Physical

So part of the requirements in order to get an alien card for Korea is a physical. They want to make sure all of us foreigners aren't polluting the country with our drugs and STIs. I thought it was just a blood test, but no. I was in for a real treat.
The director of my school decided that I should go for the physical on Saturday morning. Remember that I only got to Korea Thursday evening. He thought it would be a good idea to get the tests over as quickly as possible so I can get my alien card right away. So I had to meet him at 8:00 on Saturday. I wasn't allowed to eat breakfast, not that I would have that early anyway, or drink anything other than water. The director picks me up and drives me to the hospital which is in the next city over. Fortunately the place where we were going for this only opened at 8:00 so we were second in line. It started with the nurse giving my director the bill and telling him to go pay. So he leaves me with these people who don't speak English to do a buch of tests. Allright. I can handle that I suppose. The first test was height and weight. Not sure what that has to do with drugs or AIDS, but it seemed important. Next was blood pressure, then colour blindness test and vision test. Then there was a hearing test. Then the nurse takes me to a new room and tells me to take off my clothes and put on a robe, then go to the next room for an x-ray. Okay. So I change into the robe and walk out of the room. At this point the director comes back. Oh good. I'm standing in front of my boss in a hospital gown. Nice. So I go to the next room where the x-ray technician positions me for the chest x-ray. There's a flat panel machine that you have to get as close to as you possible can. That means I had to squish up to it and wrap my arms around it like I'm giving it a big hug. I don't know if you noticed, but I'm not flat. I don't fit to a flat panel screen very well. Who am I kidding? Of course you noticed. Ya, not so comfortable. At least I got to go put my clothes back on after that. Next I went to see the doctor who was a little old man. He looked at my paper, asked if I felt sick, smiled and said, okay good. Apparently I was lucky. He didn't even speak to the last teacher, just stuck his hand down her shirt to listen to her heart. The last room was the blood test. I go in and the nurse hands me a paper cup. Go pee. Oh goody. All right. I go find the bathroom, aim for the cup, and pee on my hand. I did manage to get some in the cup, but I'm a girl okay. I don't aim. That's why I sit to pee. I don't have to aim that way. I clean up and go back to the room to hand over the cup. Then the nurse needs to take a blood test. He wraps the rubber band thingie around my arm and starts poking at my arm. Now I'm starting to tense up because I know that I have very deep veins and no one can ever seem to find them on the first try. Tensing up does not help this at all. Fortunately, he got it first poke. I could feel it the entire time though. I don't like that at all. He had to take three vials, and I could feel everytime he changed vials, and I bleed fairly slowly so it seemed to take forever, and again, I am tensing up which doesn't help. Finally he gets enough blood and the whole thing is over. It took forever, or ten minutes if you care about the real time. Then the director took me out for McDonald's breakfast which made everything better. McDonald's does some pretty good pancakes I must say.
The next adventure is actually getting my alien card. Then I can get my own phone, a bank account, and internet at my house. I'll keep you updated.