Yep, I finally have the coveted visa. Unfortunately it's only single entry when I was intending for multi-entry. I feel this may largely be my fault. This is mostly because I know for a fact it is entirely my fault.
So, for those not in the know, there are 3 Chinese embassies/consulates in Great Britain: Edinburgh, Manchester and London. As I complained earlier, I was only really able to go to London. Frankie, my classmate, told us that the visa form we'd been provided with was out of date, so I looked for an up-to-date form on the London Embassy website. I'd found the form, printed it off and started filling it in when I ran into several difficulties with what to fill in, because sometimes the wording on the form was a little ambiguous. Brainwave! Look on the old form our teacher gave us months ago and see whether that gives me any clues through different wording. It was at this point that I realised I had filled in the old form anyway. I return to the site. No luck; it was the same form everywhere on the site. I proceeded to find the new form on the Edinburgh consulate site and (after a lot of ridiculously difficult (read: easy to everyone but me) technological stress) I filled it in. Now on the original form I couldn't decide what to choose out of single/double/multi entry on the visa (basically the amount of times you're allowed to re-enter the country), so I left it blank. By the time I'd filled in the second, new form, I'd settled on multi-entry, and duly ticked the relevant box. I took both to London with me. It's obvious what's coming next. London, bizarrely enough, demands that we use the old visa form, so I handed that one in. You pay on collection for the visa, so when I picked it up, the woman behind the counter asked for £50. "£50?" I ask. "It is multiple entry, right?" "Yes, yes, multi entry.[insert mad I-have-no-idea-what-you're-talking-about-so-I'm-just-going-to-agree Chinglish accent here]". Okay. I walk off and then check the visa. Single entry. I realise what I've done. Clearly if you don't specify, they assume single entry. Added to the fact that I'd filled in the date of my expected first entry and said it would last 365 days. D'oh. I guess if I decide to leave the country then I'm going to have to change my visa IN China. Shucks.
Anyway, getting the visa was in practice nowhere near as hasslesome (it's a word!) as I was geared up for. The dad and I went to London on Thursday night, and stayed in a lovely Travelodge. Then on Friday morning we intended to get to the embassy for quarter to nine, but finally made it at quarter past. Halfway down the street we spot a snaking queue. When you see something like that you just KNOW that that particular queue is there for you to join. The British mentality, I suppose. And of course, it was. Made some friends in the queue through pen and pritt-stick sharing (hello!). Kat going travelling for a month, and Ally who is teaching in Shaoxing (I think that's the place, outside Shanghai) for a year. Everybody doing something different. Spotted James from Newcastle in the line too. Small world. We finally got in, handed in our documents, forms and passports, and popped off down Oxford Street for some Starbucks. Then back to wait in line AGAIN to pick up and pay for out form. I found myself (almost) inexplicably shaking with nerves. The whole deal rested on this. No visa = no China. No year abroad. No problem at all. I paid up and then spent the rest of the day being a tourist and hitting all the Monopoly streets. Delighted that the visa is done. I was also heartened by how much I know about China and how prepared I actually am compared to some people I overheard talking whilst eavesdropping during the long wait. Very confidence-building.
Sunday, 29 July 2007
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
SO excited!!!
Wow today I'm just on fire with excitement! Can't wait to go to Chiyna (sic lol). So finally the email has arrived: "yor documintz iz heer." That means that even though our teachers finally decided to send us the faxed copies of the documents as a last-ditch remedy, now there is no worry, as the real things are winging their way(s?) to us right now. Recorded delivery of course to prevent postal injury.
Even aside the amazingness of knowing that the visa should now be slightly more straight-forward, I'd be happy today anyway. Walking along merrily in the rain, thinking a visa-stress-inspired thought: 'ugh, I hate this weather. And I hate England, but I'm not looking forward to going to China either. Why would anybody want to go to bloody China?' Then I stopped in my tracks. (Not literally, as the guy walking his dog behind me might not have been too impressed.) So. I FIGURATIVELY stopped in my tracks. You see, there are two things which are stopping me from getting all excited about China. Firstly is the obvious stress over getting there, fulfilling their entry requirements, getting a visa, getting accommodation, getting to Ürümqi itself etc. Following today's email this stress is slightly dissipating, but I'm not relaxing until I'm holding that visa IN MY HAND. Probably won't relax then either, let's face it.
Then secondly is leaving Chris :. ( I'm entitled to get soppy at some point, y'know! It's really going to be horrible. I'm sure we'll get through it because we've known for months that this is going to happen and we are prepared to be away from each other for a long time. Also I spend a fair amount of time 200-odd miles away from him in Newcastle anyway, while he stays here in beautiful Walsall, so we do spend a large proportion of our time apart and so we know to keep in touch and keep smiling : )
However... a whole year! He's coming to visit me roughly halfway through the year so that's like six months and six months, which makes it a little better, but I can guarantee hysteria when I have to leave him and fly away.
But I have to cope, otherwise I'll spend my year, as my aunt put it, wishing it away. And to be honest, depressing though all that is, this is my once-in-a-lifetime chance, and I'm going to make the best and most of it as much as I can.
I'd quote that special saying 'absence makes the heart grow fonder'... but really I don't think it could get any fonderer.
.....
Hmm, I digressed. So those were my two stresses and now I've decided I must make a conscious effort to not let them ruin it for me, and not hinder my excitable suspense. I'm sure Chris would rather I be happy and excited than depressed over the whole thing. [May have to check this is actually true lol.] And in my track-stopping I thought again: WHY would I want to go to China?? Erm... well because it's amaaaazing, perchance? A sudden flash of images went through my head: firecrackers, and lion dancers, rickshaws and ricketty bicycles and banana boats, giant metropolises (metropoli?), lakes and mountains, neon characters flashing and little dudes with those big umbrella hats (what ARE they called??), kyoot Chiyneez babies and chopsticks... well the list goes on. I admit in that split second my unconscious brain was being a little stereotypical, but still, in those rapid-fire vignettes, my excitedness came back.
The icing on the cake was watching a lovely programme today "Addicted to cheap shopping". Highbrow viewing indeed. Y'all won't believe me, but my immediate instinct was that there'd be some reference to China in a programme about cheap production. And right I was. The presenter's hideous pronunciation aside, this was an articulate and interesting programme, which included some contribution from my new hero, James Kynge. I've owned his book China Shakes the World: The Rise of a Hungry Nation for a while now and it's really interesting. The best informative but easy-to-read book on the Chinese economy I've found yet (not that I've really been looking, to be fair). I'm on my third read-through of it. Now, as so much of this programme was about China, they popped over there and filmed about 70% of it there too. Cue excitement-drool from Xi Han. I'm positively ready to illegally emigrate to wee China.
Feels nice to be thinking this way. Would that it not change.
Even aside the amazingness of knowing that the visa should now be slightly more straight-forward, I'd be happy today anyway. Walking along merrily in the rain, thinking a visa-stress-inspired thought: 'ugh, I hate this weather. And I hate England, but I'm not looking forward to going to China either. Why would anybody want to go to bloody China?' Then I stopped in my tracks. (Not literally, as the guy walking his dog behind me might not have been too impressed.) So. I FIGURATIVELY stopped in my tracks. You see, there are two things which are stopping me from getting all excited about China. Firstly is the obvious stress over getting there, fulfilling their entry requirements, getting a visa, getting accommodation, getting to Ürümqi itself etc. Following today's email this stress is slightly dissipating, but I'm not relaxing until I'm holding that visa IN MY HAND. Probably won't relax then either, let's face it.
Then secondly is leaving Chris :. ( I'm entitled to get soppy at some point, y'know! It's really going to be horrible. I'm sure we'll get through it because we've known for months that this is going to happen and we are prepared to be away from each other for a long time. Also I spend a fair amount of time 200-odd miles away from him in Newcastle anyway, while he stays here in beautiful Walsall, so we do spend a large proportion of our time apart and so we know to keep in touch and keep smiling : )
However... a whole year! He's coming to visit me roughly halfway through the year so that's like six months and six months, which makes it a little better, but I can guarantee hysteria when I have to leave him and fly away.
But I have to cope, otherwise I'll spend my year, as my aunt put it, wishing it away. And to be honest, depressing though all that is, this is my once-in-a-lifetime chance, and I'm going to make the best and most of it as much as I can.
I'd quote that special saying 'absence makes the heart grow fonder'... but really I don't think it could get any fonderer.
.....
Hmm, I digressed. So those were my two stresses and now I've decided I must make a conscious effort to not let them ruin it for me, and not hinder my excitable suspense. I'm sure Chris would rather I be happy and excited than depressed over the whole thing. [May have to check this is actually true lol.] And in my track-stopping I thought again: WHY would I want to go to China?? Erm... well because it's amaaaazing, perchance? A sudden flash of images went through my head: firecrackers, and lion dancers, rickshaws and ricketty bicycles and banana boats, giant metropolises (metropoli?), lakes and mountains, neon characters flashing and little dudes with those big umbrella hats (what ARE they called??), kyoot Chiyneez babies and chopsticks... well the list goes on. I admit in that split second my unconscious brain was being a little stereotypical, but still, in those rapid-fire vignettes, my excitedness came back.
The icing on the cake was watching a lovely programme today "Addicted to cheap shopping". Highbrow viewing indeed. Y'all won't believe me, but my immediate instinct was that there'd be some reference to China in a programme about cheap production. And right I was. The presenter's hideous pronunciation aside, this was an articulate and interesting programme, which included some contribution from my new hero, James Kynge. I've owned his book China Shakes the World: The Rise of a Hungry Nation for a while now and it's really interesting. The best informative but easy-to-read book on the Chinese economy I've found yet (not that I've really been looking, to be fair). I'm on my third read-through of it. Now, as so much of this programme was about China, they popped over there and filmed about 70% of it there too. Cue excitement-drool from Xi Han. I'm positively ready to illegally emigrate to wee China.
Feels nice to be thinking this way. Would that it not change.
Saturday, 14 July 2007
Quick disclaimer.
小高， in terms of this blog, 我希望你知道我要偷每个的你做的主意。kthxbai. Yeah my Chinese sucks. Deal.
Uhm... I can has dokumintz now plz? Kthx.
Well finally I've got my act together and decided to blog. Sadly though, my Chinese university of choice (新疆师范大学/XīnJiāng Normal University), has most DEFINITELY not got its act together. So, to get a student (X) visa to go to China I have to have an admission notice from a Chinese university, together with a JW-202 form issued by the Chinese government. Hmm. It appears I have NEITHER of these. No forms = no visa. No visa = no China. My flight is booked so I'd kinda like to know I'll be allowed in the country, y'know?
My English uni (Newcastle) has received faxed copies of these forms, so we know we're definitely allowed to study at XinJiang, but we're waiting on hard copies. Just found out from a classmate that actually the embassies only expect photocopies anyway. I'm stuck in a bureaucratic loop.
Besides that the visa itself seems a huge hassle. To get mine I have to go to London. I was originally going to go to Manchester but apparently my region of England is only served by the London embassy, and not by Manchester (which is CLOSER, GRRR!). As I have no idea when I'll be getting my documents I am loathe to book a train/hotel/day off work. And if my boss kicks up noise about me booking a last-minute day off, I could snap. I may or may not need a medical (something to check soon I guess, lulz) to get this visa. I am going to go for the same-day service which is an extra £20 on top of whatever I pay for the visa. A single-entry is £30, double-entry is £60, and for a year-long multiple-entry visa I have to part with 90 of my precious English pounds. I'm yet to decide which is best for me, as being the skinflint (read broke student) that I am, I'd prefer not to pay for something unnecessary if I can help it. [啊鑫 what are you going for?]
Anyway until I have a visa I refuse to allow myself to relax. Okay, that's not it. I'd LOVE to relax, but I CANNOT! I'm rather rapidly being put off by this. So it's not the worst hassle so far in the world ever, but why do I get the extremely ominous feeling that worse is yet to come...?
My English uni (Newcastle) has received faxed copies of these forms, so we know we're definitely allowed to study at XinJiang, but we're waiting on hard copies. Just found out from a classmate that actually the embassies only expect photocopies anyway. I'm stuck in a bureaucratic loop.
Besides that the visa itself seems a huge hassle. To get mine I have to go to London. I was originally going to go to Manchester but apparently my region of England is only served by the London embassy, and not by Manchester (which is CLOSER, GRRR!). As I have no idea when I'll be getting my documents I am loathe to book a train/hotel/day off work. And if my boss kicks up noise about me booking a last-minute day off, I could snap. I may or may not need a medical (something to check soon I guess, lulz) to get this visa. I am going to go for the same-day service which is an extra £20 on top of whatever I pay for the visa. A single-entry is £30, double-entry is £60, and for a year-long multiple-entry visa I have to part with 90 of my precious English pounds. I'm yet to decide which is best for me, as being the skinflint (read broke student) that I am, I'd prefer not to pay for something unnecessary if I can help it. [啊鑫 what are you going for?]
Anyway until I have a visa I refuse to allow myself to relax. Okay, that's not it. I'd LOVE to relax, but I CANNOT! I'm rather rapidly being put off by this. So it's not the worst hassle so far in the world ever, but why do I get the extremely ominous feeling that worse is yet to come...?
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