30th Oct 2006

It would seem that the international community is rather tight-knit here… I go to a Turkish Embassy national foundation day thing (was invited by someone in my lab, who, funnily enough, happens to be Turkish) and manage to meet people who are good friends with a girl I met through a friend of a friend in halls. Weird….well I thought so.

Anyway I found that exciting… especially since I have now located some (well one for now) English people in my university…which is nice.

OOooOOooOh! Also, had my health check today. And in Japanese style, it was ridiculously efficient…1.medical history and blood pressure, then you go to 2. urine test then after that straight to blood testing. Sit down for 5 mins to recover from the blood sucking. 4. weighed and measured (height wise – by some weird machine which taps your head and weighs you all at the same time…) 5. get bra-less and go into some weird X-ray cubicle with a lead lined skirt to get chest x-rayed. 6. fill in a mental health questionnaire 7. see a physiatrist…have a little chat. 8. pick up results (who happens to be another guy I think I met at some welcome party on Monday…again with the weird)

That was fun…especially since the college ID card seems to store all the information of your medical well being…they have a card reader at each stage so that you’re records are all digitised from the beginning…all very efficient…anyway apparently if I want a more detailed break-down of if I’m dying of anything exciting, I can go back in two weeks and find out…

And the health check was all for free too…

On the bright side, I also think that I may be able to get some pocket money here (to supplement the little scholarship…) by talking to people in English…well trying to give lessons…so far got one lady, a doctor, who wants to keep her English up in mind to move back to Canada or North America…

Anyway seriously need to go to bed now…night night!