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.



Remember when Baby-G watches were super trendy? This ad in the train station made me laugh.

So Close to Medical Clearance

But yet so far... My parents received a letter from the Peace Corps Office of Medical Services requesting 2 more medical tests literally like the day that I arrived in Singapore. Absolutely ridiculous. So I finally got ahold of the PC Medical Officer handling my file, and she sent me a 1-page word document with tips on how to obtain the necessary medical documentation while outside of the United States. Basically nothing useful except that they may not accept my TB test since it may not be up to "Stateside standards".

So yesterday I spent an hour and a half in the NUS (National University of Singapore) Health Center, explaining my situation to the receptionists behind the registration desk and the doctors. And in the Q. Not the queue, the Q. I love how they call it that here. And I have to pay for everything up front in cash, they acknowledged that I have medical insurance but they said that I will just have to request reimbursement when I get back home.

I have to go back to the Health Center on Friday to get my TB test, apparently they need to check it within 72 hours so they could not administer the skin test yesterday. And then I have to go there again on Monday to get results from everything.

I asked the receptionist if they could fax the results for me to the PC Medical Office, and she gave me a blank look. Apparently they do not do that sort of thing here. She proceeded to tell me that the closest fax would be on some train stop in a post office. That is ridiculous as well, they better have a fax that I can access somewhere on campus-I know for a fact that the faculty have to have access to fax because many of them have fax numbers listed. Hopefully they have fax services available in the library, or I may have to ask a local student to help me out.

After I spent my quality time in the Health Center, I ran into Annie and a group of the people from my program about to go swimming and lift in the campus gym. So of course I just joined them, since I carry my swim suit, cap and goggles around in my school backpack now. I ended up getting thrown into the NUS Triathlon team's swim practice, since they all jumped into my lane. Fact-I hate recreational lap swimming time and especially hate when people get into your lane without asking if they can. I did about 2500m with the triathlon team, including 3x400 pull with paddles. Again, the pool was overwhelmingly hot and I felt like I was going to overheat and pass out after swimming the first 400 haha. Its been so long since I've used paddles, haven't touched them since around February! Its nice to get back into the swimming routine, but my shoulders are going to be roadkill for the next few days. If only they had ice and a training room here too.