Jabs not shots

I just put up a short post on my personal blog about getting shots for our upcoming trip to Tanzania. In the process of getting the shots I learned two new things about the NHS.

First, they use the word "jab" for injection. This is analogous to the American word "shot". It took me a minute to realize this when I sat down with the nurse who was doing the injections. When she looked at me and said, ''I'm going to be giving you two jabs," the first thing I thought of was a jab as in boxing.

Second, the NHS will actually charge you for some things. I was astonished, but I had to pay for my inoculations (£60 for Jenna and me). I didn't have any issue with being asked to pay for immunizations that aren't normally required for adults in this country, but I could tell that many of their patients did by the way the constantly warned us of the fee.

I think the staff at the clinic told me at least five times that there would be a fee for some of the jabs. The funniest part, was when we tried to pay. The girl behind the counter was new, and didn't realize that we would have to pay. She also didn't know how much to charge us.