Hey Guys and Gals,
I got to experience a couple of new things this past week here in Korea. First was how school's do a "typhoon drill." I don't know what I was expecting but it was not what happened. I was thinking there would be more to it for some odd reason. All the students, staff and faculty simply came down to the basement and sat in the gym... Yep. That was all :-\
About my visit to the hospital though, now that I found very interesting. I have the opportunity to work part time here at an international school as a counselor. They are in the process of getting the work visa I need to be able to work here and a part of that process was getting a physical. Thank God there was someone else that I met before going through the process as well so we were together on our trip to the hospital. I would like to just say that the last time I had a physical was several years ago and if I recall correctly they pretty much just took my temperature, checked my blood pressure, checked my reflexes, and took like my height and weight. This experience included most of that and so much more. Had I known I would have brought my camera or phone to take pictures.
First we arrived at the school expecting the lady that typically we go through to take us to the doctor. It was actually like a school van driver that took us and neither of us had ever met this older man before. We are chit chatting about various subjects on our way to the hospital. We get to where we need to be and our "guide" gets to hustling us right along. We are each given a sheet that we are supposed to write our names and birth dates on. Then the lady and our guide get to talking and she writes random numbers separated by hyphens at the bottom of the page, it looked something like "13-1-2-5-6-7". What we learned were the numbers were the stations that we needed to go to for the medical staff to check various things.
Our first station was having our temperature taken and teeth checked. Second was to give a urine sample. I want to pause here to share that I have had to give urine samples a few times back in the States for internships and jobs. That being said this experience was nothing like that with the exception of peeing in a cup. Typically I have had everything taken away and the water is turned off in that particular single person bathroom, plus I've had where the toilet water was blue. This was just a regular bathroom where other people were also and I had all of my stuff with me. The cup was not the typical plastic cup that you screw the top on, it was like a large Dixie cup and we were given plastic pipette (had to look that word up) to suck the urine into. I about freaked out because my pee almost dripped on my hand. Then I had to place my sample on the test-tube rack with other people's samples. Next, I had my blood taken by someone not wearing gloves and then I thought of it later and didn't see her open that needle up so I got a little freaked out for a second but it was too late at that point.
After that I went to the next station for a chest x-ray, yep. Never had one before and was shocked at how thorough this physical was at this point. My next station took my blood pressure, checked my eyes for color blindness, took my height and bust size. Not sure what the bust measurement was about but I conceded. The final station was to have my sight and hearing tested, that was the loudest beep sound, not at all subtle. Lastly was the consultation with a semi-English speaking Korean doctor. He basically asked if I had any medical issues to report and I just said, "no," because I am healthy and if I'm honest I don't think that if I would have had a medical problem he would really know what I was saying.
So yea, that physical was REAL! LOL
Miss ya, Love ya,
Camille
I got to experience a couple of new things this past week here in Korea. First was how school's do a "typhoon drill." I don't know what I was expecting but it was not what happened. I was thinking there would be more to it for some odd reason. All the students, staff and faculty simply came down to the basement and sat in the gym... Yep. That was all :-\
About my visit to the hospital though, now that I found very interesting. I have the opportunity to work part time here at an international school as a counselor. They are in the process of getting the work visa I need to be able to work here and a part of that process was getting a physical. Thank God there was someone else that I met before going through the process as well so we were together on our trip to the hospital. I would like to just say that the last time I had a physical was several years ago and if I recall correctly they pretty much just took my temperature, checked my blood pressure, checked my reflexes, and took like my height and weight. This experience included most of that and so much more. Had I known I would have brought my camera or phone to take pictures.
First we arrived at the school expecting the lady that typically we go through to take us to the doctor. It was actually like a school van driver that took us and neither of us had ever met this older man before. We are chit chatting about various subjects on our way to the hospital. We get to where we need to be and our "guide" gets to hustling us right along. We are each given a sheet that we are supposed to write our names and birth dates on. Then the lady and our guide get to talking and she writes random numbers separated by hyphens at the bottom of the page, it looked something like "13-1-2-5-6-7". What we learned were the numbers were the stations that we needed to go to for the medical staff to check various things.
Our first station was having our temperature taken and teeth checked. Second was to give a urine sample. I want to pause here to share that I have had to give urine samples a few times back in the States for internships and jobs. That being said this experience was nothing like that with the exception of peeing in a cup. Typically I have had everything taken away and the water is turned off in that particular single person bathroom, plus I've had where the toilet water was blue. This was just a regular bathroom where other people were also and I had all of my stuff with me. The cup was not the typical plastic cup that you screw the top on, it was like a large Dixie cup and we were given plastic pipette (had to look that word up) to suck the urine into. I about freaked out because my pee almost dripped on my hand. Then I had to place my sample on the test-tube rack with other people's samples. Next, I had my blood taken by someone not wearing gloves and then I thought of it later and didn't see her open that needle up so I got a little freaked out for a second but it was too late at that point.
After that I went to the next station for a chest x-ray, yep. Never had one before and was shocked at how thorough this physical was at this point. My next station took my blood pressure, checked my eyes for color blindness, took my height and bust size. Not sure what the bust measurement was about but I conceded. The final station was to have my sight and hearing tested, that was the loudest beep sound, not at all subtle. Lastly was the consultation with a semi-English speaking Korean doctor. He basically asked if I had any medical issues to report and I just said, "no," because I am healthy and if I'm honest I don't think that if I would have had a medical problem he would really know what I was saying.
So yea, that physical was REAL! LOL
Miss ya, Love ya,
Camille
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