it came out of no where...

my eyes leaked today out of frustration for the first time. i was at the hospital trying to get the immunizations i need before my trip to Thailand. i had studiously written out the Japanese for everything i required and had a friend jot down the kanji. as if the paperwork and hoops associated with going to the hospital aren’t enough to drive you mad in your native language. it was busy and i was a constant problem not being able to read and write reliably. i roped a nice grandfatherly man into reading all the releases to me while i feverishly flipped through the dictionary and pulled vocab out of the depths of my memory. a few things he wouldn’t read because, as he explained in Japanese, ‘he is a man and these are women things’. i arrived at 8:30 and spent nearly 5 hours having no clue where i was supposed to be, what i was waiting on, what anyone was saying to me, how long it would take, or if they even had what i needed [turns out they don’t. apparently you can’t get a typhoid immunization in japan because ‘japan is clean’.] i tried to phone a friend at school for translation help and got chased outta the hospital because obviously cell phones aren’t allowed. i had to call school three times for help, interrupting my supervisor who recently told me he is busy and wouldn’t be able to help me again for two weeks. after getting blood work for something to do with my liver i’m finally given one injection. something about vomiting and fever and red and two weeks. it’s so odd to have to shrug off the direction of medical professionals and fudge medical history forms because you can’t completely understand, but what are my options…not get the shots? later my supervisor translated one of his conversations with the nurse and it turns out i understood quite a bit, but in the moment there was just no way to verify my inferences. i couldn’t hold the silent tears back after i could not understand why i was only stuck once when i need 3 vaccines. the staff was friendly but understandably unable to coddle me. then i was lead to a big room with about 75 people waiting in chairs facing a huge screen with numbers flashing and names being called and was told to pay and yoyaku. i had no idea what to do. a nurse lead me to the counter where i left my file. then i just sat and pulled my hair out wondering if i needed a number, how long the wait was, how much this jab was gonna cost, if i was in the right waiting area… i finally heard my name [cause it was the only odd one they called out] at 1:30…so late that i was tardy to my own class. although i’d called to explain, i knew my teacher wasn’t happy when i found a note on my desk that read “hurry up!!”. i put on my happy face for class [reminded me of serving and how, even on horrible days, you turned on the smile at the table]. i went home for a movie and some cheesy comfort food. i really hate that it got the best of me...damn culture shock was to be expected though.