and so the story continues... rainy thursday morning i headed to the brandeis health center, but there i was told to go directly to the hospital. and so i did... again fifteen minutes in the rain with my aching foot. to hope street. what a coincidence to have a hospital on hope street... up the hill i went... and to the urgent care center i came... it was just before nine o'clock and it had just opened. unfortunately, my voice had deteriorated and i could not speak at all... just whisper loudly.... i was asked to sit down in the waiting room, had to fill in several forms about the current state of health and all the dozens of previous illnesses i had. of course, i marked as negative all the questions, i have never had any important disease, as far as i can remember... only wrote that "in my childhood i used to be allergic to some antibiotics, however, there is no evidence of which exactly". this statement made my lithuanian doctor laugh, but we'll reach that later... so... first i was taken to a male nurse. he checked my pulse, measured the temperature etc., then i was taken to the receptionist who registered me to the hospital, opened my file, copied my insurance card and marked that i complained about my right foot (by the way, the nurse made a mistake and first everyone thought that i have an injured left foot, not the right one). then yet another woman came and took me to have my foot x-rayed three times. and then i was seated in one room and was told to wait for the doctor. and the doctor came. his name was mark. his grandparents lived in vilnius but left lithuania under the tsarist rule and came here... what an encounter! he was so nice to me and then boasted to the whole personnel all around that "me and ieva could have been neighbors". funny doctor. good doctor. he told me i have tendinitis, which is an inflammation in the area of the tendon. usually joggers get this weird disease, but i haven't been jogging for a while... maybe i walk too much and the shoes are not that good... anyway, i was ordered to stay off feet as much as possible for at least three days, recieved a box of medicine and an interesting black shoe which prevents the foot of being bent. i thanked with the big efforts to raise my voice so that everybody could hear me... and i went home... in the rain... this hospital is one of the hundred best hospitals in the u.s., so i imagine what the cost will be for this treatment... but they did not ask me anything, i think they sent the bill directly to the insurance provider. and i sincerely hope that they cover it all. i suspect it to be several hundred dollars. if i hear nothing from them, maybe next week i go back to see my lithuanian doctor and ask about the other health problems i might have... coughing and the running nose... but my voice has returned:) and tonight arto will take me to the turkish-armenian dialogue meeting at harvard.

i still have the sheet my doctor gave me with all the directions about taking care of my foot... the last prescription was "see u in vilnius (voruta) at jogaila's house or king bathory's near the vilnia and neris rivers"...