Blooming fall flowers in the park. Prancing puppies in the plaza. Singing Spanish women cleaning in the patio.
It all just makes me want to hack, sneeze, and cough.Yes, it's allergy season again. Just in time for me to return to Murcia. The trip to and from Europe always affects my allergies, and coming back just in time for the change of seasons doesn't help. So like always, I'm a little enferma after the big trip. One of the first things I did in Murcia was head to the pharmacy to help do away with these alergia symptoms. Before heading out, I found myself having to look up a few allergy-related words that I didn't know. Here are some that I thought may be useful for fellow guiri allergy-sufferers:
constipado/a- adj. congested in the nose
medicamento- n. medicine
goteo nasal posterior- n. post nasal drip
pastillas para la tos or para la garganta- n. cough/throat drops
Me da sueño.- Phrase: It makes me tired. (lit. It give me sleep.)
spray nasal (para lavar)- n. Nasal spray (that serves as a rinse)
estornudar- v. to sneeze
comprimidos- n. pills or tablets
- It's not what you originally thought when you read the blog title, was it? I like to be an honest and forthright blogger, but I'm not that honest.
medicamento- n. medicine
- May seem obvious, but just know that the Spanish don't use the word drogas, drugs, for medicine like Americans do. If you ask a pharmacist for drogas, they'll most likely point to a street corner.
goteo nasal posterior- n. post nasal drip
- Yes, it's gross. But snot happens.
pastillas para la tos or para la garganta- n. cough/throat drops
- I asked for these and got throat-numbing tablets rather than standard cough drops. If you want your basic Halls, they have them in all the check-outs and sell them like breath mints. Or you may want to try caramelos para la tos/garganta.
Me da sueño.- Phrase: It makes me tired. (lit. It give me sleep.)
- If you want non-drowsy medicine, you may want to ask for "medicamento que no me de sueño."
spray nasal (para lavar)- n. Nasal spray (that serves as a rinse)
- Don't forget the Spanish pronounce "spray" as "es-pre-eh"
estornudar- v. to sneeze
- This is one they don't typically teach in school.
comprimidos- n. pills or tablets
There are pharmacies everywhere, so go ahead and try out the new vocabulary. The pharmacist will be impressed that you know the term goteo nasal posterior in general. Plus you'll feel better. ¡Que te mejores!
My advice for a guiri: You just read it.
Do any other sick guiris out there have any other important words to add? Please share!
2 comments:
This is such an incredibly useful post, Ashley! I remember being in Belgium and having to figure out first *where* to buy cold medicine (since there isn't a CVS plopped on every European street corner like there are here in the US), and then how to explain what I was looking for in French, even though we were in the Flemish-speaking part of the country. (That was as close as I could get to being intelligible.) You don't think about how challenging such simple tasks can be until you're confronted with them!
Thanks Rosemary! Yeah, I went in with some of these phrases not sure if they were right or not. It's all just a process of trial and error. It was a good thing for my sinuses that I was right.
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