Step 6 - Don't tempt Fate/Wrath of the PSB Building.

So the weekend has been massively uneventful. That's partially because I wasn't feeling very well, partially because it was pretty warm weather, partially because I'm happy having a few lazy days. On one hand, I should make the most of every moment, always. On the other hand, I expect to be here for 2 years. I think I have some time...

I'll let you guys in a little adventure of mine from last week. Remember how I said I had to go back to the Public Security Bureau? And how I might have been somewhat worried about it being an epic pain in the ass? Something about the building falling on me? Yeah, well it didn't fall on me, but my trials were arduous and frustrating none the less.

So to recap why I've been going to this place, it's to get my Alien's Residence permit. My understanding is that this is like an extended Visa, which lets me live in the country while I study. As you may grasp, it's sort of important. So there I am, with all the correct forms this time, ready to get my application in. I line up in a short queue, and show the woman my wares. She tells me I need another photocopy of part of my passport, then take a number from the machine. No problem, just downstairs and to the left I get the photocopy done. I go back up, take my number (82), and am seated. I'm slightly concerned already, because the entire time I've been there, the number on the wall indicating the person to be served is 76. Surely that's just my imagination though...

Nope, it wasn't. Soon the lady at the desk stood up and said something in Chinese. I caught the words 'pai dui' (line up/queue). Suddenly everyone is scrambling to line up in front of the counter. I get up with the pack and am fairly forward in the queue. I still have my number though... and there's one girl that didn't worry about getting up. I give her a quizzical look, and she smiles and tells me that although the machine is broken, people are still going to be served in the order of their number. Foolishly, holding my number ticket dearly, I think I'm okay to sit down and have a chat with her (Medical student at the other Chuanda campus, Huaxi). The line hungrily consumes the space where I once stood. After awhile, I ask a guy at the front of the line what number he is. Since he was 80, I figured I'd jump back in the line now. The people standing there give me suspicious looks. I'm pointing towards my ticket. They're not showing any signs of recognition. I ask number 80, 'Hey, we're still going by the tickets, right?'. He gives me a bit of a shy smile and tells me he doesn't think so.

Great... just great. So I join the end of the queue, behind all these people who arrived after me. I'm behind two Korean guys, who are filling out their forms while standing in the line. So we're waiting, and waiting, and waiting. People without the correct forms argue with the service lady (of whom there is only 1), holding up the queue. One person in the queue suddenly becomes four as their family members get up from the seating and they're put through together. There's some backpacker-type guy arguing with the manager, as apparently his Visa expires on the weekend, and he can either pay to have to extended now, or pay a fine next week. Seemed kinda obvious to pay now, but somehow they managed to draw it out into a 20 minute argument.

Did I mention I had eaten yet? It was now something like 3pm in the afternoon, and I had assumed getting the forms handed in would take 30 minutes, tops. Only a quick drop off and then I'd get some lunch, I'd thought. It was now something like an hour after I had arrived and started this quest. But I was finally getting close to the front of the line. Suddenly the machine is apparently working again, and they're coming around handing out numbers. I wave my 'lucky' number 82 around, hoping for advancement in front of the Koreans who were late arriving and without any number at all. Alas, not to be. Now that everyone has numbers, they're telling everyone to sit down. Now, I was pretty concerned - I'd already sat down once before and that had cost me dearly. They were quite insistent though, 'Rest your legs, sit down please, we will call the numbers'. So everyone is sitting down, and she calls a number. It's someone who was behind even me.

What? How's that possible? I see them pass a hand-written number to the attendant. It turns out, while the machine was broken, some staff members had made some hand written notes, starting from 1. So this person, number 1, was getting served ahead of  me, 82. Makes sense... right? *sigh*. So I go up and try to present my case. Probably used to frustrated white foreigners hassling her, she waves me away with a 'Yes, yes, we will call your number soon'. I sit down, and wait. It's now past 4, and the office closes at 5. I'm getting pretty worried I wont get served at all, and pretty pissed off it's taken this long. I don't see anyone around from when I first arrived. She calls up another number, it's 5 or 6. I get up, tell her I've been waiting 2 hours and glower as best I can from the other side of the desk. She tells me she will serve me next. I don't leave the desk, hovering like a hawk over the 'being served' chair. I'd had enough with politely doing what I was told. So she serves me, which takes about 5 minutes, and I get out of there about 4.30. I'm tired, hungry, slightly dehydrated perhaps, and just plain pissed off. Luckily (...hah...) I managed to catch a cab easily and quickly. I went home, and went out to get some dinner. I had a big dinner, bought a beer (Have I mentioned Yay for 2.5/3 kuai 500ml bottles of beer?) and felt much, much better.

Thus ends this rant. I have to go back to the PSB on Thursday to collect my passport, my Alien's Residence card and pay the fee. Please, please nothing else go wrong on this matter. I'll have paid nearly 100 kuai on taxi trips to this place, assuming the next trip is my last.

In other news, my room mate dropped by this afternoon. Apparently he'll be around a lot more as of tomorrow, as his sister will be back and he won't be able to live/sponge in her apartment anymore. He told me he's watched a huge number of films over the past few days. I can't remember exactly what it was, but I get the feeling it's actually physically not possible, unless he was watching more than one film at the same time.

No pictures today, it would seem. Sorry folks. Oh, I've started doing clothes washing. Parents/Mother will be especially pleased. I'm not exactly sure what the settings on the machine are, but the clothes get wet, get thrown around for a bit and then come out mostly clean. That's good enough for me.

Step 5 - Zombie Jackson invades China

That headline is a bit much, but one of the more random things I've seen is 2 kids riding down the street on a scooter, the kid on the back cradling a boombox blasting out Billie Jean. It made me smile.

Can you see blue like I do?

So a few nights ago, we had a pretty big storm here - lots of rain, lots of lightning and thunder. I made a short video, but decided it wasn't actually that interesting - we've all seen lightning before right? What interested me the most was that it seemed to sound so very different from a Perth storm. I don't know if was something to do with the thick cloud cover, or geographical layout, or just the walls of all the tall buildings bouncing sound around, but the thunder seemed clearer, deeper, louder and longer. So that was kinda cool.

Yoohoo, blue!

The next day, there was another cool thing. Apart from big pools of water still everywhere at 2pm, we had relatively clear skies. Seriously, I saw blue. I'm not kidding. I took lots of photo's. I promise they're not photo shopped. YOU GOTTA BELIEVE ME! Amusing, the night after the storm was relatively clear. I could see the moon and one bright star, which I"m guessing was actually a planet. I still kinda laugh at that - only being able to see two objects in the night sky. Probably shouldn't laugh...

On campus. Blue blue blue.

I got my medical back on Thursday I think it was. Surprise surprise, I'm still not broken. Or at least, I am as broken as I was since my last medical, a month or two ago. Thanks China.

One thing that one of the local girls I met at the park explained to me was that in Chengdu, people have a more relaxed lifestyle. And it's something I do kind of notice. I mean it's a bit unfair for me to say, when I'm not working and not seeing all the people hard at work, but in the afternoons I have spent walking around, there's just heaaaaaaps of people sitting around and chatting and relaxing, playing Mahjong and Go and cards. As the day gets a bit later, you have a lot of people using the sports fields, jogging or kicking soccer balls around. Later in the evening, as the sun nearly disappears, the streets get pretty packed, just filled with people walking around, talking and laughing. I don't remember this quite so much anywhere else I've been in China.

Sense a pattern with the pictures yet? ~Blue~

It was kind of funny actually, she also mentioned that Australians love sport, a lot more than the Chinese. Thinking about all the empty sports fields and ovals at home, I'm not so sure. Speaking of though, there's a Chengdu rugby club that Rafie made me aware of, who do training on the Chuanda ovals every... Monday and Thursday I think. I'll see about getting involved.

'Nan men' aka South gate, feat. Blue Skies.

To wrap things up quickly, my housemate is still pretty much AWOL - I got no idea where he is most of the time. I still love air conditioning and taxi drivers are still crazy.

It's a weirdly shaped building. Could do with more blue...

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.

Step 3 - Keep the Originals, Yo.

It was a pretty busy weekend so I'll gloss over the slow parts

The sun struggling to peek through the clouds/smog just before setting.

Saturday, I was out and about enjoying some of the culinary delights available - you've probably seen the pictures already uploaded to facebook. Perhaps you haven't seen the video of a guy making a pretty delicious pancake-kinda thing? I remembered these pretty fondly from my last time in China, so I had to grab one...

Mapo Dofu!

Following on from this, I walked a bit further checking out various stores and roads around 'Nan men' (South gate). Deciding I'd better grab a proper feed, I went into a little resturant and asked for a meal I'd researched off the internet - 'Mapo Dofu'. Have a read on the Wiki! Strange where these names come from... Anyway I had a squid dish with that and was left very satisfied, and very full!

Squid Dish! I really need to ask them what the name is next time.

Sunday started off much the same as Saturday, quite relaxed. So in the afternoon heat of a fairly muggy day, I went on my usual trip for exploration around the Uni. As it happened, I happened upon 3 chicks - one a 36 year old counselor from Hong Kong and the two others were 20 year old locals. They invited me to join them on a walk to a nearby park/tea house and practice my Chinese\their English.

 More food!

Now, there were certain warning bells going off in my head - I had been warned previously about being taken to places on the pretense of chatting, only to have them bail on you and be left with a hefty bill. But they seemed friendly and sincere, so I went along with it. As it turned out, great people and a great time, as they showed me around and explained things. Afternoon became night as we went from place to place, and then to dinner and off to 'Chunxi lu' (Chunxi road). This, from what I understand, is practically the main shopping drag in Chengdu. At least in terms of major legitimate department stores and chains - basically it's where the good stuff is. Anyway, a nice day and it's great to know at least 2 locals now :)

 My pals!

Which leads me to the next event, from which this post is labeled. You see, within 3 working days of arrival in China, if you're planning on staying awhile you'll need to go get yourself checked out at a hospital. More officially, the Sichuan Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau. Now the thing is, I had a full medical done in Perth before I came, because you need to have that done and send it in when you apply. Now the thing is... when I was getting my Visa, the Chinese consulate in Perth said that they required the originals of the medical. "Okay, it's the Chinese government... I'm sure that'll be fine". Why I thought that, I don't know. I should have known better. When the Student office staff were asking me about my forms, they were surprised that the consulate had taken the originals. I was a little concerned then, but I figured it would be okay.

No. It wasn't. At the hospital they told me I either had to get the originals or have another medical done at cost of... something like 330 kuai. Now this was actually much cheaper than it was in Australia for a more thorough medical (eg. they even did an ultrasound on my chest. Mmmm, gooey), but it's just so annoying that the system is clearly broken.

Anyway, I just felt like ranting about that. I'm actually glad that one way or another, it's another thing ticked off my 'Things to Do' list.

Oh, one more thing. If the taxi driver appears in anyway uncertain about where you want to go - get out. I took a risk with a taxi driver this morning who looked confused but said it wasn't a problem, and watched as he proceeded to contact other taxi drivers via radio for directions, pull alongside and shout out at other taxi drivers for advice, call someone on his mobile phone (another taxi driver?) and ask for directions. And even then, he dropped me off at the wrong end of the street. So yeah, don't waste your time. Get out and try another taxi.

Step 2 - Turn left, walk as far as you can, then ask for more directions

So there I was on campus, at 'Bei men', aka the North gate/university entrance. You've got a bunch of people milling around; taxi drivers, bored guards, pedestrians, tricycle drivers. The smartest thing I could have done was grab one of the tricycle guys, show him the map, and get a direct ride with my 30-40kg worth of luggage to the Dorm. No, scratch that, the smartest thing I could have done is gone to the South gate, which is about 50 metres from the Dorm.

Anyway, I didn't do either of those things. I made off on foot, my bag rumbling along behind me and the straps of my backpack already digging into my shoulders. I headed to the International Student Office, figuring that would be the best place to start. It kind of is, kind of wasn't. Turns out you can get a room at the Dorm without having seen the Student Office, so unless you enjoy the prospect of walking into the centre of the uni with your luggage, go to the dorm first.

At the Office they basically just give you a bunch of forms, which they tell you to get filled out. Again, so much information that could so easily be put only, but isn't. Why isn't it..? I don't know. It's annoying. But moving on... One of the tasks they told me to do is visit the local Public Security Bureau with my passport and stamped Visa entry. Now, due to the airport 'swine-flu' adventure, I hadn't fully passed through customs. Currently there's just a tick on my visa, next to the number of entries. It wasn't there before. Is that all the 'stamp' desired? More on that later I guess. The Student Office reassure me I have plenty of time to get these things sorted, and send me on my way to the Dorm.

On my way trying to find the dorm, I got helped out by a 60 something Austrian woman. I don't know how long she's been in China, but she seemed quite fluent, and gave me a few dozen points of advice which promptly flew straight through my head. Because of her, I'm now in some sort of hunt for a magical 'Jiaozi' (Dumplings, basically) restaurant on campus - I say magical because I can't find it for the life of me, and my roommate hasn't heard of it.

Speaking of my roommate - I arrived at the Dorms, finally. Luckily the staff spoke a bit of English, not much but it was enough. There were no single rooms available, only double with bathroom, and without. I inspected both, basically the rooms are 3 paces wide, 5-6 paces long. Only in those with bathrooms, about 1/2 of that space is take up by shower, toilet and a sink. So I decided on not having a bathroom. That's 20 kuai/night, currently about 3-4 Australian dollars. Pretty cheap, even by Chinese Dorm standards I think. The staff then spend about 3 minutes trying to pronounce Nepal, to tell me that is where my roommate is from. Eventually they write it down for me. 'Nepel'. Mhm. No wonder it sounded funny. Anyway, I'm crap at their language so I can't be too harsh.

 I'm still trying to figure out ways to optimize my available space... It's too much effort being messy when you don't have space for it.

Getting shown my room (2nd floor) was slightly worrying - it smelt faintly of cigarette smoke, and my roomie had his gear spread over the entire room. Fair enough, it's a small space and if noone else is around... no problem. But kind of daunting none the less, to feel that the room was pretty much already fully occupied. Anyway, he made some space and we chatted for a bit. He's a 27 year old Nepalese medical student, in Chengdu on scholarship, though he's been in China for something like 6 years now. Friendly guy, so far he's been very helpful in showing me some of the local resturants and stores to get basic goods from.

Sunset on the first or second day, by the University's major stadium.

So I might leave it there for today - I now had a room, though I still was freaking out a little.

Step 1 - Don't Cough

As a brief introduction, I'm a 22 year old Australian who's about to start studying Mandarin at Sichuan University. I flew over on the 19th of August, 2009. My entry into the country was a little more... interesting... than I had expected.

My first night in the country was spent in hospital. Sorry, no plane crash. What actually happened was that as you pass through customs, you fill out a slip out a slip about having cold like symptoms, or having been in contact with someone who displayed those sort of symptoms. Seeing as I had a fairly mild cold, I didn't think it would hurt to, you know, answer truthfully. Yes, I did have a runny nose and a sore throat.

So I got separated from the rest, sat down in a cordoned off area and asked a bunch of questions about the cold and any medications I was on. Now they took a sample off the back of my throat... but apparently testing for swine flu takes 6-8 hours - so what was to be done with me and the other 3 people who were all apparently even healthier that I was? After waiting about an hour, we were bundled into the back of an ambulance (which drove in a pretty similar fashion to a taxi, that is, too fast and all too often into oncoming traffic). My kidneys took a pounding from some random object that dug in every time the ambulance bounced.

Anyway, got to the hospital and we were put into separate rooms, everyone on their own. It was actually quite comfortable in that I was in a quiet room, with air conditioning and four beds to choose from. Having not slept the night previous, I got down to making some Z's. They woke me at 12 midnight to inform me that, indeed, I did not have swine flu and that I could leave now or in the morning. Didn't have anywhere else to stay, so I waited till the morning. Except that when I was supposed to leave, they changed their mind. Another test was to be done. About another 6-8 hours later, and I was released. To escorted off the hospital, there was a guard who must have thought "looking surly" was an integral part of the job. Hell, I'm no hospital security guard. Maybe it is! Who am I to tell this guy how to do his job...?

Getting a taxi to the Uni was no problem, the taxi driver bemused by my attempts at conversation and subsequent worried faces as he gave more in-depth replies than my vocabulary allowed for.

Can I just say this one thing? The maps of Chuanda (university nickname of sorts...) available online are crap. There's a fairly passable mud-map available, but what I don't understand is that I've found a much better map on campus. Now, obviously this means there are better maps available. Why aren't they online? It's not like it'd be hard. I took a photo with my camera, but obviously that's not exactly a perfect solution.

Note: See the very furthest upper right building? That's my dorm. Not close to anywhere. By a long way.

This is about the most I can write in one sitting these days, so I'll continue later and get everything up to date!

And so begins a blog about about living in Chengdu.