Medical Checkup

Tuesday morning began with an invite to my friend Nick’s apartment. With it being ‘pancake Tuesday’, he offered to make pancakes at his house. Nick is from England, so their version of pancakes are what we refer to as crepes. They were delicious! He is a very good cook (last week he made fajitas) and it was wonderful spending the morning together.

Later that afternoon I was picked up and taken to the local hospital for my health check. This is a standard procedure that is done with every foreign teacher. The school also recently hired a new Canadian teacher, his name is Alex and he came along as well. As Alex and I entered the hospital, we were overwhelmed with a strong smell of gas. This immediately made me wonder what I was getting myself into. It also didn’t look like the professional medical buildings we have back home… this one was slightly in shambles. Apparently the privately owned hospitals are beautiful, but they charge about 80,000 won for a medical check, whereas this one was less than 20,000 (just under $20 CDN).

Firstly, we went into a room where they tested our vision, hearing and then our BMI. The machine they used to do this was labeled “FATNESS MEASURING APPARATUS” (so lovely to think that my fatness is being checked!). This was all done out in the open, in front of about half a dozen people… there is no confidentiality here!

Next we went into an X-Ray lab for chest X-Rays. Again, it looked like more of a mechanic garage than a hospital. We were instructed to remove our tops and put on pink robes (see picture) and then took turns standing in front of the x-ray machine. There were no lead vests to put on while the other was getting the X-ray; but asking would have caused more confusion so I kept my mouth shut.

After that, we had to pee on sticks to do a urine analysis. I was shocked when I stepped into the washroom stall to find no toilet… just a hole in the floor that you squat over… nice!

Lastly we had blood work done. We entered a room with a sign on the front door with lots of Korean symbols, and then AIDS written in big letters…. Not the thing you want to see when you’re about to get needles poked into you. I’m figuring the Korean words were just other things they tested for and that this was not just an AIDS room.

The nurse took our blood and in front of us started putting different liquids into it and testing it against the white colour of her sleeve. It’s weird to see medical professionals doing their stuff out in the open like that- usually it’s behind closed doors in the lab. Apparently we’re both O blood type.

The rest of the day went smoothly; I went to school, taught and then came home and slept. During the night though there was a cat outside who was meowing like crazy… it woke me up and I felt so bad for it. Many of the cats here look quite bad- they don’t have tails anymore because they get into fights. It’s sad and it makes me miss my Meeka at home.

Today I was able to buy a shelf, fan, heater and desk light from a guy who was selling his things. It was a challenge bringing it home, but luckily a friend from work offered to help me. I feel like my apartment is FINALLY getting to where I want it to be.

One thing I miss from home: black tea! I’ve been looking everywhere for it but can’t find it anywhere. I didn’t think I’d miss it, but I’ve been craving it like crazy! Friday I go to Costco for the first time, so I’ll look for it there (fingers crossed).

I took a few more pics of some of my other kids at school… they’re so cute!

On a final note, I think I’m getting sick. I’ve been popping multivitamins, Cold FX and Vitamin C like crazy, but I don’t think it’s helping. Any advice????