weyhey! I am back in Wenzhou!! :)
flew Wednesday evening fromAamsterdam to Guangzhou. I do wish they would have told me there would be a stopover in Bejing! I could have changed my ticket to go from Bejing to Shanghai directly. Now I had to fly from Amsterdam to Bejing, Bejing to Guangzhou, Guanghzou to Shanghai. Had to meet the school people yesterday, hand off my papers and then take the train to Wenzhou. The train ride was the most pleasant bit of the whole tour; 9.5 hours in a airconditioned, comfy sleepertrain. Spent the whole time lounging on my bed and watching my fav tv series on my laptop. Not a bad trip for 27 Euro :)
Off to bed early tonight, as I am still pooped from all the travelling. But its good to be back!! :):)
Saturday, 24 May 2008
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
GOT IT!!!!!.............I think
Finbally got something in my passport that resembles a visa. no idea if it will actually get me out of this country and into China, but hell, I am willing to become an illegal alien at this stage :)
I think the stress will finally be over when I get to Wenzhou and can relax.
Too bad my little holiday in Holland was spoiled by so much stress and running around between The Hague, Amsterdam and Capelle.
Keep crossing those fingers till Thursday night!
I think the stress will finally be over when I get to Wenzhou and can relax.
Too bad my little holiday in Holland was spoiled by so much stress and running around between The Hague, Amsterdam and Capelle.
Keep crossing those fingers till Thursday night!
Monday, 19 May 2008
.....and still going nowhere....
Still stuck in Holland while fighting with both the school and the embassy to get a visa.
Am more and more willing to pick another country to go teach by the minute.....
Am more and more willing to pick another country to go teach by the minute.....
Thursday, 15 May 2008
Still in Holland
Went to the embassy yesterday. It went really well: I was in and out of there in 10 minutes, unfortunately without the visa.
The medical certificates which I was ensured several times would not be needed....were needed. So now its a wait for the papers to be sent in by courier and my tickets to be changed as I won't be flyng back tomorrow night.
Somehow I am beginning to feel less and less inclined to go back again if this "visa party" continues the way its going now.
The medical certificates which I was ensured several times would not be needed....were needed. So now its a wait for the papers to be sent in by courier and my tickets to be changed as I won't be flyng back tomorrow night.
Somehow I am beginning to feel less and less inclined to go back again if this "visa party" continues the way its going now.
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
Back in Holland
This morning started off on the wrong foot, as they forgot to book me a ticket from Wenzhou to Shanghai. I managed to get the ticket and on the flight about 5 minutes before they left.
Luckily the flight from Shanghai to Amsterdam was quiet and uneventful. The staff was very nice and kept a good eye on the "druggie" in seat 29C :)
I am off to bed now, caue the tiredness and the pills keep knocking me out.
Fingers crossed for the embassy visit tomorrow!
Luckily the flight from Shanghai to Amsterdam was quiet and uneventful. The staff was very nice and kept a good eye on the "druggie" in seat 29C :)
I am off to bed now, caue the tiredness and the pills keep knocking me out.
Fingers crossed for the embassy visit tomorrow!
Monday, 12 May 2008
Earthquake
heya all.
Just a lil note for all the worriers: I am ok!
The quake was far away from us.
hugs
Anna
Just a lil note for all the worriers: I am ok!
The quake was far away from us.
hugs
Anna
Sunday, 11 May 2008
Thursday, 8 May 2008
Hangzhou Trip
Good news and bad news!
Good news is that apparently I am in good condition; I passed all my medical tests.
Bad news is that I will be homeward bound somewhere next week. Next Tuesday I should have all the paperwork so either on Tuesday or shortly thereafter I will be on my happy pills again flying to Amsterdam.
I must have done something really really bad either in this life somewhere or in some previous life; cause having to fly over 11 hours TWICE in about 3 or 4 days is punishment big time!
Yesterday itself was quite an experience. The train ride was nice. We were in the fancy part of the train: little compartments with 4 beds. An elderly couple had the lower beds; we were on the top bunks. I think we scared them quite a bit, me by falling off the bed while trying to climb on, Ben by kicking the poor dear lady in the head when he tried to climb up. Oh how difficult not to laugh out loud sometimes!
I didn’t get much sleep as it was quite warm in there and we had no clue if we would be woken up or if we had to keep track of all the announcements ourselves. Bit hard to do when all you understand is “blablablablabla-name of town-blablablabla”. Good to know for next time that they actually come in and shout you awake once you have arrived at your destination. Would have saved a lot of worry of ending up in Shanghai by mistake. Ah well, one lives to learn.
We got to Hangzhou around 5 am. As the clinic only opens at 8 we had loads of time to kill. Hangzhou is a very nice city; too bad we did not really have the chance of seeing much of it. We did explore around the area near the clinic. Everything starts very early in this part of China, partly because it is full daylight at 5am, partly because otherwise you won’t get anything done due to the immense heat during daytime. Especially walking around all the lil food places was hard, as we were not allowed to eat before the medical. Water can fill you up only so much and it tastes of nothing!
The clinic itself was quite busy, but we got all tests done just after 10. The tests were the usual hassle: give blood, pee in a cup, eye, ear, throat check-up, blood pressure etc. etc.. The interesting ones were the E.C.G. and a scan. For the E.C.G. they strapped you down to a table with these kind of clamps…I was half expecting them to electrocute me. Kinda James Bond-ish :) The scan was interesting cause the person doing it was going up and down across my liver/kidneys while talking on her mobile phone through it all. I guess she found what she was looking for, cause I got the all clear and a piece of tissue to get rid of the gel.
Now I don’t know where one of the doctors got her degree or what size she thinks babies are in Europe, but I really don’t see how it is medically possible to squeeze out a baby via a caesarean through a scar of about 8 centimetres. It did not help either that I had no idea what she was saying to me in Chinese, however pointing at the scar and repeating “baby baby baby” kinda brought the idea across. Luckily she recognised the word appendix. For the ones coming to visit me and still having their appendices…. not to worry if you get appendicitis here! I now know the Chinese word for appendix, so we can tell the doctors :)
The rest of the day we spent running around the general area of the clinic, drowning our sorrows and tiredness in Starbucks (more for the air-conditioning than for the coffee). We also went across town to two bus stations to get our tickets for the return journey home. Hangzhou is very very sprawled out, so we got to see the city in its full glory taxiing from the East Bus Station to the South Bus Station. Our medical results were ready at 3; we dropped off our papers to the school branch in Hangzhou and went to catch our bus. Handy tip for every traveller…. CHECK THE TIME ON YOUR TICKETS! Repeating 6 times that we wanted our tickets for the 5:30 bus and showing them the time in writing apparently did not help much; when we tried to board, we noticed they had given us tickets for the 1:30 bus, which by then we had missed for 5 hours. They were very nice about it though and let us on the bus anyways. Methinks the driver really badly wanted to go home as he completed the journey in 4 hours instead of the 5 it was supposed to take.
The scenery on the road to Wenzhou is absolutely beautiful: mountains, fields, and little towns. Weird building styles though, everything from big square shed like houses to something colourful that looks like a castle from a fairy tale. I want one of those! :)
We got back to Wenzhou around 10. For me it was lovely: I could go to bed and rest; poor Ben had to go home, pack and be at the airport for 5:30 the next morning for his flights to Shanghai & LA. The poor guy must be absolutely dying by now! Hope all goes well for him with his papers.
When he’s back it is my turn, really not looking forward to all that, but eh, it is a free ”holiday” at home for a few days.
That’s it for now, more on the visa trip when I have some details.
Good news is that apparently I am in good condition; I passed all my medical tests.
Bad news is that I will be homeward bound somewhere next week. Next Tuesday I should have all the paperwork so either on Tuesday or shortly thereafter I will be on my happy pills again flying to Amsterdam.
I must have done something really really bad either in this life somewhere or in some previous life; cause having to fly over 11 hours TWICE in about 3 or 4 days is punishment big time!
Yesterday itself was quite an experience. The train ride was nice. We were in the fancy part of the train: little compartments with 4 beds. An elderly couple had the lower beds; we were on the top bunks. I think we scared them quite a bit, me by falling off the bed while trying to climb on, Ben by kicking the poor dear lady in the head when he tried to climb up. Oh how difficult not to laugh out loud sometimes!
I didn’t get much sleep as it was quite warm in there and we had no clue if we would be woken up or if we had to keep track of all the announcements ourselves. Bit hard to do when all you understand is “blablablablabla-name of town-blablablabla”. Good to know for next time that they actually come in and shout you awake once you have arrived at your destination. Would have saved a lot of worry of ending up in Shanghai by mistake. Ah well, one lives to learn.
We got to Hangzhou around 5 am. As the clinic only opens at 8 we had loads of time to kill. Hangzhou is a very nice city; too bad we did not really have the chance of seeing much of it. We did explore around the area near the clinic. Everything starts very early in this part of China, partly because it is full daylight at 5am, partly because otherwise you won’t get anything done due to the immense heat during daytime. Especially walking around all the lil food places was hard, as we were not allowed to eat before the medical. Water can fill you up only so much and it tastes of nothing!
The clinic itself was quite busy, but we got all tests done just after 10. The tests were the usual hassle: give blood, pee in a cup, eye, ear, throat check-up, blood pressure etc. etc.. The interesting ones were the E.C.G. and a scan. For the E.C.G. they strapped you down to a table with these kind of clamps…I was half expecting them to electrocute me. Kinda James Bond-ish :) The scan was interesting cause the person doing it was going up and down across my liver/kidneys while talking on her mobile phone through it all. I guess she found what she was looking for, cause I got the all clear and a piece of tissue to get rid of the gel.
Now I don’t know where one of the doctors got her degree or what size she thinks babies are in Europe, but I really don’t see how it is medically possible to squeeze out a baby via a caesarean through a scar of about 8 centimetres. It did not help either that I had no idea what she was saying to me in Chinese, however pointing at the scar and repeating “baby baby baby” kinda brought the idea across. Luckily she recognised the word appendix. For the ones coming to visit me and still having their appendices…. not to worry if you get appendicitis here! I now know the Chinese word for appendix, so we can tell the doctors :)
The rest of the day we spent running around the general area of the clinic, drowning our sorrows and tiredness in Starbucks (more for the air-conditioning than for the coffee). We also went across town to two bus stations to get our tickets for the return journey home. Hangzhou is very very sprawled out, so we got to see the city in its full glory taxiing from the East Bus Station to the South Bus Station. Our medical results were ready at 3; we dropped off our papers to the school branch in Hangzhou and went to catch our bus. Handy tip for every traveller…. CHECK THE TIME ON YOUR TICKETS! Repeating 6 times that we wanted our tickets for the 5:30 bus and showing them the time in writing apparently did not help much; when we tried to board, we noticed they had given us tickets for the 1:30 bus, which by then we had missed for 5 hours. They were very nice about it though and let us on the bus anyways. Methinks the driver really badly wanted to go home as he completed the journey in 4 hours instead of the 5 it was supposed to take.
The scenery on the road to Wenzhou is absolutely beautiful: mountains, fields, and little towns. Weird building styles though, everything from big square shed like houses to something colourful that looks like a castle from a fairy tale. I want one of those! :)
We got back to Wenzhou around 10. For me it was lovely: I could go to bed and rest; poor Ben had to go home, pack and be at the airport for 5:30 the next morning for his flights to Shanghai & LA. The poor guy must be absolutely dying by now! Hope all goes well for him with his papers.
When he’s back it is my turn, really not looking forward to all that, but eh, it is a free ”holiday” at home for a few days.
That’s it for now, more on the visa trip when I have some details.
Hangzhou 1
Hangzhou
for 6am I look remarkably alive!
there is still some "old" Hangzhou left in between the skyscrapers
I could not resist :)
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
Bye Bye China?????
Well, it’s been two weeks of living here now and I must say…I am loving it!
The place is busier than a beehive, but it has a certain something :)
I have even mastered the art of crossing the street (so far at least).
For those of you who have seen Disney’s Mulan: I am crossing like grandma … close your eyes and just walk! As said before, the traffic does not stop; it slows down and curves around you (all 4 lanes of it). This place really should be on any driver’s test route: if you can drive here… you can drive anywhere! In two week’s time I have only seen one accident here and that was literally only a scratch. My “please don’t kill me” mantra has gone down from 25 times to only two times per crossing, so that’s a good improvement. When crossing one does not run, one strolls at a good pace, never slowing down or speeding up. The traffic adjusts its speed to just miss you by a hair and swerve around you.
The apartment I am living in is quite big: two double bedrooms, a good size living room, bathroom and kitchen. At the moment I am on my own here, as Lynda has left and there is no new teacher yet. There should be another girl coming soon, but I am quite happy living on my own for now. I’ll post some pics once I get around to them.
The teaching is going not too bad. At the moment I have classes with ages from 4 to 8 years old. The kids are great fun. It is so fun to see them trying to impress each other and the teacher with all their knowledge of English. Any games I can think of that test their vocabulary goes down a treat.
Tuesday 6 May 2008 - 19:52
I was writing the above this morning. Since then a lot has changed. Tonight my colleague Ben and me are going to Hangzhou on the night train. We have our medical tests tomorrow at the China International Hospital. Depending on how we pass these, we will get a work permit.
Unfortunately that’s not the last of the bad news: we are not allowed to go to Hong Kong anymore to get our visas (it would mean “leave” China, get a new visa and return on our work visas). Since May 1st the rules have changed: we need to go to our own countries. This means that poor Ben and me have to fly to the US and Holland, get our new visas approved and return on the next flight to China. Luckily the flights will be paid for us by our employer (otherwise I don’t think either of us would come back).
Off to the train station now. At least that is a nice adventure, haven’t been on an all-nighter in years :)
I’ll keep you guys posted on my return tomorrow night.Keep your fingers crossed that I am all healthy and will pass my medical and that in due time I will get back to Holland and get my new visa.
The place is busier than a beehive, but it has a certain something :)
I have even mastered the art of crossing the street (so far at least).
For those of you who have seen Disney’s Mulan: I am crossing like grandma … close your eyes and just walk! As said before, the traffic does not stop; it slows down and curves around you (all 4 lanes of it). This place really should be on any driver’s test route: if you can drive here… you can drive anywhere! In two week’s time I have only seen one accident here and that was literally only a scratch. My “please don’t kill me” mantra has gone down from 25 times to only two times per crossing, so that’s a good improvement. When crossing one does not run, one strolls at a good pace, never slowing down or speeding up. The traffic adjusts its speed to just miss you by a hair and swerve around you.
The apartment I am living in is quite big: two double bedrooms, a good size living room, bathroom and kitchen. At the moment I am on my own here, as Lynda has left and there is no new teacher yet. There should be another girl coming soon, but I am quite happy living on my own for now. I’ll post some pics once I get around to them.
The teaching is going not too bad. At the moment I have classes with ages from 4 to 8 years old. The kids are great fun. It is so fun to see them trying to impress each other and the teacher with all their knowledge of English. Any games I can think of that test their vocabulary goes down a treat.
Tuesday 6 May 2008 - 19:52
I was writing the above this morning. Since then a lot has changed. Tonight my colleague Ben and me are going to Hangzhou on the night train. We have our medical tests tomorrow at the China International Hospital. Depending on how we pass these, we will get a work permit.
Unfortunately that’s not the last of the bad news: we are not allowed to go to Hong Kong anymore to get our visas (it would mean “leave” China, get a new visa and return on our work visas). Since May 1st the rules have changed: we need to go to our own countries. This means that poor Ben and me have to fly to the US and Holland, get our new visas approved and return on the next flight to China. Luckily the flights will be paid for us by our employer (otherwise I don’t think either of us would come back).
Off to the train station now. At least that is a nice adventure, haven’t been on an all-nighter in years :)
I’ll keep you guys posted on my return tomorrow night.Keep your fingers crossed that I am all healthy and will pass my medical and that in due time I will get back to Holland and get my new visa.
Monday, 5 May 2008
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