Preparations and I

June 18, 2012

I don’t have an adjective to describe my preparation for this trip. I will just narrate it out in parts and let you describe it with an adjective of your own.

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Health and Medical

Study Abroad required me to submit a health form. Like everyone else, I set my appointment with the Rutgers clinic on the last minute (i.e: Doing it in summer after the Study Abroad office sent a reminder). On the day itself, I couldn’t find my insurance card. But I found my Rutgers insurance card (which my sponsors didn’t really paid for but it just came anyway). Took a gamble and marched to the clinic with the card. The front desk accepted it, so in I go.

And then, the doctor recommended me to take a tetanus shot. She went out and came back with a prescription of travel-related medicine and some information on TDAP.

Does my ‘school’ insurance cover this? Am I busted?

“Doctor, can I not have the tetanus shot? I took it before and I had a fever after that.”
“Oh, it’ll be okay. Just a little bit numb on your arm.”
“Alright…”

Doctor went out. 15 minutes later, the nurse came in with the jab. I sorta freaked out. What if my “school” insurance doesn’t pay for it and I need to pay tons of money for that injection which protects me from rusty nails, which… what are the chances, right?

“Um, I have my school insurance card here, but I didn’t actually paid for it. I was told by my friend that I can use it for medical check-ups, but I’m not sure if it covers injections. Can you help me to verify with the insurance company?”

Nurse was really nice about it and gave the insurance company a call. She told me that I am eligible for the shot and the insurance was already paid for.

Since when? Ahh well, free shot! Why not?

Except that my arms hurt for the next two days. Not a good experience when you are in lab trying to reach for a 2L flask on the top of the shelf.

Much later on, I learned that my sponsors actually did buy the school insurance because the current insurance company wasn’t recognized by Rutgers.

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Hair

So for the past two weeks before my departure, my fashion sense came under fire by my peers. I was told to travel in style. But since it’s me that they are talking about, they’ll be proud if I could actually not look rugged while I travel. You see, I’m never the type who combs my hair when I get out of bed. I just brush my teeth, wash my face, and rush straight to class/lab. As per peer pressure, I decided to try growing out my hair after summer. Probably I’ll cut it back short before it actually grows, but we’ll see.

So I went to Supercuts and told the lady to trim my hair because I plan to grow it out long. She mumbled (pun intended) a series of jargons pertaining to inches at various parts of my head. I don’t understand a thing and just went “Uh… huh…”.

15 minutes later, I was given a really ugly haircut. She asked me if it’s okay. I don’t know. I mean, I really don’t know.

“Well, if you want to grow it out long, there will be this period of awkwardness before it starts to look fine. It all depends on your final product.”
“O…kay…”

That “o…kay…” was probably some euphemism to some not-so-nice-words. Again, I don’t know.

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I-20

As an international student, I have this document called the I-20. It contains my visa information. I can get out of country without it, but I certainly cannot re-enter without it.

And luck has it that I had to toss and turn my entire house in my search for the document. I had just moved into the house a week ago, so imagine the mess within the house. My roommate who was in the midst of studying Organic Chemistry for summer had to help me find it.

One hour later, I found the document at the very first place which I was searching. It was (not) nicely folded in between some documents. I didn’t find it there at first because it was placed at the bottom half, while I was searching through the top half.

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Train

I was nearly late on the train. If I were a minute later, I’d miss the train, and subsequently my flight. Not funny.

Bought my tickets on the train, so they were more expensive. And then when I reached Newark Liberty Airport, I misplaced those tickets which could be used for the air-train in the airport. Had to buy new air-train tickets. I probably left the misplaced tickets in the train to the airport.

It was in Gare de Lyon that I realized the tickets were in my laptop bag.

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And that was my preparation for the trip. Moral of the story: Prepare for your trip slightly earlier.

Written on:
6/18/2012
5:23pm EST

- Wei Jie Tan