Doctor Doctor give me the news

So this morning my boss (well one of them) picked me up and drove me to the hospital on the other side of Jinju. When you move to Korea, you have to get an alien registration card. In order to get the card, you have to go for a health check. I'm assuming it's to check for communicable diseases etc. The hospital was very clean and quiet. It was also very efficient. All the stations were labeled in Korean and English (although I probably wouldn't have been able to figure it all out for myself). My boss got my paperwork and we went to 5 different stations. At each one, they knew we were coming and said, "Ryan?" as soon as I walked in the door.

The first stop was the dentist. I told my boss that I had just gone to the dentist before I left the US so I should be ok on that one. He said all they do is check your jaw. He was right. I sat down, the lady made me open my mouth, then bite down. It took 30 seconds. She told my boss it's dumb that they make you do it, but it's a law to check. Maybe for lockjaw?

Next stop was to fill out some forms and then do a simple physical - weight, height, blood pressure, pulse, hearing test and eye sight test (even with my glasses I couldn't see some of the numbers).
Next stop was a pee test. That was the most awkward part. Imagine your boss handing you a dixie cup and going, um do you know what to do with this? Luckily there is a tray when you walk back so I didn't have to hand it back to my boss. Then they drew blood for an HIV test and possibly something else.

Last was a chest X-ray; I think to test for TB. The radiologist speaks decent English and that's the only time I had to change - they give you slippers, pants and a gown. It took longer to change than it did to do the X-ray. The whole thing took maybe 30 minutes. The hospital also has automatic escalators - they don't move until you get close to stepping on it.

When I got home there was some weird parade outside (I could only hear it, not see it). It sounded like a bunch of people banging pots together. On the ride home from the doctor's we saw a bunch of people with flowers. My boss said he thought it was probably a graduation for the local teacher's college, so maybe that's what the pot banging was for.

On the way to school I passed by an open farmers market. Apparently there is one every Friday. I'll have to go earlier though, because it was closing on my way home from school. While I was waiting for classes to start, I heard the parade again. I asked one of the other Korean teachers what it was for, she had no idea and googled it. Apparently it was for the full moon. When I asked the students about it later, none of them had even noticed it. I guess, compared with a lot of stuff that happens here, it wasn't a big deal. Here are a couple of pictures and a small video clip of the parade. This is the view from our office at school.

Close up of parade

Leader of parade: I think she's supposed to be a rabbit for the New Year