Field Trip

Today I had a company mandated health check-up. It was kind of a bare-bones physical, only testing weight, height, a simple urine test (collected on an industrial length Q-tip with a large head), eyes, blood pressure and respiratory, and taking an x-ray. It was my first metric physical. It felt a little weird, but overall a positive first encounter. Most of the nursing staff didn't speak any english, so I was generally just guessing when I was asked questions. For the eye test I needed to know the words for up, down, left and right. Luckily, I knew all but down and my helpful coworker filled me in on that one. My first eye test in another language. It was such a minor occurence, I'm not sure why it felt significant to me, but I liked it. Then came the doctor, who spoke enough english to tell me that (despite having lost the expected “foreigner 15-20”) I'm overweight and I need to diet. Thanks, doc, you've opened my eyes. He wasn't rude, but he was blunt. And I liked it. Maybe I'll even start exercising – this has at least inspired me to intend to do so.

Other news from last few days: accidentally scared a 3 year old with a couple of the creatures I had prepared for our Halloween-themed lesson today. switched to the winter clothes-drying method and tried out the in-wall fan unit in the shower room. I stretch a bunch of tension rods between the walls and hang all of my clothes in there and leave the fan on with its built-in timer (which I assume I used correctly due to the lack of shrunken or still wet clothes this morning). Novel, not sure if it is any more energy efficient than a tumble drier, though it does retain those endearing wrinkles air drying is famous for. Most importantly, I bought a couch at a secondhand shop, and through a hefty battle with my own japanese and the undying patience of the clerk, arranged to have it delivered. My latent lounging life springs back to its former vibrant potency on November 8th.