A little bit of Portuguese Culture Shock at the Doctor's

Today, we went in for our last doctor's visit before we head home. We had our sonogram pictures in hand so our doctor could also see that everything looked well. The other day her office called and changed our appointment to 1 PM from the original 10AM.

So, we arrived at the hospital around 1PM and found standing room only in the waiting area. R was able to find a chair while I (B) stood. Slowly, but surely the waiting room dwindled down enough for me to get a seat. We noticed some irritated women but didn't think too much about it. But after waiting for 3 hours, we very much noticed two couples who saw the doctor before we did but who came in after we did. After inquiring (amazing how no one can speak English when you start asking questions that nobody wants to answer) we found out 4 more couples were ahead of us. We had already counted several who had gone before us and calculated that we would be there at least until 6PM if we stayed (a wait of 6...6 hours!!!). Needless to say we were not happy and we left.

So, even though we didn't get to our doctor before we left Portugal, we had seen the 20 week sonograms and that doctor had said everything looked OK. Culture Shock Portuguese Style: Waiting 6 hours to see your doctor.