Yesterday I had to go to the International Medical Clinic to get a health physical for my residence permit since the one I had in the states was insufficient. I'm not a fan of doctors and when I was told I was going to need to go in, my head started swimming with all of the potentially horrible procedures they might think to put the little laomei through or the spectacle I might become for a band of Chinese doctors. Ugh.

Turns out I had little to fear, as is usually the case in these sorts of situations. Apparently this is a clinic set up specifically for such visa and residence permit applications and the efficiency and cost per dollar value was actually quite incredible. We were to fill out forms and then we were given a list of rooms we were to visit for the various examinations, four in total. For 510rmb (approx. US$64), I was given a chest x-ray, blood work, an EKG, eye exam and an internal organ ultrasound. Now granted, I didn't see where the needle they used for the blood test came from so I'm a little worried about that, but it did go in a sharps bin when they were done so I'm hopeful I was the first and last to use that needle. gulp!

The EKG was a little scary...they had this examining table that looked like something which might have come from a 1950's hospital with wires along the side that made it look a little like something from a horror film. I felt even more like Frankenstein's monster when the woman had me lie on the table and connected these clamp things to my wrists and ankles. I didn't know this was an EKG machine at the time so I was even more worried when she stuck these little sensors (which look like wood beads stuck to wires) to my chest. I was just waiting for the electroshock therapy and the lobotomy.