Der Krankenwagen und das Krankenhaus

I love the word Krankenwagen (ambulance, literally "sick wagon"). It makes me giggle every time.

I am such a loser. I got food poisoning (I think) on the weekend from a dodgy chicken kebab. Spent all day Sunday shivering with a fever, splitting headaches, worst I've ever had, couldn't stand up etc. Monday my fever left and I thought I might be well enough to go to my first day of school. Still couldn't eat anything, so i downed a carrot, a few spoonfuls of cereal and lots of water. Made it about 300m down the road and I did a special little dance and ended up keeling over and passing out in the bloody snow. 

I didn't quite hit the snow tho - was sitting at a bus stop and someone caught me. They called an ambulance even though I said I'd be OK and the ambos advised I come to hospital. I tried to say, no, not necessary but they were nice guys and kept "strongly recommending" in a polite but straightforward German way that meant "KOMM MIT MIR! SCHNELL!"

I ended up in emergency but I think it was like a clinic. I got seen super-quick and was out about 90 minutes later. They just popped an electrolyte IV into me, let it finish and let me go. The people next to me were groaning and vomiting and carrying on a bit, and I was playing Tetris on my iPhone and waiting to be released. And the bill? 10EU. I think I might be getting another bill, maybe?

Mum says that if you drink too much water without any other vitamins/sustenance you go into water intoxication/low sodium (like athletes do too.. I am such an athlete, man) so yeah, I should have been doing the gatorade/crackers thing. 


The ambulance dudes were so sweet!! They knew a bit of English and were teasing each other about how crap the other's English was, and while they took me to hospital (on their strong recommendation - protocol) we had a little mini Deutsch lesson in the back.


Made it to school in the end - I took a cab from the hospital. I've started at the Goethe Institut in Berlin. I'm in B1 Level - mixed thoughts...everything is clear and easy so far but it's new content and some revision. The teacher is really awesome - a very friendly, funny, laid back guy maybe in his late 40's or early 50's. He reminds me a lot of my Grade 6 teacher Mr Jardine who I liked a lot. 


My main friends (so far) are Lucia (Italian), Mariana (Brazilian) and a Swiss guy whose name I can't quite remember just yet. In my class, also Francesco (Italian), Gabi (Polish), Cinara (Brazilian), Viktor (from Panama - he is so adorable, he's about 18 years old and Panama is so small and Berlin is so big that he is just totally lost all the time), Jens (Norwegian).... and a few others whose names will return to me. There was a Stammtisch tonight and bless us all, we all actually spoke German even though there were several Italians and LOTS of Latin language speakers in the room. The only people I heard speaking English were... Aussies and Americans :)


I am making progress on getting a refund for my tax which is quite exciting. There's a long list of protocol that I need to follow, but I reckon I can do it. Baby steps. I have until the end of the month.
Heard back from the Israel Vocal Arts Institute about their summer course and they were very impressed with my CD which is fabulous! So I have expressed my interest in scholarships and we will see what happens with that. Also thinking about going in a London based comp for Commonwealth citizens but I have so little time and it's such a big programme... eek! May as well enter - they've doubled the prize money this year for the anniversary and it's for under 30's so hey - worth the risk.


Fleen xox