Who takes a passport to the doctor’s office?

               Shelley and I had our checkups in Johnson City, but Zane, John, Gabriela and Brittany still needed theirs.  We drove by university van about forty minutes to a clinic in downtown Jinan.  Here, an officious white coated receptionist told my students they had to have passports.  Brittany and Gabriela had brought theirs; Zane and John had not.  Was the excursion wasted for them? Couldn’t they have their exams anyway if the school agreed to bring the documentation later?

             The receptionist said it was out of the question.  John dug in his portfolio and brought out Xeroxed copies.  These, we were told, were not acceptable.  Wang Ping persisted and asked to speak to the gatekeeper’s “Leader.”  Evidently, this person was far more reasonable.  The exams proceeded.

             My students were afforded a reasonable amount of privacy for their exams—a great improvement on the way these things were conducted in 2006.   Afterwards, we had ice cream.