Where's Edgar?

October 7, 2007
This morning Marika and I were taken to the Al Baraha Hospital for our medicals. The bus ride was so jerky, I felt sick. When we first arrived at the hospital it looked run down and there were men standing everywhere. The place looked sketchy. We then had to wait in the bus until Mr. Sharif arrived with our papers. We then went inside which looked cleaner and sat in the enormous airport sized waiting room. After a few minutes Mr. Sharif took us further into the building and we pushed our way into a room to register and find out where to go. The man read my name and asked if I knew the meaning. I have heard many meanings but this one was new to me. Apparently, Amber, is a nice smelling aroma taken from whales and made into perfume. Marika and I can't figure out how something out of a whale could smell nice. But there you have it. He then asked if I was married. I told him no and he crossed off the tests for HIV/AIDS because apparently if you are not married you cannot get aids. There were men everywhere. They were creepy and eyeing us up the entire time. We tried not to make eye contact. Mr. Sharif then took us to another part of the building where we were to get a chest x-ray. I took off my necklace and was told to stand in the room. So I stood there looking confused. He then told me to stand by this xray machine and he lowered the chin rest so I could sort of rest my chin on it. He took the picture and sent me on my way. It was so quick. Then Marika and I were sent to get our bloodwork done in another area of the hospital. We went into the reception area and were immediately told to go into the other room for women. No one was there so we sat down and waited. We were then called into this small office and they took blood. The needle was placed sort of on the side and held at an angle-ish. It hurt sooooo bad! I also bled quite a bit afterwards. We then went back to the waiting room and waited for Mr. Sharif to come back and to let us go back to school. It was one interesting experience. I miss the health care back home. Oh and we now have official Dubai Health Cards. WOOHOO!