Channing Frye wanted his brother Logan to follow in his footsteps to the University of Arizona. But he's going to Michigan. Frye blogs: "This lone wolf has to be different and he took his fat head to the cold, terrible, frozen tundra of Michigan. On the other hand, he is a brainiac so I guess it's sort of a good school for that. Not the best school ever like U of A, but maybe it comes in a close 45th because U of A takes up the top 44 places as the best school ever. So, congrats, on being accepted into igloo school."
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I recently had my first personal encounters with the Swedish medical system. I don't want to get myself all riled up now about the travesties in American healthcare, but suffice it to say, my experience here was pretty excellent. The doctor I saw was so nice and relaxed it was like a joke. I had the feeling that I could have asked her questions for an hour and she would have been polite and attentive the whole time. At dinner the other night with a group of girls who are involved in medicine/science here, I was learning more about the differences in healthcare between the different landstings in Sweden, which are sort of like different counties, and apparently up north there are some real difficulties, but that's obviously a common issue, of the highest quality medical care being centered in major urban/metropolitan areas.
Because the Fulbright commission arranges for us to be here for the year without Swedish personnummer, which are the social security numbers that basically give you access to every single service that exists in Sweden, I did have to pay up front and will look forward to receiving my reimbursement from the U.S. Department of State health insurance plan on a cold day in hell, but going to Apoteket, the state-run pharmacy, to get my two prescriptions, was a simply beautiful experience. Elephant Pharmacy ("the pharmacy that prescribes yoga") in Berkeley was many steps up from good old Rite Aid on 110th Street, a place which provided experiences that are permanently seared into my brain, but Apoteket was like heaven. You walk in, and as always, you take a number from the machine and wait for your number to be called. You don't have to stand in line, shifting your weight from foot to foot, while people breathe down your neck. Then they scan your prescription and just give it to you. You don't have to wait for 5 minutes, or 5 hours, or 24 hours. They just take it off the bloody shelf and give it to you. The shelves and drawers, of course, are beautiful light blond wood, probably from Ikea. One prescription cost 96 kronor - about $14 - and the other cost 41 kronor - about $6.
In America, I have no doubt they would cost approximately $900 and insurance would maybe cover $20. It's not perfect here, it's really not, but all I have to say is - god bless socialized medicine.
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Tomorrow - "American" brunch at Arizona.
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A picture of Hornstull, and the street where I live - with the buildings being built! - and the floating bathhouse, in 1930.
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