Today was one of the most stressful and most frustrating days I have ever experienced in my life. I was exhausted from the night before and went to class, and went hiking to Mountjew with the girls. Getting up there was so much fun on the phantom tram! We just stumbled upon a ghetto, almost coal mining like form of transportation. 
The view from up top was amazing! You could see the whole city, and the park was so lush and green, and it felt like spring! It is weird.
It is below zero in Wisconsin, and I barely need a coat here. So many little kids were playing up there in their uniforms, it was very cute! I realized most elementary kids wear uniforms in Spain! We took pictures from the top of the Mountain and just sat with the girls! We were walking back down and my foot gave out. I have never experienced that much pain. It just wouldn’t work, and every step made me want to cry.
Erin took me to San Pau hospital right by La Segrada Familia. From the outside it was gorgeous. It looked like an old cathedral and nunnery. The building is considered on one of prettiest and most historic sites in Barcelona. But we had problems right when we got to the hospital. After a long time I got checked in. I met an American from California who played football at an Ivy League school. He had been waiting all day to see the doctor because he had a lump in his throat. (Later he ended up passing out before anyone attended to him). And after a couple hours I went to the triage room and asked if I could be seen. A doctor actually grabbed my arm and pulled me in, and that killed my foot. They wanted me to wait an extra four hours but I said no, and I was very firm, trying to use all of the Castilian Spanish I knew.I ended up only having to wait 15 minutes after that. I got moved into a room where I took off my shoe. And they looked at it, and didn’t even touch it, and made me sit in a wheel chair. There were four other older people in hospital beds in the tiny room right off of the waiting room. I got placed in the hallway to wait for x-ray. The doctors were all friendly and young and were attempting to talk to me. I realized young guys all know one line in English “My darling”, that is all they used.
San Pau would be the perfect setting for Grey’s Anatomy 2. All the doctors were under 25, had tattoos, lip rings, eye brow rings, and dyed hair. When someone says that you can never have acrylic nails and work in a profession, they are wrong. You can always work at a BCN public hospital. The doctor who placed me in the hallway had a sleeve of tattoos, and a lip ring. All the doctors are very pretty too. All the girls and guys are just pretty people, and I don’t know how else to describe it. Seeing them made me want to be a doctor! When I was waiting I saw all the trauma patients get rolled in. All were old people, (except for the Cali boy) and most were not even conscious. I finally got x-rays, I was denied them initially. They asked me numerous questions, and I just kept saying si. And one of them was “are you pregnant”. I didn’t know that vocabulary so I assumed all the questions were just like do this or that. It took the doctors 30 minutes, and a game of charades for them to realize I was not pregnant. After the x-ray I sat in the hall for another hour. In the main hall by the x-ray there were so many hospital beds, many with dead patients in them. I think they just ran out of room, and the hallway had to be an adequate holding service. Sitting in that hallway I just freaked myself out. And some of the conscious old people were shaking and were so skinny and looked like a holocaust victim picture.
After the wait I got put into the initial room. Doctors were walking with needs exposed and they didn’t use gloves or wash their hands. They never asked me what I was allergic too. And they just had me lay face down into the table and put my foot up like I was doing a back kick. They started casting it! They didn’t even tell me what was wrong; they were just casting my foot. And after I was in a hard cast they put me back into the wheel chair. I said “Yo necisito usar un bano por favor”, and it took them 20 minutes to realize what I was saying. And they took me into the morgue bathroom. I was freaking out even more; I can’t handle stress like that. The bathroom was next to bed 36 and people were in bed dead and not covered! At the end of the room people were working on bodies with blue gloves. I started crying. I couldn’t handle it. I had to hop to the bathroom and the floor was dirty and gross. I didn’t have a phone and no one came and got me. Occasionally someone would come by and compliment my hair. But no one did anything. And I couldn’t handle it. It doesn’t sound bad, but It was. And when I looked up I just saw an old church ceiling and stain glassed windows. I just wanted to go home. I am casted in a morgue and no one can understand me. I have never been this frustrated before. Finally I got a doctor to take me back. When I was back a really pretty girl told me to wait. Again no one could understand me, but an hour later they got me a taxi. I was place into a taxi without crutches, just an x-ray and a cast. I cried and had the driver drive me around until we found an open pharmacy. Most were not open this late at night. The driver carried me into It and attempted to show the ladies what I needed. I finally got crutches and hobbled back to call another taxi. European crutches lock at the elbow so you put all the stress on your hands. I have no arm strength. And I was so worked up, but I finally found a cab. I couldn’t remember my address so I had him wander until he found it. When I got home I just cried. I was so upset and worked up.
I have never been through something so stressful and culture shocking with such a large cultural and language barrier. "Language is the inventory of human experience"
L. W. Lockhart couldn't have described this any better. I experienced so much in those few hours, and if I would have been more rehearsed in Catalan, I could have probably understood what had just happened. I believe this quote more than anything.
My girls had to go to tapas tonight, and I was just depressed and homebound.
I really thought they would have gone to tapas, but I was wrong. They showed up at my place. They brought cheese, gelado, chocolates, pan con tomato, and all my favorite foods, dc, and an elephant necklace. I just started crying harder. When I needed them the most they were actually there.
Jody
Erin
Katie
They don’t know how much they helped me that night. Without them I would have probably have gone home, but they made me feel not alone. They made me laugh and where they for me. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH…
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