Along with all the teaching and next
week’s lesson preparation that has been going on this past week, we have also
had to sort out various items and official paperwork to ensure we can get our
working visas and become working residents in China. Monday night consisted of
a continuation of deep cleaning our new homes – start as you mean to go on; I
found a lot of sets of ear plugs under my bed…I’m not sure what that tells you
about the neighbours! I’ve also learnt that the washing machine floods the
entire bathroom when it drains the waste water – so being marooned after an
innocent trip to the toilet is a very real possibility (it’s definitely a way to
liven up toilet visits).
Tuesday was our return visit to the
police station to ensure that we were registered as foreign residents (I don’t
want to get deported). It’s really strange going to the police station to do
something that important and having absolutely no idea what is being said –
your fate is well and truly in someone else’s hands, it’s a little
disconcerting!
Wednesday was medical day. Despite
having had a full mandatory medical before I left the country we had to have
another done here to allow us to applying for our residents visas – that’s
China for you. Saying that, I’m pretty glad I did have a medical in the UK
before I left because after my Chinese medical experience I never want to have
to use the hospital here! Having spent
the last four years learning all about the human body and medical samples, I
probably noticed different things in the testing process to other people.
This blood test was the first one
where I have genuinely felt nervous about the process, it’s also the first fully
silent blood test I’ve ever had – it’s a pretty surreal experience. I had to stick my arm through a Perspex
window and the nurse tied a piece of rubber tubing VERY tightly around my arm
(that bit was bloody painful). Iodine
was used to sterilise my skin, I wasn’t surprised to see that China wasn’t
using throw-away sterile wipes, before she stuck a needle into (what I deemed
to be) the most bizarre choice of vein ever and then put my blood into tubes
which she’d been manhandling a few seconds before – sterile they were not!
Next up was the ultrasound. Tom
thought they were checking whether he was pregnant and I haven’t got a clue
which organ she was looking for on my ribs – but according to my form all my
organs are normal, China hasn’t ruined me yet! That’s another think I found
stupidly entertaining – data protection does not exist in China! My mentor was
merrily reading away at all my test results (it’s a good job I have nothing to
hide) – after having the importance of data protection drilled into me for
years I really wanted to grab it off her and never let it go, thankfully
China-fied Gillian kicked in!
The ECG was definitely an experience.
After my high-tech version in Aberdeen walking behind the curtain here felt
like entering Frankenstein’s lab – Tom looked traumatised after his! I thought
the little suckers they attached to me were going to leave my looking like I’d
had some kind of cupping incident at the spa!
The urine sample we just had to
abandon on the shelf, with a sheet of paper with our name on it underneath.
Basically, to cut a long story short I’m a bit convinced they are going to turn
round and tell me I have some horrific disease because they’ve messed up the
samples!
After our medical we headed straight
back to the school to start our teaching for the day, so like a sensible person
I had brought breakfast – porridge! To say my mentor wasn’t impressed with my
choice of breakfast was probably an understatement, her exact words were
“Gillian, what is that smell?” (with a disgusted impression to accompany it). I
wasn’t particularly offended, I didn’t rate her favourite breakfast, so we’ll
have to agree to disagree there.
The rest of the week involved sorting
out bank accounts metro cards and spending an hour and a half waiting in the
phone shop to get sim cards for our phones. Not very thrilling but necessary.
G x
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