Medical Check

The highlight of today had to be the visit to the hospital for my medical evaluation.

I met the director at 8:30am and we were at the hospital by 9:00, I was home by 10:30am. I mention this mostly because of the multitude of things we went there for and the speed at which it was completed.

Sometime was lost trying to find the right entrance. I told the director that had she not been there I would still be tried to use the first door. Once directed to the right place it was a take a number system. Once they found out why I was there we started with a self-assessment for mental health.

The director watched me fill it out and mentioned that teacher usually laugh at the questions. Beside the grammatical errors, the subject of the questions were most amusing -or scary.

They start simple by asking if you hear voices. You answer on a 0 to 5 scale, no explanation of it so I must assume 0 is no voices and 5 is like "these voices need to try using a talking stick". The number matters because your score is tallied up at the end, the higher the number than the ... well, whatever it is it would be really insensitive and not politically correct. Then the questions get weird. Number 6, was about the frequency in which you think about sex. Later, if you believed you would be punished for your sins. So whether you're hypersexual or fundamentally religious -there's a number for you!

Next was a quick blood pressure test. Then all my measurements were taken -yes, even belly and bust. Then I had my eyes tested, and then my ears. Next I spoke with a doctor about  if I had any infectious diseases. Then I went to pay. Then I had my teeth checked and a chest X-ray.

The director was excited to take my picture next to my Korean name on the screen. Most importantly I'm wearing my x-ray robe for this momentous occasion

All the while the director and I briskly walking between departments to get this all done. We finally ended with a blood test and urine sample. The results will arrive on Monday and then the form can be submitted for my Alien Registration Card!

The card however won't be here for at least four weeks. These adventures in bureaucracy may never end! But I can't complain, not when I studied so hard to care about bureaucracy.

I will need the ID card to open a bank account. Not something that was too concerning when I gave all but 11,000 won (or 15$ AUD) to the hospital. But my afternoon adventures walking around the neighbourhood proved that my Vancity card doesn't seem to be compatible with the atms here.

I walked around and found 5 atms in my neighbourhood and I tried every combination to get some money out. In the end I bought some milk so that I could eat the cereal left for me in the apartment for dinner. I might try using my Australian cards tomorrow. I do have some food here, but not much.

On that note I used my rice cooker to make rice today. I figured out my washing machine just fine despite the lack of English instructions but I felt the rice cooker could be more difficult.

These are the instructions on the front panel of the rice cooker.

After careful translation I got this:

"Pleasure in Grain"

I found nice pleasure in this grain.

My neighbourhood stroll was quite fascinating. I was first struck by how many Christian churches appeared to be nearby. It's quite surprising when barely 30% of South Koreans are Christian. I'm talking multiple large churches spanning multiple blocks.

Perhaps more telling then that is the possible Jehovah's witnesses that interrupted my Skype date with mum. They left after we determined there was an unbreakable language barrier.

On the walk I also discovered lots of cafes, some great parks, and what I suspect is a university.

I plan on doing some more exploring tomorrow!