Let's get physical
So, today I had to turn into uni to get a physical examination done for the transfer of my holiday visa to a resident's permit.
As usual it was the disorganised fiasco I have come to expect. I collected my form from a lady at the entrance to the ICCS building (the admin building for foreign students learning chinese) which I dutifully filled out. All your ususal details with a few 'unsures' thrown in for good measure, just to keep the confusion going...lol
The next step was to work out which room I was supposed to go to next. Three room were being used, one had people clutching at their arms where they had just given blood, one had a queue of people clutching their examination form and photocopies of their passports (with passport photos attached) and so I reasoned that I sould go to the last as I had none of the above. Having made the right choice I went in to collect my photocopied passport details and passport photos which I had handed in on registration on Monday. The admin officer there asked my for my pink slip (my copy of my registration form) at which point I noticed that instead of having 'sex' or 'gender' on the form there was a box labelled 'sexuality', what kind of examination was this!...lol
Moving onto the next queue I waited to enter the room people were exiting with a plaster their arm, so I was to give blood, step one of the exam sussed. Whilst waiting to enter door number two I got chatting to the guy infront of me (Chinese, with the accent, had an American passport but had spent the last 17 years in Germany) and we noticed that those who had just given blood were being escorted in threes to a large bus with blacked out windows outside the building. Again, with no information available as to what was to happen on the bus we began to speculate, urine and stool samples being brought into the conversation from a note at the bottom of the examination form. I'd be buggered if I was going to drop my kex and take a dump in a small paper tray, I have a hard enough time peeing in public toilets!...lol
Entering room two we had our forms checked for correctness and moved through a series of laptop equiped stations, each one performing a single duty, and not too accurately! Although my passport photocopy clearly said 1969 as the year on my birthdate the card that was produced to accompany my many other forms had my age as 36 and when I brought this error up I was told not to worry as it didn't matter. If only they invested so much enthusiasm into everything else they do here things would be very different, wait a minute they do!...lol Moving on I paid my fee, which seemed to vary according to the country you were from (or maybe I got an OAP discount due to my age;o) ), and was ushered behind a curtain to give blood. Thankfully, there was a box of clean new needles infront of me, but it was a little disconcerting to see the rack of blood filled vials next to it.
Blood sucking out the way I was shown to the third room to await my turn on the magical mystery bus. Getting to the door of the bus the previous three student were spat out and we were ushered on and prompted to slip on blue paper foot covers, which got me wondering what they were going to do and why would they not want me to make a mess of my trainers. Moving to the first station (yes more stations to attend) I was laid on a bed, hooked up with electrodes (maybe they were going to test my conviction to learn Chinese) and given an EKG (electric cardio gram) and my internal organs were checked with a mobile ultrasound unit for fitness, I was pleased to hear that they were all present and correct. The next station was a sight test and blood pressure, which I blitzed with flying colours (the £999 spent at Optimax to get my eyes lasered paying off again...lol). Finally we had to have a chest x-ray. Having spent some time working for a medical imaging services company all I could think about was kVs, mAs, entrance surface doses and all that backscatter. Hopefully the Chinese medical industry has well trained radiographers and engineers, if not I could always start a consultancy company and introduce them to quality assurance, but then again I want to enjoy my life and work in China so I may leave that as a last resort...lol
Once everything was done I was shown the door to street level. Again I was lost as what was to happen next so I just sauntered about until it was obvious that was it and I made my way home.
As usual it was the disorganised fiasco I have come to expect. I collected my form from a lady at the entrance to the ICCS building (the admin building for foreign students learning chinese) which I dutifully filled out. All your ususal details with a few 'unsures' thrown in for good measure, just to keep the confusion going...lol
The next step was to work out which room I was supposed to go to next. Three room were being used, one had people clutching at their arms where they had just given blood, one had a queue of people clutching their examination form and photocopies of their passports (with passport photos attached) and so I reasoned that I sould go to the last as I had none of the above. Having made the right choice I went in to collect my photocopied passport details and passport photos which I had handed in on registration on Monday. The admin officer there asked my for my pink slip (my copy of my registration form) at which point I noticed that instead of having 'sex' or 'gender' on the form there was a box labelled 'sexuality', what kind of examination was this!...lol
Moving onto the next queue I waited to enter the room people were exiting with a plaster their arm, so I was to give blood, step one of the exam sussed. Whilst waiting to enter door number two I got chatting to the guy infront of me (Chinese, with the accent, had an American passport but had spent the last 17 years in Germany) and we noticed that those who had just given blood were being escorted in threes to a large bus with blacked out windows outside the building. Again, with no information available as to what was to happen on the bus we began to speculate, urine and stool samples being brought into the conversation from a note at the bottom of the examination form. I'd be buggered if I was going to drop my kex and take a dump in a small paper tray, I have a hard enough time peeing in public toilets!...lol
Entering room two we had our forms checked for correctness and moved through a series of laptop equiped stations, each one performing a single duty, and not too accurately! Although my passport photocopy clearly said 1969 as the year on my birthdate the card that was produced to accompany my many other forms had my age as 36 and when I brought this error up I was told not to worry as it didn't matter. If only they invested so much enthusiasm into everything else they do here things would be very different, wait a minute they do!...lol Moving on I paid my fee, which seemed to vary according to the country you were from (or maybe I got an OAP discount due to my age;o) ), and was ushered behind a curtain to give blood. Thankfully, there was a box of clean new needles infront of me, but it was a little disconcerting to see the rack of blood filled vials next to it.
Blood sucking out the way I was shown to the third room to await my turn on the magical mystery bus. Getting to the door of the bus the previous three student were spat out and we were ushered on and prompted to slip on blue paper foot covers, which got me wondering what they were going to do and why would they not want me to make a mess of my trainers. Moving to the first station (yes more stations to attend) I was laid on a bed, hooked up with electrodes (maybe they were going to test my conviction to learn Chinese) and given an EKG (electric cardio gram) and my internal organs were checked with a mobile ultrasound unit for fitness, I was pleased to hear that they were all present and correct. The next station was a sight test and blood pressure, which I blitzed with flying colours (the £999 spent at Optimax to get my eyes lasered paying off again...lol). Finally we had to have a chest x-ray. Having spent some time working for a medical imaging services company all I could think about was kVs, mAs, entrance surface doses and all that backscatter. Hopefully the Chinese medical industry has well trained radiographers and engineers, if not I could always start a consultancy company and introduce them to quality assurance, but then again I want to enjoy my life and work in China so I may leave that as a last resort...lol
Once everything was done I was shown the door to street level. Again I was lost as what was to happen next so I just sauntered about until it was obvious that was it and I made my way home.
posted by Nick at
4:41 pm
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