So now it’s story time. So in order to get a residency permit to live in China more than six months, foreigners must get a thorough medical examination. I got examined in the US, but it apparently wasn’t complete enough so I had to get reexamined.

So first a large group of us foreigners at Henan University got in a van and traveled to the next big city over, Zhengzhou (Jeng - Joe). There we went to a hospital specifically for travellers. While we were waiting in the lobby for our exams this guy set down some bags on a table.

I can’t tell exactly what’s in the bags, but kind of looked like organs. (Sorry for the crappiness of the  picture, it was taken with my camera phone.)

So then we went back and got weighed, asked some questions, had ultrasounds (even the boys), and had our blood  taken (for AIDS tests). The good news - I don’t have AIDS. The bad news- the woman taking the blood didn’t change her gloves between draws. I got her to switch gloves before me, though, because of my latex allergy. But then after she put on the non-latex gloves, she kept them on for everyone after me. And they didn’t give us bandaids after, just cotton swabs.

Apparently the reason the province I’m in (Henan) has the highest incidence of AIDS in the country is largely due to the fact that in the past doctors kept reusing needles. Thus, we were all hyper-attentive to whether or not they were using sterile needles.

So after the ultrasound (never did find out what they were looking for) and the blood test, they took us to a different hospital.

We never went inside the hospital, though. Outside of it was this van. Inside this van is where we all had chest x-rays and EKG’s performed. Yes. In a van. In a parking lot.

ACK.