Health Check!

Its not uncommon, in Korea, for employees to go through rigorous health checks before being hired! I, for one, went through a health check back in february of 2009 in order to work in Korea, and in order for me to sign for another year's contract, I had to do it again... This time, in a Korean hospital!

Luckily, I had Stella with me to help navigate the different areas of the hospital and steps of the health check process. It's not like going into a doctors office and having everything done in one little room! It was a bit like a rat race, to be honest!

Step 1: Check in and fill out a form with all kinds of information....
*** The form was in Korean!

Step 2: Go to a different area of the hospital to pay the fee...
*** 70,000 won (about $60)

Step 3: Go to a different area of the hospital to pee in a cup (2 cups actually -weird!)...
*** Stella and I died laughing at this point, because I sat down to get my blood taken and the nurse handed Stella my 2 cups of pee and asked her to carry them over to a counter on the other side of the room. I told Stella "Were REALLY friends now, Stella! You've carried my pee!"

Step 4: Get my blood taken.
*** I swear the needled looked like a mini screwdriver! (I am not exagerating!!)


Step 5: Walk over to the Xray area and chang into this lovely outfit and have my chest x-rayed! What you can't see here is that I'm wearing my black tights and black knee high boots with hospital shorts! It was quite the get-up! I was laughing so hard with Stella when I was changing that I completely forgot to take off my bra, which was the whole reason for me needing to change! I realized it after they had already awkwardly placed my body over the Xray machine! Luckily the doctors were really nice and laughed at me when I realized what I had done! oops!


Walk up to the 3rd floor for the hearing test!
*** My hearing was perfect!


Step 6: Go to another building of the hospital to get my teeth checked out!
*** No cavities! YEAH :)


Step 7: Go back to the check in desk and have my height checked
*** I'm 167 centimeters!

Step 8: Vision Test
*** I have 20/20!

Step 9: Color blindness check
*** They asked me to say the numbers I saw... which, being the overachiever that I am, I said them in Korean! The nurse was very impressed!


Step 10: Check out!

Step 11: Take Stella to the Kimbap restaurant for dinner to thank her for all her help!


I can't imagine not having Stella around! She calls me her Korean baby, and once in a while I call her, "Omma" which means mom, and she laughs sooooo hard! She's adorable and the greatest korean woman alive!