Visa extended

After waiting for another two hours in the visa office, we got our turn. Besides for forms we filled in, the woman gave me a blank piece of paper and told me to write a statement that we wanted to extend our visa. She said the policy is to only extend 1 month, unless you are visiting "direct relatives" - parents, children or spouse. I wonder if I could have lied, but it's really a bad idea, as lies will come back to eat you.

I have posted some selected pictures. They are in random order and I don't want to hurt my hand to organize them. So bare with it!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CcsWbZsyZsTe

The smart, the dumb, and the expats

- The smart
This picture was taken at No. 1 Bathing Beach in Qingdao. There's no room to put down a towel or swim. Suppose there are only 0.1% people are smart, how many smart people can you pick out from this crowd? And this is only a small fraction of the Chinese population. Therefore I have to agree with a couple of friends' opinion on "Olympic math" which I mentioned in a previous posting. They think this kind of education is only used to allow kids to be a step ahead of others, because there are too many people to compete against. It doesn't really give them more knowledge, nor necessarily help them think better. One friend who is a high school chemistry teacher said that the chemistry the students learn today is much inferior than what we learned in our days. The education system now only emphasize on certain subjects like math just to make their students having higher scores than others. In the old days, only the cream of the crop could go abroad to study. Now, mostly kids who can't get into good universities here go abroad, if their parents have the money to pay.

- The dumb
I walked into a high end furnishing showroom, which has Italian design kitchen, bath and room furnishings. I was particularly intrigued by some toilets, especially the ones that looked like having very small water tanks. I asked the salesman if the volume is an issue. He replied no. He told me that the workers who put these up in their showroom, thought these were real toilets, so they started using them! Of course it's not connected to the sewage. They were ordered to pour the waste out and the contractor company had to buy the used toilets. These workers all come from the countryside, and none of them has a toilet at home or even has used one.

- The expats
I've met a few expats from all over the world who work and live here. I'm fascinated by them. One young man came from Wales, Mr N. He was a physics grad from Manchester, but couldn't find a job. After working as a pub chef for a year, he couldn't take it any more. He got an opportunity teaching English in Chengdu, China, and came happily. He subsequently got a job in the English magazine here, and teaches guitar part time. He loves Qingdao. I called this magazine two weeks ago and asked them if they need a freelance translator, they said sometimes. I went in and met with one of the young American editors and had an interesting chat. To have an English magazine is a huge challenge, which I can't go into details. It's a money loosing business, but the chief editor is a persistent person and wants to make the magazine a success. After being closed down for no reason twice, (he was still paying his Chinese staff salary during the close down), it has the status of the only official English magazine in town.
Another Mr Z from Germany is a character. He doesn't read or speak much Chinese but he's adventurous. He tries all kinds of food - he just points and then we eat. Two Sundays ago we went to a Korean restaurant and he ordered everything on the menu and claimed they were all good. It turned out to be either pig feet or some quite spicy food. I was ok with that, but most people didn't eat much. I heard a story about him from someone else. Once Mr. Z suggested to the group that he knew a good Israeli restaurant and has good Jewish food. A friend Ms. C who is a local here had never heard of it in her life. So they went. Ms. C thought it's strange since it doesn't look like anything Israeli though she has never been to one. She saw the sign of the army and thought it's a government owned restaurant. Mr. Z pointed to a symbol and said it's a Jewish symbol. But Ms. C said it's a symbol for the founding date of the military. The waiter came and gave them the menu. He got impatient and left after waiting for a minute while these foreigners discussing about what to order. After waiting for half an hour, the waiter never came back and some people got impatient so they all left! So now everyone is a little weary when Mr. Z suggests a restaurant:) But he did take us to a fantastic gelato place.
Then there's the lively French girl Madame A, who is selling French wine here. It's a lot of work and the distributor she's working with doesn't have too much experience. They work six days a week and the distributor's two male staff live in the office. The distributor was somehow responsible for her housing and they tried talking her into sharing the same apartment with the guys and live in the office. She of course insisted that she's living elsewhere and her husband was arriving. She speaks excellent Chinese. Her husband who is an English teacher in France just landed last week and got a teaching job that night!

je suis verte!

We went to the "Entry/Exit Bureau" today trying to get our visa extended. Everyone has to get a number and wait to be called. There were several people working there but seemed only one person was taking paper work. Only three numbers were called in half an hour. Our ticket said there were 33 people in front of us. But it seemed that when many numbers were called, no one showed up. And then there were many people who didn't have the correct number would go up and got served. I told Brent to go up and just ask, he wouldn't do it. I noticed a white guy who spoke very good Chinese went to get his number, but they stopped giving out numbers because it was late. He wondered around and then went to one of the desks and handed in his paper work and he got served! I was so mad and I dragged Brent to go up to another person but that person said she didn't handle paperwork, and pointed to the desks next to her. A few minutes later I told Brent to go up by himself to try to put in the paper. The person pointed to the number above her head indicating that he needed his number ticket. I was holding it at the time. I was convinced that she saw us together before and that's why it wouldn't work.

I suspicion is not without evidence. We met a French girl yesterday who's selling French wine in Qingdao. She said she noticed that she's treated a lot better than the locals. But the people who get treated worst are Chinese decent who don't speak Chinese much. A friend of hers who's born and raised Chinese-French was treated very rudely here. I notice that I get stared at a lot here when I am with Brent, especially by women. I don't get looked at when I'm alone, nor does Brent get stared at as much.

OK, after two hours of waiting, I decided to stand right in front of the desk where one guy was working. There were many numbers that were called but no one showed up. He waved to us to go up. After handing in our paperwork, he asked how long I wanted extension for and the purpose of our trip. When I said traveling, he told us that we need financial proof that we have $100 per day for the extension period. Of course we don't have our bank statement with us! I was so mad!!!!!! Brent was mad too that there are no regulations written out anywhere including the application form. Hmm, he only tasted what we went through most of our lives here.

Otherwise life is not that bad here. A few photos to bring a smile:

1. ET lives here.
2. If you can read Rule #3, it says don't relieve your bowel in the cave.
3. My newly wed cousin and his bride spent their honeymoon in China and came to visit us. We hiked LaoShan together. Great time!

Life in Qingdao

A few pix to show you what life is like in Qingdao:

1. A coastal park - Qingdao has a pretty rocky coast. There are beaches too but with loads of people.

2. People are quite laid back here. They hang out on the streets at night and some just sit down and watch TV together. The TV here is in a store showing some soap, and this guys are glued.




3. My make-shift laundry hanger.


4. View from our apt window.

life essentials?

Someone asked me what I do all day long.

I sip beer and sleep, and do nothing. Not quite! There are endless household chores. The life essentials in America don't really exist here.

I clean a lot, because it's a small place so if I don't cleanup, it gets cluttered.
Other things I do everyday is shopping for living essentials.
Things that we get used to and they don't have here. The apt has
nothing other than furniture. So I bought hangers, dish drainer,
lots of cleaning products. Everyday I need something so I go buy
them, as long as they are not too expensive. The washing machine
doesn't have a dryer (they do have combo units in China) so we have no
where to dry our clothes. The rack is kinda expensive and I can't
take it with me. I've bought lots of stuff for the apt that I can't
take with me. Today I bought two empty broom poles and put them up between the open closet doors and between a chair and the window to make hanging racks.

One of my cousins from Toronto just got married and they came to China and Thailand for their honeymoon. They decided to hop on the plane to come visit us. We made two "beds" by pulling down the couch cushions on the floor. I don't think they slept very well but we had a grand time getting to know each other. We went hiking yesterday in the hot weather, and went through some really cool caves. Some people were curious where my cousin is from because he doesn't speak Chinese much. They have a strategy - when they bargain prices they tell them they are Koreans (my cousin looks Korean to a lot of people even in Canada), but when they need help, they say they are Canadians! When they were in Xi'an and were looking for the bus that goes to the Terracotta Warriors, they asked a police. The police asked "what kind of person are you?", he replied Canadian. The police gave them a ride to the bus stop!

There are 100,000 Koreans in Qingdao and they melt into the Chinese society. Most of them speak Chinese fluently and send their kids to Chinese schools. So they are expected to be able to help themselves, I think. On the other hand, my friend here told me that Koreans are not too well regarded by the locals. Many factory owners exploit the local workers, and many open up "businesses" that lure young women into prostitution. Maybe I have work to do here, and not need to go to Thailand. I need to investigate.