We are now days from our departure and the nerves and excitement are getting to me. Tonight we had dinner with some great friends whom Nikolai and I have known since college and now we won’t see them until next June. Saying goodbye to people and places that I know I will not see for almost a year has proven difficult, but what has been most difficult is explaining to people how I am feeling about the move.
Don’t get me wrong, I am giddy with excitement as I think about the students I get to teach and the amazing travels I get to take and it is hard for me not to smile as I think about all of the amazing food and sights I am going to experience over the next two years. There is so much ‘newness’ that is about to happen.
But with this ‘newness’ comes nerves. Nerves about silly things such as: will I know how to order a meal at a restaurant so that I know I am not eating sheep’s brain or pig intestine on my first meal? How long will it take me to get used to the 11hour time difference? Will I ever be able to understand Mandarin or Cantonese enough to get around on my own? Will I ever be able to run outside in China? Will the air make me sick? Will I ever get lost on the city streets? Will my visa go through? The list goes on and on.
This week, Nikolai and I had to face the last question, about our visas, head on. We found out last minute that there was mistake found on my work permit that had to be fixed. With that being said, my Chinese Work Permit did not arrive in the US until this Monday. This left us less then a week to get a temporary work visa to get us into China before we could apply for our final long term work visa. What this delay meant for us is an impromptu trip to Chicago to visit the Chinese Consulate. We booked airline tickets, a hotel and read up on how the “El” worked so we could get around on our 24hr whirlwind tour of the Windy City.
The first thing I noted about this trip was the ease of transportation in Chicago. There was NO need for us to even think about renting a car there (at least for our purposes). UNREAL! I began to realize that living in China I would have access to the same type of transportation and great bike system as well. Living without a car for the next 2 years might not be that bad.
Once we found the Chinese Consulate, we had to go through stacks of visa papers, which fit the type of employment visa we were looking for. This was harder than I had anticipated as all of the papers were in Mandarin with only a few of them translated into English. As Nikolai and I were busy filling out passport numbers and dates of entry, Nikolai leaned over towards me and said, “Look who is over there.” I looked at him perplexed as I tried to figure out who I would know sitting in the Chinese Consulate in downtown Chicago. As my eyes scanned the crowd I immediately found a face I recognized…Pin! Pin was a Chinese native who was a student at the school that I used to teach at in Minnesota. I went over to say hello to him and realized that he was just as shocked to see me as I was him. It was great to see him and make some small talk as we waited for our numbers to get called. Funny thing is, it turns out that the town we are going to teach in (Foshan, Guangdong) is about an hour from where he used to live. What a small world!
After about 30min of waiting, our number was called and we had an awkward discussion with the service lady behind the glass window. But, after several trips to the copy machine and handing over our passports we were told to return at 2pm to get our visas. We took that time to go eat some great deep-dish pizza at Pizzeria Due and visit the Apple and Nike stores on the "Magnificent Mile"…we were in that part of Chicago anyway, so why not? We came back promptly at 2pm and after another line and a hefty credit card charge we had our visas!
We checked into our hotel and then crashed on the plush beds. It felt good to just be still!
That night we went up to the North Loop off of Belmont and ate at a GREAT Mexican restaurant (on the recommendation of some adult TLC campers that come every year from Chicago). We also took a walk towards Lincoln Park and Lake Michigan. We were then treated to a Blue Man Group performance by one of the same campers. After a day of hectic traveling, applying and waiting it really was what I needed to relax and laugh.
We returned to Minneapolis today…just in time to start packing for China.
