There's a little drugstore across the street from me. I really like it. There are two girls who work there and they are very nice to me even after all of the crazy things I've said to them and the looks of helplessness I've shot their way over the counter countless times. I am afraid that I am the customer that they see coming and think: Oh no, not her. <em>Again</em>.

But nothing in their body language ever tells me this so I just smile and hope that I can get what I need. Today it was sunscreen and aspirin. Neither one of these things seems very challenging and/or embarrassing.

It's nothing like  last summer when I was really sick and had to buy anti-diarrhea medicine.  Or more recently when I went to fill a prescription for a urinary tract infection and had a lot of back and forth over whether I was pregnant or not. For the record I am not.

So compared to these things sunscreen seems pretty straightforward. The stuff I want is in a glass cabinet so I have to ask for the pharmacist to open it for me which she does. Then I pick out what I want. It's not cheep but that's okay. I want something that I know works and that I know doesn't irritate my skin.

However, the pharmacist doesn't like my selection. She sighs and looks at me. Then she tells me something in Bulgarian I don't understand. I tell her that I don't understand. Then she asks me something about my skin which I vaguely understand. Mind you the packaging of the sunscreen is in French with a Bulgarian label stuck haphazardly on top and some English on the front of the box. <!--more-->

The Bulgarian is very little and hard for me to read. At times like this I often pretend that I speak French because I can usually make more of that out than itsy-bitsy printed Bulgarian. So we're both peering at this relatively small box and I am wondering: Why is this such a big deal?

Then I think: Hey, it's actually pretty nice that she wants me to buy the right thing. This would never happen in the States. So I buy what she tells me to because really, who am I to refuse her?

I also pick up some aspirin. Only this time I get to pick between plain old every day aspirin and effervescent aspirin tablets with vitamin C.  I don't really know why I'd want the effervescent aspirin tablets with vitamin C so I pick the plain kind. So 40 leva later I have two bottles of sunscreen--one for my face, one for my body--and some aspirin.

I guess I am all but set for the Elevation Music Festival this next weekend!!