Poked and Prodded

August 20, 2010

We had our medical check ups today...they tested everything! We walked into the auditorium and had to answer a questionnaire with questions such as: have you ever had any problems with your back, ankles, hips, knees; Do you have asthma; How often do you feel stressed or depressed; ect.  Then they weighed and measured us, tested our vision (strange because the eye sight test is typically with letters of the alphabet and this one was with numbers... so when she pointed to the number I wasn’t sure if it was a 5 or an S!), tested if we were color blind, then took 3 blood samples! I’m surprised they didn’t take a hair sample as well. Then…the urine sample…I kid you not! This was definitely the awkward part.

They gave us a little cup (I mean like a little Dixie cup with NO lid) and we had to fill it at least a third of the way. Well if I had known prior to this medical check up that a urine sample was going to be administered I wouldn’t have peed before we got there! So, I went into the stall and found a hole in the floor…awesome, just the thing to top this whole morning off. A squatie. So I go to do my business and, of course, I cannot produce a sufficient amount…I mean I could only produce enough to cover the bottom of the cup. Awesome. I start busting out laughing because one of my friends here was waiting outside my stall to go next and I told her what the problem was. I literally had to do the walk of shame out of the bathroom, holding my cup of insufficient pee and wait on the steps with a bottle of water. Luckily, my roommate was experiencing the same problems. Then, sure enough, we had a whole little group of people, men and women, waiting on the steps with us because no one had to actually pee. Thirty minutes later I said “to hell with this” and tried one more time...only adding a couple more drops to my cup and I took it to the nurse saying I just didn’t have it in me…literally. Thank goodness she said that it should be enough to get what they needed (it wasn’t even a fourth of the cup full so I don’t even know how the others were able to produce much more than what I had). 

After I submitted my urine sample I had to go on a bus so they could take an x-ray of my chest…goodness gracious where does this end….Poked and Prodded this morning. This was the final stage and after this it was over. I was so hungry after this because we were unable to eat 6 hours before these tests were administered and I fell asleep last night before 10pm. We topped off our morning by eating at a Paris Baguette and I had a cinnamon twist donut…mmmm! 

First day of classes are today so after lunch we’ll see what happens! I think I’m going out with several of my fellow teachers tonight after the classes end around 8pm. There’s this little chicken place down the street (the one street that’s about a five minute walk there and back and pretty much the only road we have with any type of life on it) that serves beer and such. This should be a good time and I can have some of the Hite beer here!