So, this morning we all had our medical examinations per the agreement we signed in our contract. In short, we all had to be screened for TB, HIV, and we also had to take a drug test. I can only imagine everyone passed with flying colors, but getting to the point of being done with all the tests was somewhat of an interesting journey.
We arrived at the hospital arond 9AM, filed down stairs to a waiting room and began filling out an intake form. A few minutes later, we paid for the examination, and then one by one the nurses struggled to call out our English names, but eventually succeded in cycling all of us through the examintion process. At different stations, we had our blood presssure taken, vision tested, hearing tested, an EKG administered, our blood drawn, our teeth examimed, and to top it all we had to provide a urine sample for our drug test. Overall I was very impressed with the thoroughness of the examintion given that this was a general hospital. Suffice to say, I have never been to a hospital in the united states where there was a dentist standing by to deal w/ oral heal issues. However, though the thoroughness was impressive, a few things struck me as quite odd. First off, no one in the clininc used rubber gloves. Surely they used new needles for each blood draw, but no one used gloves. And the part that made me feel the most weird was the urine sample.
After finishing at the EKG station, I continued on the urinalysis station. Promptly I was given a paper dixie cup, and the technition gestured for me to head to the bathroom. I'm used to a plastic cup with a screw on lid, but I figured the dixie cup would work just fine. So, I headed to the restroom, appropriately filled the cup, and then began a brief but fruitless search for the small door that I am accustomed to placing a urine sample in. Rather, I should say, any time I have had to give a urine sample at the doctors office, I place the cup in the small door, and the technition on the other side retrieves and then processes the sample. But, at this clinic, no such luck, so with my urine filled dixie cup in hand, I proceded to walk out of the bath room, across the clinic and back to the technition at which point (again without any gloves) he pipetted out the amount he needed, and then handed the cup back to me. So, I walked back accross the clinic with a less-filled cup of urine, duped the rest down the urinal, and finally completed the drug test procedure.
Though in the moment of holding the warm full dixie cup in my hand and shuffling across the clinic I felt a bit embarassed, after the experience, I realized that those types of moments are the ones I came here to experience. Those moments of embarassment over a differnt cultural norm are what cause my to grow and deveolp and ultimately are what I was seeking in coming over here.
So, one medical examination in South Korea DONE! Hopefully, no more to come :-) I am unworriedly waiting to receive the results in a couple of days. By then, I should also have a cell phone and hopefully an appartment.
Until then... :-)
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