Our Medical Exam

At school last Sunday (yes, we had to work on a Sunday!) we got a vague description of a medical procedure we would have to undergo the next day. There was choppy talk of blood drawn, a long taxi ride, getting 1000 RMB out of the bank, passport photos...we were confused. The news was delivered to us very ambiguously, and in a way that most Americans would find rude, but we have now come to acknowledge that most things that we perceive as rude can really just be attributed to an inability to fully communicate (many of the teachers can't speak English well, if at all) and cultural differences in how we communicate. We knew the exam had to do with being allowed to work at the school and/or obtaining our working visa. But we were taken aback by how expensive it was going to be and by the fact that we had to get blood drawn. If we were going to get jabbed with needles in a foreign country we wanted to know exactly why! We went home and sat ruminating about what was going to happen the next day when we finally heard from our boss (who owns the school and employed us, but is not at the school very often). He made us feel much better about everything (as he usually does!) and explained that the medical exam is a requirement in order to obtain a working visa in China.

We met Louise, an intern at our school, at 6:30am the next morning in front of our apartment. We took a taxi almost an hour (see the post below about what a wild ride it was!) to the hospital. When we got to the door of the hospital we found out it didn't open for another two hours! We were frustrated that one of the school administers sent us here so early when she knew what time it opened (later she told us she "worries about traffic jam") but we could only laugh. Luckily we were able to wait in a lobby area and begin filling out the required paperwork. Before we knew it it was time to line up to register. We couldn't believe it (although, these days nothing really surprises us!) when people pushed and shoved in line and tried to cut us after we had been waiting 2 hours!

We successfully registered and were given a sheet with a list of 7 rooms we needed to visit for different exams. It reminded us of a scavenger hunt...everyone frantically running around searching for the different exam rooms trying to check them all off their list. Our first stop was to get our blood drawn. We both shared our hesitations, especially after observing the pain-filled grimace of a woman getting it done just before us. She stared right at us with a look that screamed "help me!" We went one at a time, squeezing each others' hands throughout the painful and disconcertingly rushed process. Then we were off to get xrays, an ultrasound, have our heart monitored, have our vision checked and a couple of other low-key exams where we really didn't know what they were testing! Before we knew it we were done and one step closer to getting our working visa.

After another crazy taxi ride we were home and spent the rest of the day resting...getting our blood drawn really took a lot out of us!

Nearly a week later, our arms are still bruised from getting blood drawn!