Getting our residency permits has proven to be a difficult
and bureaucratic process. One of the
requirements of getting said permits is having a thorough physical examination
that proves that we are healthy and capable of teaching for a year in
China. Although we had all gotten these
examinations done in the states before we came and brought the paperwork with
us, it turned out that this was not enough.
We needed to have the physical exam redone in China. Thus began our adventures at the
International Travel Healthcare Center of Chongqing.
The visit to the International Healthcare Center was perhaps
one of the most dizzying and confusing experiences of my life. We had to leave early in the morning so all
of us slept on the way into the city. When
we arrived, we were hastily woken up and rushed through the rain into a loud
office. At this point my mind was just
waking up and I could not understand everyone was shouting at us and pointing
to a small, sitting area in the corner. I finally understood that the other
teachers and I were to go over to that area to fill out paperwork. Bob and Mr. Chen immediately started handing
out papers. Bob was frantically running
around shouting in broken English and Chinese.
He kept running back and forth from one desk to another. Meanwhile, my half-asleep self was
desperately trying to figure out what was going on and what I needed to
do.
By the time I finished filling out the forms, I had woken
up. I was then whisked by a frantic, and
somewhat rough, Mr. Chen (who speaks no English) to a window. Before I knew what was happening, some lady
behind a counter was taking my picture.
I was pushed along to yet another window where they pointed a laser at
my head and, the next thing I knew, Mr. Chen was assertively guiding me up the
stairs. Bob, at this point, had
completely disappeared. This was
actually preferred because I honestly think he was making all of us very
anxious. We later found out that he left
to go to the British Consulate to take care of another teacher who had lost his
passport. However, at this point, his
disappearance was a mystery to us.
The next stage of our health check-up was more
exciting. We were shepherded into chairs
while Mr. Chen exclaimed loudly in Chinese.
They took our blood and then we were herded into a hallway. We were separated and pushed toward separate
rooms. First, I had an eye exam. This was the most confusing eye exam of my
life. I was given one of those things
you cover one eye with and told to look at a chart. Well, not told exactly, it was more like
motioned at. Consequently, It took a
long time for me to understand that I needed to indicate whether the lines went
up, down, right or left rather than say, “W,” “M,” etc. The woman giving the exam initialed my paper
and I was sent back into the hallway. I
rejoined the others briefly and then was pushed into a room labeled, “internal
medicine.” There was a thin curtain with
a young Chinese girl lying down on the other side. I was instructed by a very stern and cold Chinese
woman to put my things down and take of my bra.
She said this in a barking, angry tone that did not help my already frazzled
self-control. A few moments later, she
practically forced me onto the bed and began to examine me with a
stethoscope. It was as if she was trying
to impale me with the thing! She dug it,
rather hard, into my stomach and my chest.
She finished with that and forced me to a chair and literally pushed my
arm into a blood pressure machine. I was
very surprised at how low my blood pressure was considering the amount of
stress I was under at this point (108/72).
I was then pushed back into the hall, bra still unlatched and my things
jumbled in my arms.
About three minutes
later, Kelsey appeared from the same room I had just managed to help her with
her bra when a woman appeared and shepherded the two of us to the “ECG
room.” Getting the ECG was short and
easy. They had these weird suction cup,
plunger shaped things that they attached to my chest. The woman administering the test clamped
pinchers (that looked like the pinchers you attach to your car battery when it
dies) to my legs and arms. I felt like
Frankenstein’s monster. I waited for
Kelsey to finish her ECG and then the two of us were sent to have an ultra
sound. Now, I am a pretty ticklish
person and that goo they put us was really
cold. I felt so sorry for the young
woman examining me because I was rolling with laughter. I couldn’t help it! My experiences that day had just been so
bazar and then this woman was tickling me.
What was I supposed to do? Kelsey
was unable to take my laughter and started laughing behind the curtain. This, of course, only made the situation more
funny and inspired even more laughter.
Kelsey had her exam and we were ushered back into the hallway.
We were pointed to the bathroom and told to take a urine
test and then sent to the basement for an x-ray. I have a chest expander in my right chest and
I was rather concerned about how I was going to explain this to the x-ray technician
who obviously did not speak English.
Apparently, it didn’t matter. I
was pulled into the room, told to raise my arms over my head and the x-ray
commenced. Now, I have had a lot of
x-rays and, quite frankly, this was the strangest x-ray experience that I have
ever had. I did not have to take off my
clothes, my piercings, or my glasses.
There was also not any sort of protection for the lower half of my body from
radiation. I am pretty sure this was not
an entirely safe way to have an x-ray.
However, considering that I have already been through six weeks and then
three boosts of radiation treatment I figured, “Eh what’s the harm in a little
more radiation?” We were then sent back
up upstairs to the main lobby and registration area.
The other teachers and I reconvened in the lobby. At this point we all realized that both Bob
and Mr. Chen had both disappeared. We
chatted for a brief period with other foreign teachers from other schools
receiving the same tests, got some water, and waited. After about an hour we all became
nervous. Finally, we called Bob. Bob explained that we had six hours, “to
play” as we liked. We had not been told
that we had this time and thus, had a brief discussion about what we should
do. We decided to go into the main
square of the city and kill some time.
It was pouring rain and one of the teachers, a Japanese man who spoke
Chinese, procured some umbrellas from the main desk. We then got on a bus for about an hour. By this point, I was pretty cranky. We knew that we were going to have blood
tests done so none of us had eaten since the night before. We were tired, hungry and wet. The first thing that we did when we got off
of the bus was go to KFC.
KFC is popular in China.
In fact, it is probably more liked in China than in the United
States. Stepping out of the cold into
that KFC was like breathing fresh air.
Although there are many culture specific foods on the menu, there were
also things that can be found in the states.
Kelsey and I were ecstatic to find chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes and
ice cream sundaes. I think we needed
this. The food in China is wonderful,
but we needed a bit of home after our stressful day and KFC hit the spot. We proceeded to spend the rest of our time in
a bookstore and then took a taxi to meet Bob at the British Consulate for some
last minute errands before heading home.
About two weeks later we were again herded into a car and
taken to Chongqing. Mr. Chen looked
after us and made sure that we got breakfast before going to the Visa office. Bob gave us some forms to fill out. This time we were ready for stressed out Bob
and were not as easily affected by his frantic rambling. We filled out our forms calmly and moved from
window to window at the desk. The whole
process took about an hour. In about one
week I shall have my residency permit. I
am super excited because this will make traveling in, out and around China much
easier. I cannot wait to get to see more
of China. Although the experience of
getting our residency permits has been a bit hectic, and might have almost
given poor Bob a heart attack, it was all worth it. I love China and couldn’t be happier to be
considered a legitimate part of my new community.
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