A Good Week

It’s been a good week, not in terms of Tibet or the global economy, but for me. Besides receiving a nice injection of RMB into my fourth Chinese bank account (every time I get a new job the HR department uses a different bank), I also am on the fast track for a 1 year working visa. This is especially nice for a number of reasons - no more paying dubious amounts to black market operatives, no more worrying about expiration dates on my stay, and after two years of having no medical insurance I can bike more, drink more, bike while drinking more, and not worry about the financial consequences.

Of course the procedure of procuring such visa is nothing but mafan (troublesome). I had to bug my landlord to pay her taxes so I could get a residency permit required by all foreigners and given out by the ominous Wudaokou police station (the same one I spent a night at three years ago for partaking in a brawl).

I then had to go to a hospital to be tested for HIV, high blood pressure, bad vision, and then I was X-rayed and EKGed. Chinese hospitals certainly lack that squeaky clean germ free feeling you get in American medical facilities. The combination of too many windows, paint coming off walls and ceilings, stained scrubs, and narrow hallways makes me think more of being in a crack house – maybe I shouldn’t have let them put that needle in me.

Back at the office, I was instructed by the HR girl to hand in a copy of my graduation certificate – no big deal. But then she came back and told me she was having a hard time reading the English, at which point I pointed out that it was written in Latin. So now I am translating Latin into English (purely guessing using my linguistic knowledge) and then she will translate that into Chinese.

Nothing is ever easy in China - the bureaucratic mess is constantly there, but if you just man up, stand in line, sit in traffic, and dot all your “i”s without freaking out, you can end up having a good and sometimes great week.