Week 4: the Difference (1/2)

Sitting in front of the computer, I'm pondering where I shall begin to talk about the past four weeks. There were many things to say. Thoughts always popped up as soon I encountered foreign occasions, yet I never managed to post them on blogs. They were small things in daily lives: riding my bike wondering which direction should turn to ride across the big roundabouts; 'queuing' at the student service center, in a post office, in a bank, in, almost.. everywhere (!); drinking tap water curious about why the hot ones undrinkable? Watching a 'British-style' quarrel proceeded in a manner lacking dirty words; having never been shown any sorts of impatience while paying the cashiers with all the coins in my pocket; listening to the BBC news over issues about budget debates (in which no real fights burst out at the most controversial moment.) Things above seemed to be ordinary for local residents, but they are incidents unusual to me. I would like to write them down, together with a sentiment of homesickness.

Cycling.. I miss scooters! 
I cycled around often, but till now I still got troubled with big roundabouts. Sometimes I saw cyclists press the button of pedestrian traffic lights; sometimes I watched them riding through the intersections as if they were one of the cars. This made me uncertain about either to behave like a pedestrian or a car. Haven't figured that out, I tended to act like pedestrians whenever similar situations confused me; so I would get off the bike, and walk across the big roads before continuing cycling. This always reminded me of our bizarre traffic scene in Taiwan... in which though seem chaotic, I always knew how to do.

The bicycles in UK have no supporting sticks to maintain them upright when cyclists get off, so they were often locked on the poles or the U-shape metal bars at streets. The bikes also have no front baskets nor spring-loaded flips for carrying things at the back seats; therefore, it can get tricky if you plan to bring many things, say, my backpack and the trumpet case. The other day I saw people using particular bands to keep their bags balancing on each side of the backseat; seemed to be a good idea. However, I just miss the cute little scooters back home, they are people's best friends, not only efficiently riding us everywhere,  but also carrying our bags and cases at ease.   

Highfield Health: No pills for flu?

Growing up in Taiwan, I got very used to taking herbs, vitamins and pills whenever catching a cold. It struck me that people in Britain hardly considering medication when they have flu. The first week I arrived, my throat felt sore and swollen badly, I could hardly breathe due to the nasal congestion. I was very glad when Tom (Prof. Irvine) told me Highfield Health provides the best medical care for students. So I immediately registered a G.P. (general practitioner) and made an appointment for help. Surprisingly, the only treatment I received was, a thoroughly, attentively listening to my chest. 

It took no more than five minutes, then the doctor said to me with her smile: "OK, drink more water and rest more." I paused, with hesitation.

"... Done?" 

"Done."
"Uh... Shouldn't I get some medicine? "

"No. What you have now is a flu. It happens 6 to 7 times within a year. It's normal." 

"But... I have this green and yellow sticky thing stuck in my throat... not sure what they called in English exactly, but in Chinese, we call it 'tan2' (痰.) I thought we need antibiotics for curing that." 

"Oh, that. That in English, we have a very strange spelling word for it, called 'phlegm.' People do have phlegm when they get flu, but I've checked carefully while you breathed, your chest is completely clean. There should be no worries. What you need, is rest, and drink more water, your body will recover by itself."
"Really?"
"Yes. The only thing you might need is this:"
She wrote on a piece of paper: 'Paracetcmol 500mg, 2 tablet 3 times/d.'

"Yon only take this when you have fevers."

She suggested me to buy it at Tesco or the convenient stores because it'll be very expensive in a pharmacy. Then she smiled again, to give me some confidence. 

The doctor was right. After a week, my flu recovered automatically. It was the first time in my life, I took no medication when I have a flu. How amazing! Probably we should try to trust our body more instead of feeding it with one and another antibiotics pills. Perhaps the ways managed in Taiwan (about flu or many other diseases) were inappropriate, because governments would be spending too much money on unnecessary medication. Now I can't help but concerning with the huge tax money waste for sustaining our Health Care insurance System, felt funny just to imagine whenever people catch a cold, they get free unnecessary pills.. !