The Mantoux Test and Shopping on Bugis Street

This morning, I woke up and left for the NUS Health Center to get my PPD test for the Peace Corps medical clearance paperwork stuff. After getting on the wrong bus as usual that took me the long way to the Health Center, I had to wait impatiently for another 20 minutes at the Registration desk while the receptionists struggled to locate my files and check me in.

If the Health Center Registration desk has 4 computers and 4 people who work as receptionists, why don't they take the effort to train all of those people to adequately handle files and patients registration? They were so slow because all 4 of them had to work on just 1 person's individual registration at a time. And it wasn't like there were any difficulties with registration, it was silly things like one of the printers malfunctioning or the fact that they assumed my name was Li Jing.

Fact: one of the things that makes me really irritated is when someone mispronounces my name, calls me Li Jing or miss-spells my name as a variety of things (which include Ling Ji and Ji Ling). You would think that with only 6 letters, there wouldn't be that many permuations and combinations of the spellings of my name. But no, people are absolutely ridiculous sometimes.

Anyways, the cashier at the Health Center proceeded to tell me that the fee for the Mantoux test for TB was now $30 SGD, not the $20 that she quoted me for on Wednesday because fees increased literally overnight. Somehow, I find that very strange to believe... but there was nothing I could do about it, except go back to my dorm room to get more cash since I didn't have enough cash with me and they do not accept any other form of payment.

After more waiting, a nurse administered the Mantoux shot in my arm and told me to come back in exactly 72 hours - meaning 10:30am on Monday. I have class until 11am, so that means that I won't get over there until probably 11:30 but oh well, I'm sure that it will be fine. I read the Wikipedia article just to make sure that it would be sufficient medical documentation for the Peace Corps to accept. I am going to be extremely pissed off if they do not accept it... and if I ever have to set foot in the NUS Health Center again after Monday.

After the whole Health Center fiasco, I went shopping downtown on Bugis Street. Its a really crazy little shopping center with a ton of small stands like Chinatown, its supposedly the largest shopping district in Singapore! Most of the stuff is cheap clothes and trinkets like watches and touristy souvenirs.

Singapore hosted a F1 race in 2008 at night, and they have this big ad right by the entrance to the Bugis Street shops. And yes, I took this picture while crossing the street like a true tourist.