New Year's in Taipei 2012: immunizations; old friends
after coming back up from Tainan on the 27th, the second weekend of my visit back came rolling around.
on Friday, i was originally going to go see The Hobbit, but in the end we decided to take Kay to get her last immunization shot (before elementary school) over and done with just in case she had any bad reactions. so, hubs had asked his Japanese friend, who also lives in our neighborhood and has a son a year older than Kay, for any good clinics here. she suggested for us to go to the clinic she goes to, so that's where Kay and i went Friday morning.
we had told Kay about her shot and she was a bit nervous about it, but since she hasn't had a shot in over two years, i knew that there would be some sort of big reaction. so of course, she kind of freaked out when the nurses came in with the needle. other than crying her eyes out, she ran away from it and we had to chase her around in the room! it took me and another nurse to hold her while she got 2 shots in the butt. she pretty much cried the whole time i was getting her paperwork done, and all the way until we got to the 7-eleven next door to choose her "reward" toy. she found a cute toy house with little miniature furniture and a little plastic doll to play with and she was fine and dandy after that ^_^;;
other than Kay running around and screaming like crazy during her shot, there were some other things that i didn't like about that visit to the clinic. actually, i should say that i'm never going back to that clinic again. >:(
having lived in Taiwan for a really long time, i know that not all people here are that trustworthy. just like any place, there are people who will rip you off if they get the chance. normally when you go to a private clinic, you only need to pay NT$150 to make your appointment and the rest is paid by the government's national health insurance plan. if you don't have that, then you normally would pay NT$300. that's still like pocket change to us, but what this clinic did to me was they knew i had health insurance (i'd given them Kay's national health card for Pete's sake!) but charged me NT$300 anyway. i had asked why and they said that it was their "registration fee" since it was my first time visiting the clinic. :P i took it hook, line and sinker and didn't think about it anymore. however, when i got home and told hubs, he did a little research, and we came to the conclusion that they had ripped me off! D: the reason being is that they didn't give me any kind of receipt at the end. i'm still kind of kicking myself for not asking for one, because i thought it odd as well, but i was so busy trying to comfort a hysterical Kay that i just kind of brushed the thought off. sigh... kind of left me feeling crappy for the rest of the afternoon that i got duped. >:(
another thing was that they didn't have one of the shots she needed. she was suppose to get three shots, but the third shot is normally done during a period during March-May. so, the clinic didn't have any supplies on hand. they told me that i had to call the district health office to see if they had any surplus of shots. if they did, i had to go there and get them done. i was a little miffed at not being able to get everything done right then and there, but what can you do right? >:T
next time Kay needs to get her immunization shots, i'm going straight to the district health office! not only are they free, you're more likely to get everything done there. so i'm kicking myself now for not doing that in the first place. i could have saved myself the humility and NT$300 ~_~;; sigh... live and learn...
we went back home afterward, and then stayed there until around 6:00 where the three of us went to see my old friend M and her family. she has two kids and i used to take Kay over to her place for playdates at least once a month when we were living in Taipei. her daughter is only 6 months older than Kay, so they really got along well. ^_^
we ended up having dinner at her place/office (her husband runs an air conditioning installation company), watching Pixar's Brave, and celebrating her son's Chinese lunar calendar birthday! some folks here celebrate two birthdays; one for the lunar calendar and the other is the regular calendar. :) i was actually happy to watch Brave at her place. granted it was in Chinese because of the kiddies, but i still enjoyed seeing it ^_^ i'm definitely going to try and rent it when i get back to Japan and watch it again in English...or Scottish...or whatever the Irish say ^_^;;
after playing with them all the way until 10:30, we left but not after a couple of tears were shed. ;_; who knows when we'll be able to see each other again, ykwim? when your kids get bigger and start school, things get busy and your time just isn't as flexible as before. :(
we were lucky that night and caught the last bus home. i don't think we ended up sleeping until like 1:00 AM ^_^;; granted that day didn't start out great, but it sure ended that way! ^_^
on Friday, i was originally going to go see The Hobbit, but in the end we decided to take Kay to get her last immunization shot (before elementary school) over and done with just in case she had any bad reactions. so, hubs had asked his Japanese friend, who also lives in our neighborhood and has a son a year older than Kay, for any good clinics here. she suggested for us to go to the clinic she goes to, so that's where Kay and i went Friday morning.
we had told Kay about her shot and she was a bit nervous about it, but since she hasn't had a shot in over two years, i knew that there would be some sort of big reaction. so of course, she kind of freaked out when the nurses came in with the needle. other than crying her eyes out, she ran away from it and we had to chase her around in the room! it took me and another nurse to hold her while she got 2 shots in the butt. she pretty much cried the whole time i was getting her paperwork done, and all the way until we got to the 7-eleven next door to choose her "reward" toy. she found a cute toy house with little miniature furniture and a little plastic doll to play with and she was fine and dandy after that ^_^;;
other than Kay running around and screaming like crazy during her shot, there were some other things that i didn't like about that visit to the clinic. actually, i should say that i'm never going back to that clinic again. >:(
having lived in Taiwan for a really long time, i know that not all people here are that trustworthy. just like any place, there are people who will rip you off if they get the chance. normally when you go to a private clinic, you only need to pay NT$150 to make your appointment and the rest is paid by the government's national health insurance plan. if you don't have that, then you normally would pay NT$300. that's still like pocket change to us, but what this clinic did to me was they knew i had health insurance (i'd given them Kay's national health card for Pete's sake!) but charged me NT$300 anyway. i had asked why and they said that it was their "registration fee" since it was my first time visiting the clinic. :P i took it hook, line and sinker and didn't think about it anymore. however, when i got home and told hubs, he did a little research, and we came to the conclusion that they had ripped me off! D: the reason being is that they didn't give me any kind of receipt at the end. i'm still kind of kicking myself for not asking for one, because i thought it odd as well, but i was so busy trying to comfort a hysterical Kay that i just kind of brushed the thought off. sigh... kind of left me feeling crappy for the rest of the afternoon that i got duped. >:(
another thing was that they didn't have one of the shots she needed. she was suppose to get three shots, but the third shot is normally done during a period during March-May. so, the clinic didn't have any supplies on hand. they told me that i had to call the district health office to see if they had any surplus of shots. if they did, i had to go there and get them done. i was a little miffed at not being able to get everything done right then and there, but what can you do right? >:T
next time Kay needs to get her immunization shots, i'm going straight to the district health office! not only are they free, you're more likely to get everything done there. so i'm kicking myself now for not doing that in the first place. i could have saved myself the humility and NT$300 ~_~;; sigh... live and learn...
we went back home afterward, and then stayed there until around 6:00 where the three of us went to see my old friend M and her family. she has two kids and i used to take Kay over to her place for playdates at least once a month when we were living in Taipei. her daughter is only 6 months older than Kay, so they really got along well. ^_^
we ended up having dinner at her place/office (her husband runs an air conditioning installation company), watching Pixar's Brave, and celebrating her son's Chinese lunar calendar birthday! some folks here celebrate two birthdays; one for the lunar calendar and the other is the regular calendar. :) i was actually happy to watch Brave at her place. granted it was in Chinese because of the kiddies, but i still enjoyed seeing it ^_^ i'm definitely going to try and rent it when i get back to Japan and watch it again in English...or Scottish...or whatever the Irish say ^_^;;
after playing with them all the way until 10:30, we left but not after a couple of tears were shed. ;_; who knows when we'll be able to see each other again, ykwim? when your kids get bigger and start school, things get busy and your time just isn't as flexible as before. :(
we were lucky that night and caught the last bus home. i don't think we ended up sleeping until like 1:00 AM ^_^;; granted that day didn't start out great, but it sure ended that way! ^_^