Step 4 - Keeping it Fresh

It's been a relatively long while since my last post - at least compared to the rate of one a day that I had been on earlier. I think I was lazy for 1 or 2 days, and then I lost access to the blog. Anyway, it's clearly back so I'll get on with the show.

 I thought it was interesting. Probably pointless, but interesting.

Given that I've somewhat forgotten the order of events, I'll just tell them all and to hell with chronology.

 I like giant instrument faces on buildings.

 The main issue over the past few days has been getting my Alien's Residence permit. That's right folks, I'm out of this world. Basically this is an extended Visa that lets me live in the country and, you know, do what I came to do (PS, that's study for anyone who's wondering). Now, an important bit of information - when I arrived and went to the student office, they took a bunch of stuff off me and told me to go away and get certain things done before returning, eg: Medical forms, Alien's Residence permit. So having being told this, off I went to the Entry and Exit Administration Office of Chengdu Municipal Pubic Security Bureau.

 'The cheerful mood of the pipe jump' - ...what?

This wasn't very close, so it was a relatively expensive taxi ride. On arriving there and filling out my forms, I was thinking, 'Wow, this might actually be pretty painless compared to the other stuff'. Cue the fail buzzer. *ERRRRRT*,  Fail. I'm handing in my forms and the lady at the desk is suddenly asking for a bunch of forms I don't have. I give her what I think is relatively close to what she wants, but it's not good enough. In alright english she explains that I need a bunch of forms from the University, including the original of a form which the University staff had taken off me earlier. This kind of annoyed me, just a tad. But off I went and wandered around for about the next 2 hours, so as to get my money's worth for having come out this far for no good reason. *takes breath*. Okay, so the next day I went to the University Int. Students office, where they then told me they couldn't help me until I had paid the tuition fees. Sigh. Getting the money wasn't a problem, just that everything seemed to be different from what I was told when I arrived. It was about 5.30 in the afternoon so I went home, to get the money and pay the tuition the next day ($8250 RMB for a semester, approx $1500 Australian).

So it's the next day, and I'm going there to pay the tuition. The time is around 12.30? Noone's at the office, doors are locked. No sign. So I figure okay, they're probably at lunch. But I don't want to wander around with a huge wad of cash on me. So I mill around nearby for about an hour. Still noone comes. I return to my room, frustrated. I go back at 3.30ish and get it all sorted out, and now finally today, I am going back to the PSB to try and get my Alien's residence sorted out. Forgive me for having some slight sense of trepidation. I half expect the building to fall on me or something.

The sun actually will shine through one of these days. I swear. It must... right?

Okay so moving on, something more random. While paying my tuition fees, there was an angry French guy in the office. When I say angry, he was pretty pissed. Shouting in Chinese (French accent + Chinese = I tried not to laugh) and English, standing over the people at the desks and generally being a tool. They were all quite studiously ignoring him. So what was the big deal? On my way into the office I had passed a Chinese girl waiting outside.

Turns out, she was the French guy's girlfriend.
Turns out, he wants to marry her.
Turns out, he can't without a letter from the University.

...Which the Int. Students Office wouldn't give him...

So I now feel a bit more sorry for this guy. While filling out my forms he came over to me and basically told me to get out while I can, that he's been here for 3 years, that China is crap and the Chinese people are no good. Throw a measure of strong expletives for good turn, he then bailed, slamming the door and giving the staff some sarcastic 'Xie xie' (Thanks). The staff looked at each other and had a bit of a smile. I got my forms and bailed too, passing the Frenchy who was engaged in shouting at a phone.

I really want to think the staff weren't just messing this guy around, that there was some good reason why he wasn't getting their help. He was being a tool then, but clearly it was a bad time - has he always been a tool? Or was it justified anger boiling over. I don't know.

 Maybe I'll actually go inside some of these buildings, and not just stand around taking photos from outside.

Finally, I've noticed a lot more international students arriving, particularly Americans. Yet to really meet any properly, though I helped 2 order some 'Xiang yu pai' (Taro pie, so good) at Macdonalds. And it was my first time in Macdonalds on this trip. Seriously, it was. The Big Mac's are crap - I got used to the relatively good standard that they had introduced in Australia and now I'm back to fake plastic cheese.

All Most pictures in this post have been from my wandering around near the PSB.

That's about all the writing I can manage for now, will update again soon.