My flu-slash-cold, or whatever it is, is slowly getting better. Each morning I feel theees much better (holding up fingers to indicate about the width of a human hair.) I guess I’m kinda lucky in that I can’t remember the last time I had a real full-blown flu like this.

Yesterday I went to the Vårdcentral (a/k/a neighborhood health cinic) for a rapid strep test (result: negative.) I kind of expected an adventure there, but in truth it wasn’t significantly different from an American health clinic. Except, of course, that the whole thing, including doctor’s visit and lab work, was only about $60. And that’s the price without insurance.

The receptionist who checked me in was very sweet, and pretended to speak English for my benefit. I didn’t realize to what extent she was pretending until I saw what she made of my address, though: “512 Est fiftstret apartmend 16.” That would also explain why she stonily refused to answer a couple of my questions.

I’ve noticed this same dynamic with my stepdad: the first couple years as I got to know him, I would sometimes think that he was offended by something I said, or that he thought a comment I made was dumb, because he’d occasionally sit in complete silence after something I said. But, it turns out that this is just how he reacts when he doesn’t understand something: he’ll never, ever turn to you and say, “what?” Funny.