Police station, medical screenings, apartment finding, oh my!

First week in Qingdao

Welcome to Qingdao! … now let’s check your health 🙂

MEDICAL SCREENING ADVENTURES

We couldn’t drink or eat anything after midnight that first evening in Qingdao due to the medical screening the next day. This was QUITE the adventure. At 9:20am on the second day in Qingdao, staff from CISQD picked up a group of 7 foreigners (fellow new teachers at the school) from the hotel. You can imagine that I was already quite “hangry” by 9:20am. At the hospital, we competed a very systematic set of medical steps. They happened in a circuit around the top floor of the hospital. Here they are:

Fill out a piece of paperwork
Get a bunch of labels for the various tests to be done
Pick up urine kit
Complete urine kit (in Chinese toilet, quite the balancing act with a pungent odor)
Blood draw (butterfly needles thank goodness)
Chest X-ray
ECG (involving mini suction cups on random areas of the body and metal clamps on wrists and ankles, felt like an episode from One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest)
Ultrasound to ensure the kidneys are present (involved awkward pokes in-between and under the ribs)
Eye exam for sight
Eye exam for color
Blood pressure

After that, we were able to snarf down cookie snacks that we brought. Needless to say, we were very hungry and tired of being poked and prodded.

There were a couple of “interesting” findings by the medical team. Firstly, it was discovered that Grant’s heart is abnormal. His ECG spiked off the chart. We were given strict orders of no alcohol, caffeine, or cigarettes for Grant until his heart returns to normal. Also, it was discovered in the ultrasound test that Grant only has one kidney; the other one could not be found. This is surprising information, of course, because it is usually declared at birth if someone only has one kidney. You would also think that only one kidney would mean that Grant is a lightweight when it comes to alcohol. Not that Grant drinks alcohol; due to the heart problem of course. At any rate, the Chinese doctors all agreed that Grant should probably be dead by now…or is at least a ticking time bomb. Time will tell.

APARTMENT HUNTING IN QINGDAO

On the afternoon of the medical screen adventures, we were picked up by a school representative and a realtor. We looked at five apartments in the Qingdao area. Some were close to the beach and some were close to supermarkets/malls. All the apartments were chosen due to their close location to the school bus route to facilitate transport to and from school each day. We debated the pros and cons of each location we were shown, and chose a two-floor loft. We signed the contract with the landlord and realtor the following day. The day was Wednesday, and we had until Sunday for our apartment to be vacated and cleaned. Between Wednesday and Sunday, we laid low, ate at the great Ocean Knight restaurant routinely, and made friends with other teachers at the school.

Amazing new friends/teacher colleagues from South Africa and New Zealand

MOVING INTO OUR APARTMENT IN QINGDAO

Here is the last image from us at the hotel in all our glory with all our luggage.

The mattress at the hotel was like sleeping on planks so we were definitely happy to say “PEACE OUT!” (hotel room image below)

The staff at the school helped us move all our items into the apartment. (Stay tuned for the apartment video from Grant). We unpacked on Sunday evening and got ready for the next big chapter the following day; SCHOOL inservice 🙂