One Thing at a Time...

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So I'm finally in the process of getting things started now that the holiday rush has died down.

I made my appt for my Hepatitis A shot after scouring the CDC website to try and figure out how many rounds there are, how long I have to wait, etc. I have never been so frustrated! You would think that this sort of information would be easy to find, if not there then elsewhere. Nope. Nada.

When I checked in for my appt, the nurse asked me which round I was there for. "Round?" I find out that there are 2 (versus 3 for Hepatitis B). And they need to be done 6 months apart. So had I waited or made any decisions later than today, I would be SOL to get my second round before I leave in August! I wonder if any other people in my program will run into this problem (since you can apply thru April).

I wandered downstairs to the travel clinic to get more information on how I will go about getting my less common immunizations. Turns out there's not an appointment to be had for a month. And they don't want to see me until about 6-8 weeks before I leave. The nurse then gave me a card with their phone number on it and, you guessed it, the CDC website address, for more info.

The passport photo was a bit better. At Walgreens it's only $8, vs $15 at AAA. But let me tell you, the new photo is worse than my current one. I didn't think it was possible to look worse than like I've been traveling for 18 hours straight with no sleep--it turns out it is. I commented that the photo was horrid, ie "please take it again, man with the digital camera who wants my money," but no, I got the shiny-faced "I've been traveling for 22 hours with no sleep" look going for the next 10 years. Thanks a lot. I think he ran off to his break immediately thereafter, making someone else finish processing my order.

And the final blow came when AAA's maps do not include one for Shenzhen. Neither did the store specializing in maps. I did manage to get 2 nifty ones for Hong Kong, though.

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