Visiting a German Doctor

There were some medical things that I couldn't take care of before we left the US, so I made an appointment with an English speaking doctor recommended by the US consulate. Just like in the US, I had to wait a while past my appointment time. It was difficult to fill out the questionnaire about my medical history since it was in German. They also had a hard time understanding how I can have a child without giving birth. Adoption is apparently a pretty foreign concept in Germany. I thought perhaps I should learn the German word for adoption--which turns out to be "adoption". Tricky. The doctor did routine German procedures that you would need a pre-approval or special referral in the US, like a cancer screening sonogram. The total price tag was 213 €--not cheap. I got into a US vs. European birth control "discussion" with the doctor. I was just discussing, but she may have thought I was challenging her authority. She said she has over 25 years experience in the medical profession; what do I do for a living (miss smarty pants)? I told her I am a chemist that used to work in drug discovery, but am currently unemployed. She was impressed and whipped out her German medical publication to find me some job listings. Excellent!

Dan met me at the doctor's office to wrangle Gianna while I was on the table, so afterwards we got two of the famous German soft pretzels. Gianna ate half of ours before we got home. I saved my half to smother in mustard. Feeling guilty about eating the whole "quark" pastry from the other night without sharing, I stopped at the bakery to get another. No quark doughnuts, but they were having a special on quark horns! Incidentally, the quark horn turned out to be unfilled, still delicious, but a bit of a disappointment. I was really looking forward to more cheese in the center.