If you would have told me two days ago that I would still be holding on to our driver's license applications for the States, I wouldn't have believed you. I seriously wondered how hard could it be since I clearly remembered waltzing right into the AR DMV office, breezing through the eye exam, and renewing my license. If they could complete the eye exam right there in the office, could it really be that hard to complete it overseas?
Rusty and I thought the first logical place to start was the local eye glasses shop since they have a sign on the window advertising free eye exams. We were interested in shopping for glasses anyway and thought it wouldn't hurt to check prices. After explaining to the staff what we needed, they proceeded to check Rusty's glasses, eyes, and the price of new lenses ordered from France. We left knowing that new lenses would be over $200 and not knowing what Rusty's vision was with corrective lenses.
Since we were unsure where the communication broke down (we tried in English and Thai), we decided to go to the private hospital that is part of one of the universities here. We thought that since you have to get a health certificate from one of the hospitals in order to get a Thai driver's license, surely we could get one for the States at this hospital. When we checked in, they didn't even ask us what we needed, they took our hospital i.d. card (one of many that we now have, just see the picture) and just asked us to wait outside of the examination room. While we were waiting, they turned off the lights in the rooms. That ruined our plan of talking to the doctor in order to get some answers. Rusty found a nurse who told us we needed to see an eye doctor, but the eye doctor was closed for lunch as well. They wouldn't be open again until the afternoon, but Rusty had to teach.
So off we went to the next hospital where we had been before for our health certificate. We showed the nurse the form from the States, and she told us we had to go to one of two hospitals in town. Finally, we were out of time for going to more hospitals so we decided to go eat lunch. We felt that way we would at least accomplish something. :)
After Rusty finished teaching this morning, we were off to the private hospital again to see the eye doctor. Yes, we went back to the first hospital we went to yesterday thinking they could surely do it if we could just get in to see the eye doctor. We started the whole process over again with explaining to them we wanted to see an eye doctor, but they took our weight and blood pressure and had us sit outside of an examination room AGAIN! Rusty said I was going to have to try to talk to them this time. OK...here I go.
I told the nurse that I needed to see an eye doctor, but they told me I was going to have to come back in the afternoon. I can't remember what I said, but she went to the eye clinic to find out what could be done. Finally, a nurse looked at the form we needed and came to explain to us that they couldn't do it at that hospital. Finally, we had the answer that they didn't have a machine at that hospital, and we needed to go to the big government hospital or another hospital that we were ufamiliar with. At this point I still didn't know what kind of machine they were talking about because all I've ever known is the little machine at the DMV office.
When we got confused about the second hospital name she gave us, we ended up at the big hospital that most of the westerners use downtown. It wasn't really that bad that we went there because it was one of the hospitals that was suggested to us the day before. However, they said we needed to see a specialist and could only do that in the evening. That wouldn't work because we teach English in the evening. So they sent us to the big government hospital where the specialists are there all day every day.
I wandered into the huge government hospital while Rusty drove around forever trying to find a parking spot. I got us registered at yet another hospital (notice all the registration cards we now have) and sat down to wait. By the time Rusty made it in (after a few phone calls to Tawm for directions...so thankful for helpful friends) I had already made it through my tests. Now I finally understood why it was so difficult to find a place to get this test done. It was a pretty high-tech machine where you use one eye to look at one single light, and you press the mouse button when you see an outside light moving in towards the center. Unfortunately, she had to have me do it a couple of times in order to pass, but I finally made it. Rusty completed it also, and all we needed was a signature on the form. They wanted us to come back at 6 to see the specialist, but I explained we couldn't since we have our ESL class. Finally, after telling them we didn't have to see the doctor, they had the doctor sign the form, and we were ready to pay. I wondered how much it was going to be, but we really didn't have a clue at how much it was going to cost. It was almost $70 for this little high-tech test! That was quite a shock to us, but I must say we felt good that it was finally finished!
So now hopefully we just have to send the forms to the States. Rusty remembers talking to the DMV before we left the States and the lady saying it was no problem to let our licenses expire. We could just come in and renew them when we came back to the States. Yes, that works as long as you don't have to rent a car when you first get back, you don't arrive on a weekend, or you don't have any appointments before you can get to the DMV. Lesson learned.
No comments:
Post a Comment