Here's a post I wrote Mar. 16, but I forgot to post.

For the past two weeks, I’ve been sick. Nothing too major, just cold/flu type symptoms. It was probably just a bad sinus infection. But over the counter drugs weren’t doing the trick (I tried them all) and I could barely stay awake in class because my head was so heavy. So I decided to go to the doctor… I learned a lot about New Zealand’s take on medicine.

Sally, my doctor, told me to toughen up and just go “sleep it off.” She didn’t prescribe me meds like my doctor in Nebraska has so many times in the past. I told her that I had been sick for over a week and I really need to get some schoolwork done, but I wasn’t able to concentrate with my headache. Sally replied, “Well have you heard of aspirin? I’ll prescribe you aspirin to help the sinus headache.” I started to laugh. Was she serious? Aspirin?

Once she saw I was getting upset with her suggestion, she said, “Ok, ok I'll prescribe you a nasal spray too, don’t get upset.” Then she really had me going. I knew aspirin and nasal spray weren’t going to do anything for me. It baffled me that she wouldn’t prescribe me anything. Sally then began to lecture me about how the United States over prescribes medicine, which builds up immunities.

This experience just showed me how easily manipulated U.S. doctors are. It is so easy for American’s to get their hands on medicine. Aspirin is available to anyone, and most of the U.S. is probably immune to it. If I tell my doctor that I’m not feeling well, she always gives me some sort of antibiotic. And if my Nebraska doctor didn’t think I needed meds, but I insisted on them, she would give them to me. Sally on the other hand, only gave me nasal spray when I demanded antibiotics. What a jip. So I was sick for another week and toughed it out. I slept tons and didn’t do much school work.

 

By Friday, I was feeling like my good ole self (just in time for the weekend.) I was quite worried that I wasn’t going to get to go on my weekend trip. I as real iffy about going on a trip since I was sick all week, but I planned a trip anyways. I went to the Wildfoods Festival in Hokitika, NZ. The trip had its ups and downs, but overall it was a blast. Every year, Hokitika has a Wildfoods Festival. The festival is supported on the theme of gross, bizarre foods. You can eat anything from live worms to sheep testicles. My friends and I ate them all. 

 

I left for the festival on Friday with three guys in a station wagon they just bought. Nick and Chris said they would give me a lift when I ran into them at the tramping store on Thursday. I had never seen their car, but the car ride seemed promising. We hit the road about 2:30 p.m. and things weren’t looking so good. I was crammed in the back seat with my friend Blake and some surfboards. The car didn’t start when we were in the parking lot. Nick told us all not to worry because it did this yesterday. Nick jumped out and stuck a key into something under the hood. Chris tried starting the engine again, and by golly it worked. I wasn’t really comfortable with their car starting methods, but I didn’t want to be rude, so I kept my trap shut. We were off. We drove for about an hour and a half. Blake and I entertained ourselves in the backseat by making Pringle faces. All was looking up. Once we reached the mountains, things went down hill, literally. The ole station wagon couldn’t make it up the mountain. We were driving in first gear and going 20 km per hour all the way up the mountain. Cars were zooming past us and honking. Blake and I sunk down hiding behind the surfboards. Then the car stalled and we were stuck on the mountain. So we sat there with our flashers on deciding what to do. I jumped out of the car and started pushing. I yelled at Chris to hit the gas. Blake jumped out of the car and started pushing to. Before long, we were running and pushing the car up the mountain. We were really getting stares from the other cars now.

 

We made it to the top be then realized there was another steep hill around the bend. So we had no choice but to turn around. We went to the mechanic and he couldn’t fix the car without doing more tests on it. He said we should probably just go back to Christchurch. I really didn’t want to miss out on the festival since I already had tickets and a camping spot. So I got some of my other friends to pick me up in their van. It all worked out and I made it to the festival.

 

We ate so many weird foods and saw a lot of weird people dressed in costumes. My friends and I ate Wildfoods mountain oysters (aka sheep balls), lamb tail, Hu Hu beetles and grub, worm sushi, deer heart, grasshoppers, etc. It was a great time. At night we went to the beach and had a campfire. There were about 20 bomb fires along the beach and there were guys fire dancing. It was amazing and so relaxing after our crazy day. We camped out in the countryside next to cows. Being near cows reminded me a lot of Nebraska and made me feel at home (even though I don’t see cows too much in NE.) My friends and I fed the cows and hung out under the stars. It was a great trip.