party of polaroid friends

Well, I'm off! I woke up this morning to return the modem, so I thought I'd post a little something letting everyone know what's going on. Here's the plan, Stan!

1. Return modem at about 9AM. Receive Y300 deposit back, yay!
2. Kill a little time maybe, until an early lunch time at 11:00.
3. Make tracks to get myself into the city with all my bags (Malcolm is going to help me) and to the airport link bus stop for the 1PM bus.
4. Get to the airport around 2PM, one hour before my departure time.
5. Check in and wait around for my 2:55 flight.

Then there's the flight, which will be nearly two hours, and that's sort of boring so I won't bother talking about how that will go (find seats, eat peanuts, etc.)

Then in Shanghai, the friend I'm staying with is unable to meet me at the airport, but he's given me good instructions as to how to get into the hotel he will be working at. It requires taking the Magnetic levitation airport express train (whee!), transferring to the Metro, and then taking the train a couple of stops into the center of Shanghai, where he will be waiting for me outside the hotel.

That, or I decide my Y300 deposit money would be better spent than saved and I get myself a taxi to the hotel because my bags prove to be too heavy or annoying.

Two friends from Xi'an are in Shanghai travelling at the moment, and really only one viable day (tomorrow) crosses over, so I'm going to give them a ring tonight and arrange to meet up. They're staying in the campus accommodations at the Shanghai Jiaotong University, which is pretty cool! It also seems they have the internet in their room, so they are well set up. I found online that there's a nice river cruise you can take down the Hungpu river for Y120 for a 3.5 hour trip, so I thought I might do that with them seeing as they have already done all the other things on my list.

Then there will be museums and shopping streets and the Jin Mao Tower view, and the Bund (I have procured a walking map that shows you where you can see the Bund best from the opposite side; there's a Starbucks and Hagen Daaz that you can just sit in for hours, which sounds pretty awesome to me! Other than that there's a historical park in the old section of the town, and old residences of Sun Yat-Sen and Zhou En-lai, and another pretty park in the French Concession area. There'll be plenty for me to do and see, fill up my days with.

If there's nothing (or if this sniffle I seem to have acquired plagues me more than necessary), I'm sure my friend has the internet at home, so I'm sure I'll be able to post something just before I come home.

IN FOUR DAYS!!!!!!

I always thought that applying for a visa, especially to somewhere like China where you'd expect they tightly control who comes in and who goes out, that applying for a visa, even a crappy student visa, would take at least... twenty minutes, right? At least. I mean, with all the traffic between the countries, I'm sure you'd have to wait in line for at least ten minutes, not to mention form upon form you have to fill out, which would take another five minutes, and then checking your forms five times once you got there so give or take another five minutes to actually get the person to put your papers in their outbox. That sounds reasonable for a visa application, doesn't it?

Mine took maybe ten minutes, tops. I got there, put my umbrella away, filled out an application form (name, address, contact in China, etc.), walked through where the lines would usually go, handed the person my forms and she got me to sign one thing (which I could have signed beforehand), and she gave me a little pink slip to get my passport back on Friday, and that was it! No joking. It maybe helped that it was pissing down with rain on and off, but still, I expected it to be much more of a palava and much more intimidating than it turned out to be.

The great thing about the pink slip of paper is that it means anyone with the pink slip of paper can pick it up on Friday - ie, my boyfriend can pick it up before work instead of my having to miss work on one of the busiest days to pick it up. Which is pretty awesome!

I also went to the travel agent's to check up on everything, to see if she hadn't found any different fares or anything, but there weren't, so instead I just put down a deposit on the fare she's got me going with - $250 towards the $1800+tax the fare will end up being. Which is pretty good considering I'm stopping over in Taiwan and Hong Kong as well before heading up to China. The only thing I need to do is book accommodation for Hong Kong, but that won't be too hard - my YHA membership is up to date and I've gotten my ISIC updated so everyone knows I'm a student while I'm overseas.

Next thing is to maybe email some people at uni about my honors year. Which is far away, I know, but I like thinking about these things ahead of time.

Not that I didn't know it was coming, but now I can finally get the ball rolling!

Here it is: text and translation, courtesy of my brain, babelfish, and zhongwen.com - they are all my friends
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澳大利亚国谢爱丽小姐：
Miss Xie Aili from Australia:

我们高兴地通知您，精审核您的申请材料，我校已决定录取您作为语言生到我校国教育尊院汉语系学习汉语专业。学习期限自2006年9月1日其到2007年2月28日止。

We happily inform you, because of your fine application material, my school has resolved to enroll you to live as a language student in the area of Chinese studies specialty. The semester starts on September 1, 2006 and ends February 28, 2007.

如果您自愿遵守我国的法律和学校的规章制度，服从管理，与各国同学友好相处，努力学习，那么请您待本录取通知书，jw202表原件，“外国人体格检查纪录”原件以及做爱滋病和梅毒检查后的血液化报告原件，前往中华人民共和国驻澳大利亚使（领）馆办理来化学习（X)或（F)签证。

If you're willing to cooperate with my country's legal and school rules and regulations, obey the authorities, make friends with various countries' schoolmates, study diligently, then please take this admission notice, the original jw202 form, the original "foreigner medical examination record" form as well as an original AIDS and syphilis blood test report, take this to the People's Republic of China Embassy in Australia to handle the China student (X) or (F) visa.

并于2006年8月25日至9月5日期间，到西安交通大学汉语进修学院留学生部报到。如不能按时报到，应事先通知本校，否则作为自动放入学资格。

And from August 25 to September 5, come to Xi'an Jiaotong University for the foreign student department registration. If you cannot register on time, you should inform the school beforehand, otherwise we will register you automatically.

1. 请您一定办理学习签证入境。
1. Please have organized your student entry visa.

2. 入境后，请立即到学校办理报到手续（入境30日内办理留证，逾期公安局要罚款)。
2. When you arrive, please go immediately to the school to go through the registration procedure (you must register within 30 days of entering the country to keep the visa, otherwise you will be taken to the police station and fined).

3. 请准备6张与护照上照片一样大的照片。
4. Please prepare 6 passport-sized photos.

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So I've got my instructions, now all I have to do is take it to the uni and get my money, and take the visa application (kindly filled out by the host university) to the consulate, which is right behind uni, and then it's all smooth sailing from there! I am So. Damned. Excited!!