My Travel Adventures

Blithe and naïve was I when I thought I could simply turn up at the Bureau of Consular Affairs with my medical certificate and be waved through without a problem. Instead, I was told that this time, the document I was missing was a receipt confirming that I could use my debit card in Taiwan. I asked the official why I was not told this last time I visited but she simply repeated I needed to bring a receipt, as though she had not heard anything at all. Of course, it did not occur to me to bring my card, seeing as no such information is written on the consular web pages, but this too was met with little sympathy. I even tried to argue to the official that a simple web search would confirm that Bank of America issues Visa-branded debit cards, which can be used literally almost everywhere in the world.

Almost a week had passed since I underwent my physical, and surely enough, I was notified the following Tuesday that I lacked sufficient antibodies for German measles and would have to receive a vaccination. That was somewhat puzzling, as my last check-up did not indicate anything of the sort, but better safe than sorry, I suppose.

This week was particularly difficult emotionally. We sat our final exams on Friday, and despite the fact that we have another week of instruction left, the reality of so many friends’ imminent departure has begun to set in. On Monday, the day after my birthday and before my friend Alison’s birthday, Alison, Lucas, Joelle, and I went out for dinner. The following day, I invited Lane and Jacob over to my apartment to help me eat some peach buns for my birthday. Kuang Laoshi had explained to us that it is customary to eat buns shaped like peaches for one’s birthday, in reference to the peaches of immortality (the same ones that Monkey – or Sun Wu Kong – ate in Heaven, thus angering the whole celestial host in Journey to the West ). Friday was the last time when our little board game club met in the presence of all of its original founders. Joelle and Lucas are set to leave for home next week, and many friends we made along the way came to bid them a final goodbye. In fact, board gam...

A propos of some conversation we were having about gift giving and birthdays, I mentioned to my friend Lane at the beginning of the week that my own birthday was just around the corner. They asked whether I liked birthday parties, to which I replied that I did not like them particularly, after which they asked if I liked surprises. I said no, but I don’t think I was very convincing. Who does not enjoy receiving spontaneous displays of affection?

I visited the Mackay Memorial Hospital on April 15 th , a Wednesday, expecting only to make an appointment for my actual examination. I had not been able to reach them by phone the day before, which was why I decided to come in person. The beginning was a little rough. It took a few minutes of people-watching, for example, to assure myself that I truly should enter through the entrance that said “children’s hospital,” which seemed to be the only accessible entrance. It was guarded by perhaps a dozen workers clad in full-body plastic gear, whose sole purpose was to enter information from patients’ insurance cards or, in my case, passports and other ID forms. Standing right by the doors were two more attendants ready to spray people’s hands with disinfectant as they came in.