt and lemon if the pineapple doesn't work.)

(Basically, the cure for everything can be found in this picture)