HealthNews: Ridiculous Foot Pain Not Infection

Centre Medical International - Where I now have a GP.

Well, this diagnosis was completely unexpected. I thought I had an infection. WRONG.

Let me explain. As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, I have been experiencing some serious problems with my left foot. Let me recap a full 9 days with the following representative dialogues:

Day 3: "Hey Ben! Want to go to the supermarket?"  "Sure, but I can't go far or fast."

Day 5: "Hey Ben! Want to go out tonight?"  "I can barely make it to the kitchen on the 2nd floor and you want me to walk to a restaurant 30 minutes away with healthy, drunk 21 year olds?"

Day 8: "Hey Ben! How's your foot?"  "Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod"

By Day 8 it was swollen, red, shaking, and completely unable to support weight. I couldn't move or wiggle any of my toes. I was in major pain. I'd roll over in the middle of the night, touch it to the bed frame, and wake up gasping and sweating (the sweating is normal, but the gasping in pain? not so much). I could barely go anywhere, let alone get off my bed, without leaning heavily on something. I was getting really scared.

Demo Lesson Headaches

Pull the football away one more time, I dare you.

NOTE: This will be one of my rant-y posts. I try to keep them to a minimum, but sometimes I just have to let it all out and complain in English. Skip this one if it's not your cup of tea!

First of all, what is a Demo Lesson?

An ESL Demo Lesson is a lot of things, but none of them efficient, or even very useful, that I could see. This is the basic takeaway I have from my first (hopefully only, ever again) Demo Lesson. It was a series of hoops, like many things in Education, but some of them were ablaze, and some got pulled away at the last minute, like Lucy pulling away Charlie Brown's football. I made it through successfully, but it wasn't without unnecessary frustration pitfalls.

Meet the Shoeshine Boy

Yesterday, THIS GUY happened to me:

Normally I would have asked permission to take his
picture, but he was a total jackass. So I didn't.

This, my friends, is a shoeshine boy. Except in HCMC, they're more like Tourist Sandal Predators. I was walking along, minding my own business, when he ran up to me, knelt in front of me at a crosswalk and started supergluing my sandals. I was beyond surprised. I had no frame of reference. I shook him off, threw him 10,000 VND (about .50 USD) after he protested and got on my way.

But, oh no, this was not the end of this stupid drama. Not on this day when I've already had the most annoying day I've had since I got here. Of course not.

USPS Terror Funhouse Commence

Thanks to Ally for the photo and
extra, necessary, finger emotion.

HEY! CHICAGO USPS. Yeah, YOU. Get over here.

What is this?

I said, WHAT IS IT?

Oh, it's my passport? The one you lost, 31 days ago? But USPS, how will I pick it up at the post office now? I mean, I don't even live in your country any more. How will I go down to the HELL that is the Ravenswood USPS Branch, stand in line for several hours, and then wait for you to pull your head out of your collective ASSHOLE while you attempt to locate this for me? And who says you'd even be successful? I got one of these pink mail slips last time, and you lost it for a month. A MONTH. How do I even know you have it now! Maybe this is one of your TWERPY, DERPY GAMES.