Hola!!

Week two in Barcelona came and went quickly, too quickly. On the upside, my Catalan is coming along, albeit slowly, but everyday I can understand a little bit more. And after another week in the pharmacy I finally feel that I have a routine. So as not to mislead you about what I do each day, because I know you are anxiously waiting, I am basically the stock girl. Since I cannot speak Catalan this shouldn´t be too much of a surprised. But on with my day....I begin the day by loading the robot (which I think is pretty amazing). And then throughout the day other deliveries come and that´s where the fun begins. I make sure everything is accounted for, then I stock the shelves before bringing the boxes downstairs. Did I mention that it is hotter than hades at 86 degrees and a maximum humidity of 76%!!! Needless to say I look like a tomato and feel like I need a shower after ten minutes in the pharmacy. I know I am making the work seem unbearable and boring but it really isn´t. I enjoy going to work everyday. I am learning the alternative names of many drugs and also learning about the different drugs/products that are available here but not at home. The pharmacist I work with, Tat, is extremely nice. She is working on her english as much as I am working on my catalan. There are times when neither of us can explain what we need or want; we just laugh and move on or try charades. She finds it completely amusing how we pronounce "drawer" (cajón in spanish) and the first time I said my name she was trying to find the spanish equivalent. I guess "Kaleena" isn´t very common...thanks mom.
**Explaining the pictures above: the first one is the cathedral of Barcelona and that is what I look out to everyday from my pharmacy; next is a picture of my pharmacy; and last is the infamous robot!!!**

Hopefully, since my last post, some of you are keeping up to date on the world cup because Spain won!!!!! It was definitely an experience to be here; one that I will never forget. After the match we went to plaça de espanya which is where the city showed the match on a big screen in the square. It was incredible how many people were there! Of course just like any celebration with a few thousand people things started to get a little out of control. I won´t go into the gritty details but it did take us a very long time to get home since all the cabs were taken, the metro was closed for the night and the buses were packed and had limited routes. The next day at work was a bit of a blur. My cafe con leche helped me get through that day.

For those of you who know me, I am quite pasty. I have been working on this, slowly, the past two weeks by going to the beach. Even though I come from California I am not a beach-going, sun-bathing girl; I would rather be in the mountains snowboarding. I think the reason I don´t enjoy the beach is the sand. Two weeks later you are still finding grains of sand in weird places - my belly button comes to mind. No matter how thoroughly you shower, they never leave. But regardless I have been trying. I actually like going to the beach here. It is always packed which means there is always something or someone to entertain you as you bake and sweat. It is really crazy how late the sunset is. At 7:30 the beach is still packed as though it is noon.

Since this is a blog about pharmacy let me revert back to that topic. There are many differences between pharmacies in the U.S. and pharmacies in Spain. One big difference that I find surprising is that the pharmacists do not put labels on the prescription medications. This is baffles me since at home the government is very strict about the use of another´s medication. And also, if the patient loses the copy of their prescription how do they know how to take or give the medication?? They also have an interesting way of filing the prescriptions. Those that come in with paper prescriptions, the bar code from the box is cut off and taped to the paper. Those prescriptions that are accessed via a computer system, those bar codes are taped to a piece of paper that contains barcodes from different patients (I don´t know if this makes any sense so I apologize). So there isn´t a central location that contains the medication history of patients; at least from what I have seen. And another thing! Some women have come in for birth control, which requires a prescription, but they do not cut the barcode off...?! This also occurs with different medication and I can´t understand why they don´t cut off the barcode.

The locations of pharmacies in Spain are closely monitored by the government. In order to open a pharmacy at least three requirements need to be filled: (1) have money, (2) your pharmacy must be a certain distance from any other pharmacy and (3) in order to even open a pharmacy, the neighborhood you serve must have a certain number of people. What would Walgreens, CVS, Longs, Kroger, Target, Ralphs............say about that? We obviously have a very different way of setting up pharmacies - one on every corner. I´m not complaining by any means, I may be working at one of those many pharmacies in the future.

There are many questions I still have to ask Tat in the next two weeks. I will do my best but charades will only get me so far. I may have to come in with a transcript.

Off to study some catalan over cervezas and tapas!!!

Adéu!!!