Pee Pole

Last week my supervisor stopped by to drop off some important information. He had a stack of papers, on which he had jotted a few translations, and a small package. He handed them to me and began explaining - somewhat awkwardly, but who can blame the poor guy - that I would have to submit a urine sample in this tube and then have a series of physical examinations (chest x-ray, eye test and other related things). I laughed and asked him if this was a cockroack check - he laughed but didn't say much else.


It turns out this was a campus-wide general health check up and not just a way to ensure that the dirty foreigners weren't carrying anything dangerous. Here is a photo of the "pee pole" - for real, every student on campus was issued one of these. Amazingly, I didn't see any of them used inappropriately or filled with beer of any other kind of silly joke. I can just imagine if such an item was distributed on a North American campus! And the best part is the cartoon of the girl pee droplet and boy pee droplet (appropriately in pink and blue) on the front demonstrating how to fill it, just on the off chance that you have made it all the way to university without really figuring out where your pee goes.


So, three questions on my question sheet and 6 rapid fire tests later I was finished the check up. I can't imagine that the tests will catch anything very serious because it was all done very quickly in a series of buildings. The only time spent with a physician was when I walked into the "exam room", the nurse nudeged the doc to wake him up, he read my question sheet, listened to my heart for maybe 3 whole beats then smiled and said "you are ok".