Yesterday I went to get the extension of my visa sorted out. I hate going to the visa office because they always ask you for papers that no one told you you need to bring, and then you have to go back home, get those papers, and then in the end they might not even need them anymore? (Oh, and the visa office is in the other side of the city in case someone wonders)
Anyways, this time I was prepared. I had all my papers ready. I had copied of everything. EVERYTHING. Even copies of my current passport, visa page, latest entry stamp, you name it… I felt prepared but one thing I had completely forgotten about is that at a place like the immigration bury, you have to waaaaiiiiiittttt….
Yes. Waiting. It is the thing you do here in China. A lot! You wait for tables at restaurant (totally worth it if the food is good f course). You wait at the check out counters in supermarket. You wait for a less crammed metro at the Shanghai metro station, and then you wait, for a looooong time, at police stations and visa offices.
One simply way to escape the waiting time is to act completely oblivious to the system. Like I did the first time I went to the visa office in Suzhou. It wasn’t my intention, but I was so lost when the taxi dropped me off at the address I had given him (which I had been given by someone else) that I walked straight into the first big bureaucratic looking building I saw. As it turned out, I walked into some sort of police office and started going from counter to counter with my passport asking people (in broken Chinese) who could help me. The local police officers must have thought I was a lunatic, because one of them ran away and came back (still running) together with a pretty Chinese lady in heels and a skirt.
-You have a problem? The woman asked me in English.
-Not really? I just don’t know which counter I should line up at? I said and nodded at my passport and visa papers.
-Oh, I see. She said. Come with me.
The pretty lady then took me down the stairs and out of the building and led me to a completely different building a few blocks away. Once we walked in I realised that this looked more like a visa office than the other place. Whooops. Oh well. First timer. I’m allowed to make mistakes.
I thought the lady was going to leave me there, but oh no, this lady weren’t letting me off so easy. She walked passed the big lines of people with passport, asked around and eventually took me to a counter, discussed for some minutes with the woman behind the counter (who was already busy with another client but who cares?) and then turned to me with a smile:
-Okey, this woman will help you now!
-Eh.. okay! Thank you?!
And off she went. And the woman behind the counter dropped everything in her hands and gave me her full attention. Ten minutes later my application had been filed, I had paid and gotten my receipt and were sent home and told to come back next week to pick up my passport. The whole thing took me less than 30 minutes (including running around in the wrong building) and I felt light-hearted when I took a taxi back.
That kind of experience, however, did not repeat itself yesterday. And after 1.5 hours of waiting I was considering walking into the police building again. A tips to anyone going to get their visa papers done: be there at opening time, or, if possible, before opening time to get first in line and avoid the waiting.
Or, simply walk into the wrong building. Act lost and confused. And you might end up getting special treatment.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Sick from fruits?!
Delicious but deceiving?Yesterday I ate some home made lasagne (same as I have been eating for the last 2 days) and a bunch of fruits… When night time came I got terrible stomach cramps and today I am sick as a dog!? Can u get stomach flues from… fruits?! Or what is going on here??
When a man hurts himself...
This weekend me and my bf went to Chamate, a popular tea/dim sum chain to have some refreshing drinks. The café in Suzhou was, as usual, very busy, but the waiter managed to squeeze us in and found us a table in the middle of the restaurant. Only problem: the table was that kind of table where u sit in a little ‘box’ with a low table and an even lower space for your legs. I had severe problems getting in with my legs, which my bf, as always, found hilarious. Anyways, once we had sat down, ordered, and finished our drinks I was going to go to the toilet, and since I barely got out from my seat I ended up entertaining my bf even more. When I came back we decided to leave, and guess what happened then? My bf got stuck with his left feet and ended up falling all over the floor!
I couldn’t help it, I just laughed, like an evil, unsupportive girlfriend. Oh well. Getting stuck with your feet under a low table and falling on a restaurant floor is definitely MY thing to do, rather than his, so I figured I should treasure this rare moment of him being the clumsy one.
The best bit, however, was later that night when we were home watching TV and he started to complain about pain in his foot. Him complaining about pain is a very rare matter itself, seeing that he is a typical male who doesn’t like to talk about how he feels (and, on top of that he is Finnish, and most Finns don’t like to talk at all)
-It really hurts!
-Is it swollen?
-No
-Well then you probably don’t have to worry. You probably just twisted it.
-Maybe it is broken.
-What?!
-Maybe it is broken. Sometimes you can break your foot without it swelling.
-Eh…. No, I don’t think it is broken.
-Maybe it is…
Geeez. I have twisted and sprained many ankles during my life, and on top of that, I even broke my left foot in Dec 2005. Reminding him of that, however, made no difference. As the night went on, he kept telling himself (and me) that it was probably broken. Yesterday he went out and bough himself bandage and it wouldn’t surprise me if he sneaks out to visit the doctor at his lunch today.
A side note: some weeks ago at the gym I was jumping double jumps with my skipping rope together with one of the trainers (no, we weren’t jumping together, he was cheering on me and I was jumping). Obviously, double jumps are not my thing, because I landed wrong and hurt my post-broken foot. It hurt like hell and for the next week or so it was a swollen story, and I could barely ride my bike. When I complained about pain to my bf, his response was:
-Ah, just rest it for a bit. It’ll go away.
So I did. And it did.
Now, why can’t he take the same advice from me?!
Is it always so serious when a man hurts himself?
I couldn’t help it, I just laughed, like an evil, unsupportive girlfriend. Oh well. Getting stuck with your feet under a low table and falling on a restaurant floor is definitely MY thing to do, rather than his, so I figured I should treasure this rare moment of him being the clumsy one.
The best bit, however, was later that night when we were home watching TV and he started to complain about pain in his foot. Him complaining about pain is a very rare matter itself, seeing that he is a typical male who doesn’t like to talk about how he feels (and, on top of that he is Finnish, and most Finns don’t like to talk at all)
-It really hurts!
-Is it swollen?
-No
-Well then you probably don’t have to worry. You probably just twisted it.
-Maybe it is broken.
-What?!
-Maybe it is broken. Sometimes you can break your foot without it swelling.
-Eh…. No, I don’t think it is broken.
-Maybe it is…
Geeez. I have twisted and sprained many ankles during my life, and on top of that, I even broke my left foot in Dec 2005. Reminding him of that, however, made no difference. As the night went on, he kept telling himself (and me) that it was probably broken. Yesterday he went out and bough himself bandage and it wouldn’t surprise me if he sneaks out to visit the doctor at his lunch today.
A side note: some weeks ago at the gym I was jumping double jumps with my skipping rope together with one of the trainers (no, we weren’t jumping together, he was cheering on me and I was jumping). Obviously, double jumps are not my thing, because I landed wrong and hurt my post-broken foot. It hurt like hell and for the next week or so it was a swollen story, and I could barely ride my bike. When I complained about pain to my bf, his response was:
-Ah, just rest it for a bit. It’ll go away.
So I did. And it did.
Now, why can’t he take the same advice from me?!
Is it always so serious when a man hurts himself?
Monday, June 30, 2008
Little things that make your day
On of the things that I LOVE about China is that in the darkest, dirtiest and most uninviting alleys hides the biggest treasures! No, OK, not really, but sometimes! U should never judge a warehouse because of its looks, because inside there might be an outstanding fruits/vegetable/meat/electronic/clothes market where u can shop until you drop. That is just what I did yesterday.
Not far from our flat is a dark and dirty sort of warehouse (I don’t know if warehouse it the right word for it, probably not, but I’ll just call it that and hope that no one gets annoyed) and yesterday I discovered that inside is a large fruit and vegetable market! Fresh stuff, cheap prices, friendly service. It cannot get any better! We bonded with a fruit lady on the second floor and tried probably all the fruits you can try in a fruit stand (how about some kind of mega large litchi?! Really yummy!) and best of all: I found fresh, good tasting avocado for 15 kuai/each.
It is funny this thing with avocado. First time I visited Beijing and made an inquiry about it (to my very smart translator) I got the confused reply. My translator (and friend) had never heard about my favourite veggie. We later went to a supermarket so that I could point it out to her (as she started to doubt I was talking about something that actually did exist) and when I did, she admitted she’d never seen, nor tasted one before. I was about to buy us a bunch until I realised why my friend might have never wanted to try this on her own: avocados here are so expensive!!! It was something like 120 kuai/kilo.. ehum.. no thanks?!
Some months later, when I moved to Shanghai, I eventually had to give in for my cravings for chicken and avocado salad but then came the next big problem: try to find a good tasting avocado at this place. Not an easily solvable matter.
That’s why I am so happy I am basically devoting a whole blog post (geeez, I am impressed by those of you who’ve made it this far?!) to the fact that I have now found good tasting avocados in Suzhou. See how small things can make your day over here? Finding food that u miss are definitely a thing that brightens ups my days in China.
Not far from our flat is a dark and dirty sort of warehouse (I don’t know if warehouse it the right word for it, probably not, but I’ll just call it that and hope that no one gets annoyed) and yesterday I discovered that inside is a large fruit and vegetable market! Fresh stuff, cheap prices, friendly service. It cannot get any better! We bonded with a fruit lady on the second floor and tried probably all the fruits you can try in a fruit stand (how about some kind of mega large litchi?! Really yummy!) and best of all: I found fresh, good tasting avocado for 15 kuai/each.
It is funny this thing with avocado. First time I visited Beijing and made an inquiry about it (to my very smart translator) I got the confused reply. My translator (and friend) had never heard about my favourite veggie. We later went to a supermarket so that I could point it out to her (as she started to doubt I was talking about something that actually did exist) and when I did, she admitted she’d never seen, nor tasted one before. I was about to buy us a bunch until I realised why my friend might have never wanted to try this on her own: avocados here are so expensive!!! It was something like 120 kuai/kilo.. ehum.. no thanks?!
Some months later, when I moved to Shanghai, I eventually had to give in for my cravings for chicken and avocado salad but then came the next big problem: try to find a good tasting avocado at this place. Not an easily solvable matter.
That’s why I am so happy I am basically devoting a whole blog post (geeez, I am impressed by those of you who’ve made it this far?!) to the fact that I have now found good tasting avocados in Suzhou. See how small things can make your day over here? Finding food that u miss are definitely a thing that brightens ups my days in China.
Worth losing sleep over
(Pictures from Aftonbladet.se)Getting up at 2.45am this morning was TOTALLY WORTH IT! Viva Espana!!!! :)
Going back to bed at 4.45am when the game was over and the sun was coming up was a bit odd, but well... it worked.
Getting up again around 6am wasn't as smooth, however, but I have to go to the immigration office and sort out the extension of my visa today (I am terrified after having read so many horror stories of people not getting their visas because of restrictions due to the Olympic Games) so it is not like I have a choice.
But wow.... Still. Spain. Torres!!! I am thrilled! Finally the right team wins!!!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
I also want to be body hair free!!!
Imagine NOT having to do this every second day... Me and Rocky continue to bond at the gym where I work out. Yesterday he brought a skipping rope and joined me in the aerobics’ room for my 15-minute-skipping-work-out. It was quite hilarious actually. He lined up next to me, and said: ‘follow me, yi, er, san (1-2-3)’ and we started jumping together!
Afterwards when we were sitting on the ground chatting, I discovered that Rocky had no body hair on his legs or arms. I couldn’t help myself so I simply asked him. He said he has never had body hair, nor birth marks. Apparently this is quite common for some Chinese people (I don’t remember if he said Chinese people from Hunan or just some Chinese people in general). Actually, if you go to a pool in China you will notice that the men have not a single trace of chest hair, but if their arms and legs are also hair free I simply don’t know. The weird thing is, that the girls are not hair free… not at all? So what’s going on here?
Anyways, I told Rocky he was very lucky and that I would love to have his hair-free, birth-mark free skin, but he obviously didn’t understand. Well, I guess someone who has never had to shave his legs wouldn’t.
Afterwards when we were sitting on the ground chatting, I discovered that Rocky had no body hair on his legs or arms. I couldn’t help myself so I simply asked him. He said he has never had body hair, nor birth marks. Apparently this is quite common for some Chinese people (I don’t remember if he said Chinese people from Hunan or just some Chinese people in general). Actually, if you go to a pool in China you will notice that the men have not a single trace of chest hair, but if their arms and legs are also hair free I simply don’t know. The weird thing is, that the girls are not hair free… not at all? So what’s going on here?
Anyways, I told Rocky he was very lucky and that I would love to have his hair-free, birth-mark free skin, but he obviously didn’t understand. Well, I guess someone who has never had to shave his legs wouldn’t.
Today's mission: long run (not even that long, but still!)
I (think I) passed the exam! I wrote about an upcoming marathon I am planning to run (date has not been set yet, but it is due to happen before I turn 50… so I have about 25 years!) Sure, it is not my most memorable day yet, but I am planning for the day to be, so… It wasn’t a complete lie!
After another raining-non-stop week (yesterday was terrible!!!) the sky has today shifted into a white/greish colour, but no rain is falling and the air is cool. U know what that means don’t you? Perfect weather for a long run! I am just starting to get a bit freaked out about it. What if I get dehydrated? I haven’t run 15km for I don’t know how long (on Tue I did 11 km but that was on the treadmill so definitely not as hard as running outside). I have tried running around the lake once before. Last year in the beginning of September. It was about 30 degrees and extremely humid. Although I was doing OK my boyfriend gave up after 10 km and we took a taxi back. (I suppode the fact that some people that passed us on bikes and shouted ‘are you mad?!’ also convinced us that the timing for our run could have been better)
Today is a much better day for running, although it is a bit windy out there. I guess I just have to run veeeeeeeery slow and think about the post-workout massage I am planning to have afterwards.
UPDATE: I ended up getting a bit lost during my run (nothing out of the ordinary -I have a terrible sense of directions) and ended up being out running for almost 2 hours!!! Came home, sweaty (sorry, I mean, GLOWING) and thirsty, but except for that it felt great! The legs are a lil' bit stiff but actually much better than excpected. I have no idea what distance I ran but man, it feels good to know that my legs are still up for running for 1.5-2 hours. Yey!!! Now, reward time: Pancakes!!!
After another raining-non-stop week (yesterday was terrible!!!) the sky has today shifted into a white/greish colour, but no rain is falling and the air is cool. U know what that means don’t you? Perfect weather for a long run! I am just starting to get a bit freaked out about it. What if I get dehydrated? I haven’t run 15km for I don’t know how long (on Tue I did 11 km but that was on the treadmill so definitely not as hard as running outside). I have tried running around the lake once before. Last year in the beginning of September. It was about 30 degrees and extremely humid. Although I was doing OK my boyfriend gave up after 10 km and we took a taxi back. (I suppode the fact that some people that passed us on bikes and shouted ‘are you mad?!’ also convinced us that the timing for our run could have been better)
Today is a much better day for running, although it is a bit windy out there. I guess I just have to run veeeeeeeery slow and think about the post-workout massage I am planning to have afterwards.
UPDATE: I ended up getting a bit lost during my run (nothing out of the ordinary -I have a terrible sense of directions) and ended up being out running for almost 2 hours!!! Came home, sweaty (sorry, I mean, GLOWING) and thirsty, but except for that it felt great! The legs are a lil' bit stiff but actually much better than excpected. I have no idea what distance I ran but man, it feels good to know that my legs are still up for running for 1.5-2 hours. Yey!!! Now, reward time: Pancakes!!!
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