Chinese efficiency

One of my goals for this year was to avoid going to a Chinese hospital.  It is day 5 and I have already failed at that one!  All of the international students were required to complete a physical evaluation form in order to come, but when we registered they told us that we would all need to bring those evaluations to the hospital to have them confirmed.  So we were told: Friday morning, 8:30 a.m., bus leaves for the hospital.  Bring 530 kuai (Chinese money – about $75 or so) in case you have to do your evaluation all over again.  And don't eat before coming so the blood test can be done. 

Friday morning, 8:30 a.m., all the students are in the office lobby.  At 9:00, we were all still there.  Finally they shuffled us out to a bus – a 25 passenger bus for the 30 of us.  Then we sat (or stood) on the bus.  At 9:45 we finally left. 

Upon arrival at the hospital about 45 minutes later, we were told that all the doctors were out for lunch and would not be back until after 2:00 p.m.  That's one thing about China that is going to take a little bit of getting used to for me: lunch is at least two hours long, and no one works between twelve and two. 

So we were herded around the hospital for a while, and eventually they decided to just take us all back to campus.  There, they told us that we will all go back on Monday after our classes. 

Let me tell you, 30 hungry and tired international students stuck on a 25 person bus running aimlessly around the city on a given Friday morning is an interesting experience.  I suppose, though, that since I have somewhere around 330 days to enjoy Shenyang, one lost morning is not the end of the world.  

It'll be interesting to see how Monday afternoon goes, though, since the hospital hours are only 1:00 – 2:30 p.m.  Since we get done with class at noon, there's no way we will arrive even by 1:00, so that's less than an hour and a half to get 30 students through the hospital.  Right.