My throat had been sore for days, so I decided to do something about it. Normally, I try to avoid using painkillers, because I’m one of those people who’s afraid that they’ll get too used to them and that the drugs won’t work when you really need them.

So I was very sceptic when I entered the local pharmacy. The branch was a bit rundown, with squeaky floors and dubious stains on the carpet. They had an entire isle of toothpaste – why would you want to choose from 75 different kinds of toothpaste? – and there were ‘meal solutions’ with chicken that doesn’t require cooling or reheating. Ibuprofen comes in ‘value sized’ jars of one thousand pills and everything has antibiotics in it.

They didn’t have Strepsils, so I ended up buying a bottle of NyQuil.

NyQuil is a syrup with a very strong fake cherry flavor that contains a painkiller, something against coughing, and a sedative. Oh, and 10% alcohol. I’ve never had medicine with alcohol before but I’m sold on its use. Especially in combination with the sedative.

‘NyQuil sleep is the best sleep,’ a friend told me after I was raving about it the next day. Just 30 milliliters of syrup and I was gone for a solid 11 hours. It definitely was the best sleep I’ve had since my roommate moved in, and my sore throat was miraculously gone. In the Netherlands, I would’ve been messing around with honey and thyme for days, but these American chemicals worked instantly.

So naturally, I wanted another NyQuil sleep the next night – especially since my roommate was snoring loudly. But my sore throat was gone, so it wouldn’t be wise to keep taking the medicine. Luckily, American big pharma has thought of that: the pharmacy had a shelf filled with non-prescription sleeping pills. You can count on American medicine to help you fall asleep, without having to resort to reading the boring text on the back of the packaging.

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