on being hard of hearing in a foreign counrty

for various reasons not fully understood and not worth detailing here, my right ear was not functioning well yesterday. (needing popping, but unpoppable) B"H, better now. Being temporarily and unexpectedly disabled was odd. Apparently since my voice was echoing in my head I was talking too quietly. I had to focus terribly just to hear the nice lady trying to show me how to use the audio guide at the national portrait gallery. (The guide itself was fine via my "good ear")

There is a joke that goes something like this:

Old Man: Doctor, my wife's hearing is getting terrible, but she refuses to be tested.
Doctor: Well, you can do some informal testing for me at home. Say something to her first from the next room, then moving closer and closer, saying the same, thing, until she responds, and see how close you have to get.
__ (later that day...)
Man (from living room): "what's for dinner?"
Man (from doorway to kitchen): "what's for dinner?"
Man (from 5 feet away from wife): "what's for dinner?"
Wife: "meatloaf, for the third time!"

Oddly, I was the opposite of the man. Ratter than assume nothing was happening if I couldn't hear it, I assumed I was always missing something important. I kept turning to see if someone was saying something, calling me, if something had happened, etc. maybe because the change in my hearing was not gradual. I did find that I walked into people more, etc, because apparently one of the cues I use to figure out what's going on that I can't see is hearing.

anyway, that's all for now. Thankfully, it's back to normal. so in retrospect, it's kind of like one of those activities in fourth grade where you wear a blindfold and get led around for a few hours...
makes you appreciate what you have, i suppose...