This Christmas season, I've found that the one thing I really want (besides time off from work to go home, which, alas, is not part of my contract), is to be able to be an active part of relief efforts for the uncommon number of terrible situations going on right now. Failing this, I've donated money, but I'm not exactly rich, so I can only give so much!
So, if you feel moved to do so, the best Christmas gift you could get me this year would be to donate to one of the following charities and send me the receipt! Or really, pick any charity you feel like is doing good, life-saving work. Below are just a few of the things I'm currently feeling strongly about.
Homelessness:
This summer, I spent a month living in the heart of Manhattan while completing job-required training. In that time, I walked past dozens of homeless individuals. I spent a lot of time thinking about the standard reaction to someone homeless, that is, the cold-hearted way the passing crowd ignores them. I grew up loving the parable of the Good Samaritan, and I was continually upset with the knowledge that I did not have the resources to truly help my neighbors who had been left for dead on the streets.
Wrestling with that problem, I found the BRC (Bowery Residents' Committee), a NYC-based charity that works to address homelessness on a local, individual level. Please consider donating to them, or researching and finding a similar local organization in your area!
https://www.classy.org/checkout/donation?eid=103547
Flint:
United Way of Genesee County: UWGC has set up this fund for the purchase of filters, bottled water, emergency support services and prevention efforts. 100% of the fund is used for these projects and no Administrative Fee is assessed. The UWGC has sourced more than 11,000 filters systems and 5,000 replacement filters, ongoing sources of bottled water to the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan and also supports a dedicated driver for daily distribution.
http://www.unitedwaygenesee.org/flintwaterfund
Syria: (borrowed from this tumblr post)
Syria Relief: They work to provide many life-saving essentials including food, medicine and medical care, winter provisions including warm blankets and bedding, as well as an orphan support programme. 88.8% of your donation goes into relief, the remaining go into raising money, and a small portion into admin.
https://www.syriarelief.org.uk/donate/?aleppo-appeal
Save The Children: Provides food and water, helps repair water systems, supports hospitals, helps schools, and provides emotional help for children. They have helped over 500 000 children in besieged areas so far. 88% of your donation goes into relief, the remaining goes into fundraising efforts.
https://secure.savethechildren.org.uk/donate/emergency?sourcecode=SA4006001&_ga=1.158660734.551543489.1481608383
Islamic Relief Worldwide: They distribute food packs, clothes and medical supplies to communities under siege within Syria and displaced people along the Turkish border. They are also running or supporting camps and providing livelihood programmes, education and psychosocial support for refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. 90% of your donation goes into relief and development, the remaining goes into delivery of relief, campaigning, and generating future income.
https://donations.islamic-relief.com/? (Click Current Appeals and donate to Syria Crisis Appeal)
Karam Foundation: An NPO that develop Innovative Education programs for Syrian refugee youth, distribute Smart Aid to Syrian families, and fund Sustainable Development projects initiated by Syrians for Syrians. They distribute clothes, food, water, flour, blankets, infant formula and other basic necessities. 100% of profit goes into building programs, providing relief, and sustaining development.
https://app.moonclerk.com/pay/m084arkxtho
Doctors Without Borders/Medecins sans Frontieres: “Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare. MSF offers assistance to people based on need, irrespective of race, religion, gender or political affiliation. Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of neutrality and impartiality.” 80% of your donation goes into relief/ supplies.
http://www.msf.org/en/donate
Love and peace with you <3
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Saturday, December 17, 2016
Rice for One FINALLY like a REAL ADULT
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| LOOK AT THAT ELECTRONIC, AUTOMATIC BEAUTY |
I, of course, got the rice/water ratio completely wrong the first time I used it, BUT luckily rice porridge is a Guangdong staple food, so I'm used to it haha.
AW YEAH, HERE WE GO. RICE SO HOT IT COOKS A RAW EGG CRACKED ON TOP OF IT (mixed w/soy sauce for flavor: the breakfast of champions)
YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE YOU CAN MAKE??? DUMPLINGS. PERFECTLY STEAMED DUMPLINGS, EVERY TIME.
I'M LIVING LIKE A QUEEN HERE, GUYS.
Actually, all that said, today I decided to try out this little restaurant/cafe in my neighborhood called Cupcake House. It's a western food place, and I was primarily curious about the quality of the cupcakes because most baked goods here are breads and breakfast pastries, not cakes. However, I was completely blown away by what I ordered for the main meal.
It's super simple, just spaghetti with beef, bell papers, onions, olive oil, and pepper. I think the spaghetti itself might be some boutique-y artisan brand or whatever, but really, it's just a straightforward dish like my dad would have whipped up at home.
Like, exactly like my dad would have whipped up at home.
The waiter brought it out, and as soon as the smell hit me I went "oh no," and proceeded to have the most emotional plate of spaghetti I've ever eaten in my life. I love Chinese food, I really, really do, but this was just SO spot-on that it made me homesick. :')
The other feature of this restaurant was the "hip American music" playing overhead. The first song I noticed was the one that played while I was eating the noodles, and heavily featured the line "so beautiful you could cry," and I was like "true."
But after that, I got the Backstreet Boys "I Want It That Way," the Bee Gees "Staying Alive," and Beyonce's "Halo." It was...quite the ambiance, haha.
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| Anyway the cupcake I got was Red Velvet and it was primo 👍 |
Mmmmm and the last thing for now is a bonus picture of the packaging for Chinese Skittles.
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| Fancy~ |
Friday, December 16, 2016
Hong Kong Vacation Days
I say vacation days, but really it was just my weekend, haha.
I teach only one class on Tuesday (it was initially supposed to be two, but no one signed up for the second one, alas...), so after that I hopped on the metro to catch a ferry across the bay to Hong Kong!
Except, as it turned out, there were no more seats on the two ferries I could have taken....so...... I hopped back on the metro after texting a co-worker to discover that I couldn't get a cross-border car where I was so I had to go to a different checkpoint.
Getting off the metro, I found that the checkpoint was not actually within walking distance and that the bus routes were too uncertain (I have a better grip on them now, as it turns out my new apartment is closest to the same metro stop), so I hailed a cab instead.
On the way to the checkpoint, my cab gets grazed by another car, so the driver pulls over and chews the guy out. Luckily we're basically in the checkpoint parking lot, so I can just get out there. When I go to pay with my phone, the app doesn't work, and the driver's like "can you just pay cash?" Well, I'm exactly one yuan short of cash....but at this point the situation is so ridiculous that he just takes the money and shoos me away.
The checkpoint itself is easy, but I forget to go to an ATM to get money until I've walked halfway to the HK taxi line. I try to explain to the driver that I have no cash, ask if I can pay with a card, and he assures me that we can stop in Kowloon (<- an absolute TRAVESTY of a spelling considering how it's actually pronounced in Cantonese, YIKES) where I can pull out cash. Whoo, okay.
So that all goes well, except by this point it's clear I'm going to be an hour or more late for the time I told the hostel I would check in, and my phone plan doesn't serve HK, so I can't message the hostel because I forgot to do it while I had wifi. Yikes.
Well, we get to the hostel, but the thing about....pretty much anywhere you want to go in Hong Kong is that it's in an old skyscraper and you have to take an unbelievably sketchy elevator to get there. Such is the case with my hostel, but I follow the signs and make it to the proper floor. HOWEVER, I was in the elevator with a woman carrying like three huge shopping bags, and she sees me and my backpack, and she asks me "hostel?" and I'm like "yeah." And we end up walking the same way.
I hold the door for her, but the sign overhead doesn't read the name of my hostel. However, there's a possibility of the Chinese characters being pronounced like my hostel's name if you read them in Cantonese and not Mandarin so? I go for it. Whereupon I realize that it's not the entrance to a hostel, but rather a section of rooms, and their front desk is somewhere else. So it's not my hostel at all.
But I'm too late. Carly (her English name) figures out that I speak a little Mandarin, insists that she'll treat me to dinner, and now I'm her "beautiful American little sister" (her words, verbatim). I find the check in to my actual hostel and drop my stuff off while Carly lurks uncomfortably outside the door to the amusement/concern of the hostel owner.
It is becoming increasingly clear to me that Carly is Not Well - she's flighty, a little anxious, and a little too pushy. She's also pretty incessantly filming and photographing us together with the clear intention of making it look like she speaks English well. I basically decide that being a human accessory is worth the price of a meal, so hey. I go along with it. (It's also around 10:30pm, I'm exhausted, and I haven't eaten since before work....so....)
We went to this noodle restaurant, but before even ordering, Carly decided that she was too hungry to wait, so she went out and bought sweet soup and fried bread for us to split. She started eating it, and the one of the waitresses came over and was like "please...don't do that," and I was like "yeah okay," but Carly seemed like she couldn't understand why it was a problem. Anyway, I had already ordered when Carly left because I was wholly unsure if she was returning, so she only added on the fishskin and the hot dogs.
I should also add that she was asking other customers to take pictures of us, and they were all mildly confused but good-natured enough to go along with her for a bit. It was all very strange.
ANYWAY, the food was good, and I got the soup, bread, and fishskin leftovers for breakfast the next day. Carly left after we finished eating to go buy something somewhere, and I was just like "yeah okay bye!!!!!" We didn't exchange contact info or anything haha, and I lowkey spent the rest of the trip praying I wouldn't see her even though we were staying on the same floor (and I didn't). She wasn't mean or anything, but she definitely made me feel strange.
So, that was Tuesday night. Wednesday I had a massage scheduled for 1pm, so I spent a lazy morning in the hostel before heading out to get lunch. I...ended up eating at a McDonald's because I needed wifi to double-check the location of the massage place.... So much for a health day lol.
But I did finally get a deep tissue massage! It was my first time getting a professional massage, and it wasn't at a super fancy spa or anything, just a fairly plain little parlor. It felt like an optometrist's office, almost. The massage itself was super intense, and I'm really glad I did it! I'm a very touch-oriented person (surprising coming from a dancer, I know), and it was just really nice to have all that hands-on therapy. At the end the masseuse did a few "knocking" movements on my head and back that inexplicably made me want to laugh, so overall it was a good experience.
Afterwards, maybe because I wasn't used to the pressure of a deep-tissue massage or maybe because of the McDonald's, I felt kind of nauseous, unfortunately. So I went back to the hostel, AT WHICH POINT, the old woman who took the elevator with me asked if I lived in this building, and I was like, no no, I'm in a hostel. She, of course, wanted to come see my hostel. I saw a repeat of Carly, but I wouldn't very well prevent the woman from getting off the elevator with me and going to see the hostel. Luckily, she seemed genuinely interested in the hostel and went immediately to the front desk (where the owner kind of side-eyed me for bringing yet another woman I clearly didn't know well) and engaged her in real conversation. I hovered for about a second until the old woman thanked me, and then I bolted to my room, dove onto my bottom bunk, pulled the curtain and pretended I wasn't there.
That crisis averted, I basically dozed until dinner, when I set off to explore the neighborhood and ended up going to a sleek little Japanese restaurant.
I've gotten pretty used to eating alone, and the atmosphere inside was nice. I also like Japanese places because they tend to have the best options for ordering a complete meal (small soup and salad, main course, and dessert).
After that I went back to the hostel, slept, and the next day I took the metro back to Shenzhen! Easy-peasy.
It was a weird trip, y'all. But I got through, and more impressively, I got through packing all my stuff on Thursday night after traveling the whole morning. -thumbs up-
Peace <3
I teach only one class on Tuesday (it was initially supposed to be two, but no one signed up for the second one, alas...), so after that I hopped on the metro to catch a ferry across the bay to Hong Kong!
Except, as it turned out, there were no more seats on the two ferries I could have taken....so...... I hopped back on the metro after texting a co-worker to discover that I couldn't get a cross-border car where I was so I had to go to a different checkpoint.
Getting off the metro, I found that the checkpoint was not actually within walking distance and that the bus routes were too uncertain (I have a better grip on them now, as it turns out my new apartment is closest to the same metro stop), so I hailed a cab instead.
On the way to the checkpoint, my cab gets grazed by another car, so the driver pulls over and chews the guy out. Luckily we're basically in the checkpoint parking lot, so I can just get out there. When I go to pay with my phone, the app doesn't work, and the driver's like "can you just pay cash?" Well, I'm exactly one yuan short of cash....but at this point the situation is so ridiculous that he just takes the money and shoos me away.
The checkpoint itself is easy, but I forget to go to an ATM to get money until I've walked halfway to the HK taxi line. I try to explain to the driver that I have no cash, ask if I can pay with a card, and he assures me that we can stop in Kowloon (<- an absolute TRAVESTY of a spelling considering how it's actually pronounced in Cantonese, YIKES) where I can pull out cash. Whoo, okay.
So that all goes well, except by this point it's clear I'm going to be an hour or more late for the time I told the hostel I would check in, and my phone plan doesn't serve HK, so I can't message the hostel because I forgot to do it while I had wifi. Yikes.
Well, we get to the hostel, but the thing about....pretty much anywhere you want to go in Hong Kong is that it's in an old skyscraper and you have to take an unbelievably sketchy elevator to get there. Such is the case with my hostel, but I follow the signs and make it to the proper floor. HOWEVER, I was in the elevator with a woman carrying like three huge shopping bags, and she sees me and my backpack, and she asks me "hostel?" and I'm like "yeah." And we end up walking the same way.
I hold the door for her, but the sign overhead doesn't read the name of my hostel. However, there's a possibility of the Chinese characters being pronounced like my hostel's name if you read them in Cantonese and not Mandarin so? I go for it. Whereupon I realize that it's not the entrance to a hostel, but rather a section of rooms, and their front desk is somewhere else. So it's not my hostel at all.
But I'm too late. Carly (her English name) figures out that I speak a little Mandarin, insists that she'll treat me to dinner, and now I'm her "beautiful American little sister" (her words, verbatim). I find the check in to my actual hostel and drop my stuff off while Carly lurks uncomfortably outside the door to the amusement/concern of the hostel owner.
It is becoming increasingly clear to me that Carly is Not Well - she's flighty, a little anxious, and a little too pushy. She's also pretty incessantly filming and photographing us together with the clear intention of making it look like she speaks English well. I basically decide that being a human accessory is worth the price of a meal, so hey. I go along with it. (It's also around 10:30pm, I'm exhausted, and I haven't eaten since before work....so....)
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| Make-your-own noodle bowl, HK style milk tea (MY ADDICTION), crispy fishskin, and grilled hot dogs (surprisingly popular in south China) |
I should also add that she was asking other customers to take pictures of us, and they were all mildly confused but good-natured enough to go along with her for a bit. It was all very strange.
ANYWAY, the food was good, and I got the soup, bread, and fishskin leftovers for breakfast the next day. Carly left after we finished eating to go buy something somewhere, and I was just like "yeah okay bye!!!!!" We didn't exchange contact info or anything haha, and I lowkey spent the rest of the trip praying I wouldn't see her even though we were staying on the same floor (and I didn't). She wasn't mean or anything, but she definitely made me feel strange.
So, that was Tuesday night. Wednesday I had a massage scheduled for 1pm, so I spent a lazy morning in the hostel before heading out to get lunch. I...ended up eating at a McDonald's because I needed wifi to double-check the location of the massage place.... So much for a health day lol.
But I did finally get a deep tissue massage! It was my first time getting a professional massage, and it wasn't at a super fancy spa or anything, just a fairly plain little parlor. It felt like an optometrist's office, almost. The massage itself was super intense, and I'm really glad I did it! I'm a very touch-oriented person (surprising coming from a dancer, I know), and it was just really nice to have all that hands-on therapy. At the end the masseuse did a few "knocking" movements on my head and back that inexplicably made me want to laugh, so overall it was a good experience.
Afterwards, maybe because I wasn't used to the pressure of a deep-tissue massage or maybe because of the McDonald's, I felt kind of nauseous, unfortunately. So I went back to the hostel, AT WHICH POINT, the old woman who took the elevator with me asked if I lived in this building, and I was like, no no, I'm in a hostel. She, of course, wanted to come see my hostel. I saw a repeat of Carly, but I wouldn't very well prevent the woman from getting off the elevator with me and going to see the hostel. Luckily, she seemed genuinely interested in the hostel and went immediately to the front desk (where the owner kind of side-eyed me for bringing yet another woman I clearly didn't know well) and engaged her in real conversation. I hovered for about a second until the old woman thanked me, and then I bolted to my room, dove onto my bottom bunk, pulled the curtain and pretended I wasn't there.
That crisis averted, I basically dozed until dinner, when I set off to explore the neighborhood and ended up going to a sleek little Japanese restaurant.
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| Nice picture displays are good advertising because they help the tourist who has a hard enough time with simplified Chinese characters and suffers with traditional, thank you very much. |
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| The door slid open when you pressed the button on the side. V cool, v sleek, v modern. |
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| Grilled mackerel with lemon! |
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| CREAM PUFF |
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| I love these funky hostel signs. |
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| THIS ONE'S MY FAVORITE but I definitely didn't see it when I first walked in....OOPS haha. |
Peace <3
Thursday, December 15, 2016
MADE IT
Well guys, I'm all moved in to my new apartment!
I checked out the place last Monday, left for Hong Kong on Tuesday, got back on Thursday, and moved in on Friday! It was a bit of a whirlwind, but I got through it.
My employer sent me a driver so that I didn't have to take all my stuff on the metro, and that was a real life-saver, haha. Actually, let me re-phrase that: I requested that the company give me a driver since they were the ones who chose not to renew their lease on the apartment or find another place for me to live, and they obliged, and the driver was exactly as convenient as I knew he would be. He did, however, arrive in a car with leather seats, so I felt a little awkward about putting my bags of kitchen supplies and bathroom cleaning products inside....oh well haha.
Pictures of the process:
The apartment itself is small, but perfect for one person. It's also a lot warmer than my last apartment because there's less tile flooring and fewer windows to leak heat, haha.
I'm pretty happy in the new place! The only problems are that there's a doorman at the front gate who always holds it open and I'm....not a social person so I always feel awkward having to say hello haha (also because I'm??? a 22 year old American and people don't hold gates open and greet me like I'm some kind of heiress). I also take the bus to work now, since my apartment isn't close to any metro stations. The bus is just as convenient, but it's less sleek than the metro and traffic is :/
Two days ago (Tuesday) I went to drop off my keys to the apartment manager at my employers headquarters, which is right next to my old apartment complex. Last goodbyes. :')
My new area is nice, but less decadently tropical haha. It's a more normal residential/shopping area, and not so ~free-spirited~ and ~artistic~. I'm still figuring it out!
I've taken up running to stay in cardio shape, and it has the added benefit of letting me see more streets more efficiently than walking. My old apartment was close to this beautiful little park that I was hoping to explore more of, alas. 😞 I haven't found anything in my new area yet, but it's only been a few running days yet.
Today I actually went for a night run (our water was shut off for maintenance this morning so I didn't go then because I like to shower immediately when I get home), and tried a new road. Now, fun fact about China is that a lot of people ride bikes/scooters/mopeds etc. and these do not necessarily come with headlights, or the headlights are not necessarily required to be on.
What this lead to tonight was me crossing an intersection, perfectly legally and safely, but not seeing a man on a moped until I was just about to reach the other side. Dear readers, I jumped a good foot in the air. But not just a jump - I was running, so what I ended up doing must have looked something like a spooked horse leaping over a log.
Anyway the man wouldn't have hit me, but he looked back over his shoulder as he rounded the curve and I could see that he was laughing, and I started laughing too, but I also kept running, so I was trying not to laugh and scare the people I was passing who had no idea what just happened.
That's all for tonight... Hopefully I'll get a post about my Hong Kong trip up tomorrow! I didn't do much, but I had some....encounters.
Peace <3
I checked out the place last Monday, left for Hong Kong on Tuesday, got back on Thursday, and moved in on Friday! It was a bit of a whirlwind, but I got through it.
My employer sent me a driver so that I didn't have to take all my stuff on the metro, and that was a real life-saver, haha. Actually, let me re-phrase that: I requested that the company give me a driver since they were the ones who chose not to renew their lease on the apartment or find another place for me to live, and they obliged, and the driver was exactly as convenient as I knew he would be. He did, however, arrive in a car with leather seats, so I felt a little awkward about putting my bags of kitchen supplies and bathroom cleaning products inside....oh well haha.
Pictures of the process:
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| The main street! Next to....the Walmart, the McDonald's, the Pizza Hut, the Starbucks, and the KFC...I may have....moved back....to America... |
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| I hate packing I hate packing I hate packing!!!!! |
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| but look how organized I am uwu (this is a false impression) (almost nothing else was packed so tidily) |
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| I'm pleased as punch that my green bedspread fits the general theme of the room haha. |
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| It's just all one straight line from the door~ |
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| LET ME TELL YOU I didn't realize how much I missed having a desk until I saw this. |
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| Washing machine in the bathroom -thumbs up- |
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| I cleaned house and took all the cleaning stuff from the last apartment even though I didn't buy most of it haha. |
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| THIS DUDE was just stuck on the door and I love him. |
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| I live on the third floor, right at the landing of the stairs! |
I'm pretty happy in the new place! The only problems are that there's a doorman at the front gate who always holds it open and I'm....not a social person so I always feel awkward having to say hello haha (also because I'm??? a 22 year old American and people don't hold gates open and greet me like I'm some kind of heiress). I also take the bus to work now, since my apartment isn't close to any metro stations. The bus is just as convenient, but it's less sleek than the metro and traffic is :/
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| I did see this pretty cool handprint on the bus window the other night though 😐 |
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| Got a mocha milk-cap red bean tea from the cafe I used to go to a lot in summer as a parting gift 😊 |
I've taken up running to stay in cardio shape, and it has the added benefit of letting me see more streets more efficiently than walking. My old apartment was close to this beautiful little park that I was hoping to explore more of, alas. 😞 I haven't found anything in my new area yet, but it's only been a few running days yet.
Today I actually went for a night run (our water was shut off for maintenance this morning so I didn't go then because I like to shower immediately when I get home), and tried a new road. Now, fun fact about China is that a lot of people ride bikes/scooters/mopeds etc. and these do not necessarily come with headlights, or the headlights are not necessarily required to be on.
What this lead to tonight was me crossing an intersection, perfectly legally and safely, but not seeing a man on a moped until I was just about to reach the other side. Dear readers, I jumped a good foot in the air. But not just a jump - I was running, so what I ended up doing must have looked something like a spooked horse leaping over a log.
Anyway the man wouldn't have hit me, but he looked back over his shoulder as he rounded the curve and I could see that he was laughing, and I started laughing too, but I also kept running, so I was trying not to laugh and scare the people I was passing who had no idea what just happened.
That's all for tonight... Hopefully I'll get a post about my Hong Kong trip up tomorrow! I didn't do much, but I had some....encounters.
Peace <3
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Bureaucracy
Sooooo last Friday night my roommate came home and told me that she had just learned that the company apartment we're living in was going to be sold on December 10th, so we had to find a new place to live!!!!
This is entirely too short notice, especially for my poor roommate, who has a week long business trip starting on Dec 2nd! She has the option to move into a different company apartment, but apparently there's only one free room, so I can't go with her. However, she told me that she doesn't want to have to get used to a new roommate or live with someone she actually sees at work every day, so she wants to keep living with me! Which is nice, but puts a lot of pressure on her to find a new place before her trip. :(
I, unfortunately, am not much help in this apartment search, because my Chinese is nowhere near good enough to find us a place at a reasonable price, and the Shenzhen real estate market is notoriously difficult...
UPDATE: It is now just past midnight on December 2nd, and my roommate's week-long trip has become a two week long trip, so she is currently packing and will move out in the morning to the new company apartment. I'm gonna miss her. (The landlord, apparently, will not budge on this move-out date...yikes).
ALSO we got maybe a week's notice that for some reason our salaries have to be deposited into a Bank of China account, and I'm here with my Merchant Bank of China card going "....okay..........."
And as it turns out (after a trip on Tuesday with an obliging co-worker), I cannot get a Bank of China card because my visa is still a travel visa, despite the fact that I've visited the company headquarters multiple times to fill out paperwork for applying for a business visa.
AND I have to go to Hong Kong for two days right before December 10th so that I don't overstay this visa, AND our school is having a show on the 4th so we have extra rehearsals before then so I can't very well search for an apartment (or...honestly even apply for one independently, I think, considering my lack of a residence permit.......YIKES)
In summary: pray for me. I'm sure I'll get through this, but it'll be nice to have the support haha.
<3
This is entirely too short notice, especially for my poor roommate, who has a week long business trip starting on Dec 2nd! She has the option to move into a different company apartment, but apparently there's only one free room, so I can't go with her. However, she told me that she doesn't want to have to get used to a new roommate or live with someone she actually sees at work every day, so she wants to keep living with me! Which is nice, but puts a lot of pressure on her to find a new place before her trip. :(
I, unfortunately, am not much help in this apartment search, because my Chinese is nowhere near good enough to find us a place at a reasonable price, and the Shenzhen real estate market is notoriously difficult...
UPDATE: It is now just past midnight on December 2nd, and my roommate's week-long trip has become a two week long trip, so she is currently packing and will move out in the morning to the new company apartment. I'm gonna miss her. (The landlord, apparently, will not budge on this move-out date...yikes).
ALSO we got maybe a week's notice that for some reason our salaries have to be deposited into a Bank of China account, and I'm here with my Merchant Bank of China card going "....okay..........."
And as it turns out (after a trip on Tuesday with an obliging co-worker), I cannot get a Bank of China card because my visa is still a travel visa, despite the fact that I've visited the company headquarters multiple times to fill out paperwork for applying for a business visa.
AND I have to go to Hong Kong for two days right before December 10th so that I don't overstay this visa, AND our school is having a show on the 4th so we have extra rehearsals before then so I can't very well search for an apartment (or...honestly even apply for one independently, I think, considering my lack of a residence permit.......YIKES)
In summary: pray for me. I'm sure I'll get through this, but it'll be nice to have the support haha.
<3
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