Great News and a Resolution

I caught a ride into Beijing with Mona this morning and had to say goodbye, which was very sad. Once Wang Jing (the driver) let me off, I walked to the visa renewal office, which was a lot easier than last time since I actually knew where I was going. Here comes the great news: They told me it was impossible to get a 4 month visa, but they gave me a 6 month one! This not only saves time and possibly having to leave the country to renew it again but about $100!

I walked around the area for a little while searching for a post office -- which I found -- so I can now send my postcards! I then had lunch at Subway, which was weird because my chicken was cold. Otherwise, it was pretty much the same as in Canada

I made my way to the bus station and travelled back to Huairou without spending very long in Beijing because I wanted to catch one of the mini-buses to Beigou and they stop at 6. Once I got to Huairou I did some grocery shopping and then made my way to the mini-buses where they tried to charge me Rmb 80 instead of Rmb 5 ($15 vs. $1). I knew what the price should be so I didn’t go for that, but it’s still annoying.

I made eggplant, onion and zucchini for dinner, but it wasn’t as good as yesterday’s food.

I have decided that I need to work on my Chinese more so I am going to learn 2 new words/phrases every day. I doesn’t sound like much, but had I been doing that from the start, I would have 180 words already! Today’s are “I don’t understand,” “what are you saying?” and “work” -- yes I realize that’s 3 but I had to make up for only having one yesterday (“How much does it cost”).

Kayaking to China

All my cooking was great yesterday but I decided to go to the fruit stand instead of the vegetable store today so my options were a bit more limited for lunch. I ended up with a tomato, garlic and noodle soup and some plums. Although Dragon, one of the chefs, looked at it with displeasure, it tasted pretty good.

Lee-Ann and I were talking tonight about her coming to visit. We decided that if she would walk/run to Vancouver, I would buy her a Kayak to come here. Googlemaps says it should take a little over 5 months -- if she doesn't get lost -- so I may have to extend my trip, but it would totally be worth it. I wonder if she would need a visa...Anyone else want to join? I’ll even take you out for dinner when you get here!

I’m not Dead, the Internet Just Sucks Part II

Happy Birthday to my Mom today! I wish I could be at home with her!

I haven’t posted on my blog in a long time because we have been having serious internet troubles. First we lost access in the residence and then the Chinese government started attacking our VPN and we lost access to non-Chinese internet everywhere (the restaurant, the residence, the Beijing office...). It was a serious problem because all of our reservation information is on Google documents, which we need VPN to access. All this to say that blogging has become very difficult.

I did eventually get my visa documentation sorted out and I should be able to pick up my passport with an extended visa in 5 days or so. I think they purposely put the entry-exit section of the public security office in the middle of nowhere so people won’t try to stay longer, but perhaps I am just directionally challenged. I went into Beijing just for the day to give in my passport but because we had no internet, I had no googlemaps. All I had was the name of the building and a street. Now if you’re from Montreal, just picture knowing you were looking for an office building on Sherbrooke. You might think it a daunting task! Now I did the only logical thing I could think of and started at the subway station named after the street (Sherbrooke metro in your imaginary tale). When I got outside I didn’t magically see a large office building appear, so I walked into a store, pointed to the address Mona had thankfully written in characters on a piece of paper for me and said: “is where?”

How the women in the clothes shop knew what direction to point me in, I have no idea, but I began walking, asking the same question along the way and eventually made it there. I even ran into another girl asking the same questions along my path and we searched together. I went through an agency, so there wasn’t much to do other than give them the paperwork I had already filled out and some money. I had to follow them into the main building where you would go if you were alone to have my picture taken and I think the extra money was worth it not to have to go through the fuss and lines. I will have to renew it one more time before I leave, so hopefully it will be even more painless.

Today was our first day of sun in about two weeks and boy had I forgotten quite how hot it gets! It was great to be able to walk home again tonight though :)

Jake and Alex had their last work day on Thursday so there was a goodbye party at Jim and Tang Liang’s last night. Lots of good food and good people and apparently good alcohol...Mona and Giulia have their last day on July 13th and 12th respectively, so everyone will be gone soon :(

I will try to blog again tomorrow, but a lot depends on the internet situation.

Stranger Danger

Warning: If you are an overprotective parent or other responsible adult, you may not wish to read this post.

I need to renew my visa soon, so today’s plan involved getting a passport sized picture for the paperwork. This would have been a lot simpler had I gone into Beijing for my days off, but they involved more sleep than anything else, so that didn’t happen. Instead, I had to make my way into Huairou.

This is a lot easier said than done, so I went and bothered Tana (who is amazingly helpful and patient) last night and we came up with a plan for me that involved many phrases written down on a map and a great deal of hoping for helpful strangers. I set out around noon and walked to the nearest bus stop (about 20 minutes away) to catch the 916 to Huairou. A bus pulled up just as I was arriving. It had no number on it, but I said Huairou to the driver and he nodded so I got on. Most of the buses in China have the stop names on a scrolling screen at the top, but the screen on this bus was blank. Instead there was a woman announcing the stops in Chinese--people replacing machines seems to be oddly common here.

I managed to get off at the right stop, but had no idea where to find a store that would take ID photos. Everyone said there would be one around though, so I just started walking and showed my paper with what I wanted written in characters to anyone who would look. They pointed me around many corners and in lots of circles, but I eventually found a store in an alley with picture frames in the window. There was a girl sleeping inside so I woke her up and she nodded at my paper. After taking my picture, she photoshopped it for a few minutes -- only in China once again -- and then printed 4 copies out for me (so I won’t have to go back when I need to get the visa renewed again).

Tana had explained to me that getting the bus back would be a lot more complicated but that there were some minibuses near a mall that would take me to the bus stop. As I had no idea where this mall was, and she had told me it was about a 40 minute walk away, I showed the paper once again to the girl who shook her head and then motioned she would call someone. I assumed she was going to call and ask for directions, but 5 minutes or so later a friend of hers pulled up and offered to drive me there for Rmb 7. Normally I wouldn’t get into a car with a stranger but I have been getting into Black (unofficial) taxis from Huairou so I decided I might as well. He drove me to near the mall, but when I got off I still didn’t know how to get to these mini-buses.

I walked around looking for the landmark Tana had given me (a KFC across from a McDonalds) but couldn’t seem to find it. I did on the other hand find an awesome grocery store! Eventually after showing my paper to many more people I found the mini-buses -- more stranger’s cars to get into and took a seat. We waited for it to fill up and the driver drove me to the bus stop I originally took the bus from this morning. A guy from the Schoolhouse also got on so he was able to help me tell the driver where I wanted to get off :)

I made it home and then collapsed for a nap before making eggplant, mushrooms and udon noodles for dinner. It was my first time cooking eggplant and although I could have done it for a little bit longer, I think it was a successful experiment.

I spent my evening watching ted talks and talking to my friend Lee-Ann.

On another exciting note, for those of you who knew that one of my math profs and I had submitted a paper to a conference, it got accepted!!!!!