Catching Up, Part 3- Medical Exam

Ah, the medical exam. The part of orientation many people dread the most- needles, drug tests, and the knowledge that if you fail-- you'll be on the next flight home. I'm not going to name any names, but there were a few people who were a little nervous about that drug test portion of the exam...

The night before you couldn't eat or drink anything (except for water) after 9pm, so lots of people were a little hungry by the time things got done. But hey, starve for a few hours, or get sent back home? Which would you choose? Unless you have a serious medical condition, then definitely talk to your coordinators about it and they'll probably bump you up to the front of the line or figure something out for you. I was a little worried because I have been known to have problems with my anemia, but I toughed it out since I was one of the first groups to get my medical exam done.

So the day started out with out daily morning briefing in our assigned group rooms. At the meeting, they handed out a few items...
Hmm a cup and a test tube... Wonder what those are for? Well, let me explain it to you:
The cup is for you to pee in. And the expectation is for you to pour your fresh, warm urine from the cup and into the tube. Hope there wasn't anyone to nervous about their exam! If they were, I imagine their hands might be shaking quite a bit...

So after you're emptying your bladder, you move on to the other portions of the exam, which are just your standard things like vision test, hearing test, weight/height stuff, blah blah blah.

The little tents where each portion is done. Give you a bit of privacy while you do your ear test or whatever...

However, as you can see, the vision test is conducted completely in the open...
Yeah... I totally bombed that one... I couldn't read past like the 3rd line~~ It's a wonder they didn't send me home...

After all of that, they stuck a needle in my arm and drew some blood. And then they sent me off to get X-rayed. Now in America when you have to get an xray, they give you these thin little gowns that barely cover you up, but in Korea.. I got X-rayed in style!
It was pretty comfy! I really wanted to keep it... But I guess I would have looked a bit conspicuous with a big robe hanging out of my purse on the way out the door...

The X-ray machine was in this bus and you just climbed in, got your picture snapped and hopped off and that was it!

So that was the medical exam in a nutshell. Not really too much to it. If you were one of the lower number groups, like Group 1 or GROUP 2, then you went earlier so you didn't have to wait THAT long. But if you were in Group 6... Meh.