November 15 - Medical Check

On the 5th, I was told to meet Vincent at the East Gate of the university to head over to the southeast corner of the city for my provincially mandated health examination. When I arrived there, I was told we were waiting for someone else to come along with us for his health check. I was pretty excited to meet my first fellow 老外 (lao wai; foreign friend).

Vincent and I waited around for him for over half an hour, with Vincent finally going to check a different gate of the university in case they got mixed up. He finally did show up and turned out to be a pretty hefty looking guy from Ghana.

Vincent had us board a BRT bus (a special bus that gets a reserved lane, but only goes to high-traffic areas of the city) and head over to the provincial quarantine office. We were essentially getting a health check to make sure we weren't spreading some sort of plague-death.

When we arrived, things turned out a lot better than expected. The lineups for all the various medical procedures were pretty short. The most complicated procedures were a blood test, an electro-cardiogram and an ultrasound of my liver and gall bladder. My blood test was the worst part. My veins are hard to see, so the nurse kept jabbing my wrist repeatedly with a needle in the wrong places, then at one point she started digging around under my skin with the needle to try to find the vein. It felt like she was skinning my wrist with a knife. I also found out I have gall stones. Awesome.

Anyway, after the medical check (300 rmb, but covered by my school), we came back by bus to the school, and Vincent showed me the building where I would be teaching my class that afternoon. It was in a different place because it had been rescheduled due to the medical exam. While we were there, Vincent got a call from his colleague who invited the two of us for lunch. Vincent told me she wouldn't stop nagging him to meet me because she had heard I was young and cute.

Anyway, we ended up meeting at the school's staff cafeteria, which is actually more like a full-service high-end restaurant. I was surprised by the quiet opulence of the place. I had been picturing a staff room similar to the ones I've seen at schools in Canada, but this was actually really nice by comparison.

Xu Xin (or Susie as she told me to call her) turned out to be a funny but shy girl who had been to study for her bachelor's degree in Florida. She really misses life there and wants to go back. She also misses eating at Subway. Vincent called her fat and asked me, quite matter of factly, if I agreed with him. I said I didn't want to comment on a lady's weight. He said she wouldn't mind. I took one look at the grim set of her jaw and pretty much told him she wasn't happy about it so he should stop. Susie was pretty happy about that. Previously her only choice was to take it or to tell him to shut up, though he never listened.

After that though, we had a pleasant meal, exchanged contact info and then everyone went on their way.