experiences « ((little fat notebook))

Posts Tagged ‘experiences’

How to Apply for a Chinese Visa

laelene Posted in how to guides，Tags: china, chinese embassy, experiences, how to, pictures, tips, travel, tutorial, visa office, visas

20 February 2014

What a ride it’s been applying for my visa to go to China! I watched as time after time, people were turned away because they didn’t have everything they needed for the application. It seems that the law changed in the past couple of years, so those who had been getting visas to China for over 20 years suddenly found themselves no longer meeting the requirements for the application (on their first try anyway). I don’t think a single person who was there for the first time had a successful experience. So, to help you avoid a similar fate, here’s what I learned to make your visa application process as painless as possible.

Short on time? Skip right to the tips list.

First and foremost, PREPARE thoroughly.

When I first saw the extensive forms of visas, I had no clue which one I wanted and I didn’t pay much attention to the requirements. After all, I’d done it plenty of times before so how hard could it be? Oh no, how naive I was. First of all, you have to fill out the form ahead of time. There are no longer forms at the embassy – my first big mistake. Luckily, there is a well-situated travel agency upstairs from the visa office in DC (what a smart move on their part), so I went there and paid $10 to fill out my form on a computer and print it out. Avoid those mistakes and download a copy and print it yourself.

All applicants are going to want to have a photo copy of their passport ID pages (for the office to keep once they return your passport to you), previous visa(s) to China if this is not your first, and a copy of your itinerary (proof that you will leave the country within an appropriate time period). If you’re like me and just got a new passport, you’ll want to bring copies of your old passport and visas that you had in there. If you’re getting a special visa that lasts beyond the typical maximum of 12 months, there are other documents to provide. This usually includes a signed letter from a Chinese native/resident or company, inviting you to the country and explaining the purpose of your visit.

Plan for at least 40-60 minutes at the visa office

Don’t forget to bring all your documentation! When you arrive, you’ll almost always find a dozen or more people in line to submit their application and it’s a painfully slow process. After all, they have to be thorough in reviewing your application. They also often have to explain exactly what is missing from an application so people can get it right the second time. And inevitably, there are those frustrated people who spent hours getting to the office only to find out they have to make another trek, so they vent and sometimes demand managers.

Wait patiently for 3-4 business days, then pick up your visa

When you leave after submitting your application, you’ll get a receipt – hang on to it! It lists the date your visa will be ready and if you don’t get a call by that time, it means your visa should be ready with no issues. Picking up the visa is pretty quick, thankfully. Go first to the payment window and they’ll process your payment. All visas cost the same, no matter the length of validity and they’re currently at $140 for US citizens. I paid by credit card and then took my receipts over the to pick up window when the lady returned. She located my passport and showed me the page with the visa on it. I checked to make sure it was accurate – correct personal information, appropriate expiration date (two years from now, woo hoo!), and actually in my passport.

chinese visa payment window with receipt slip and stamp

Payment time.

passports in boxes ready for pick up after getting chinese visa

Boxes of passports.

So here’s a recap of the main points:

Download the application and bring it filled out along with a 2×2 photo attached (no more copies offered at the visa office)

Bring
-photo copy of passport
-copy of old passport (if recently outdated)
-copies of previous visas (if you’ve had any before)
-copy of travel itinerary (if already booked)
-invitation letter with name, ID number, and address of inviter (Chinese citizen or resident) – also include your name and passport number as invitee
-copy of front and back of ID of inviter

Apply at least 5 business days prior to intended travel (but preferably closer to 8-10 days in case there are issues)

When picking up your visa, bring form of payment (credit card is fine) and receipt slip

Did I forget anything? Do you have any lessons learned to share?

Better work at work

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: experiences, pictures, preferences, work

17 February 2014

It was back to work today after working from home Thursday and Friday due to the snow. While Panda happily snoozed away, I got up and went in for a normal day’s work. I felt much less stressed working in the office than I do when I’m home. The home environment makes me worry that I’m not working hard enough and it leaves me out of touch with what’s going on. I’d actually rather just work at the office, much as working from home sounds like a cool concept. Funny, since I never thought that’d be the case. I guess I just like home to be where I can relax and not think about work. Shouldn’t your home be your sanctuary?

Plus, today was fun because I took a Starbucks break with coworkers, made friends with a new guy in our company’s co-working space, got a cool delivery, found out I get to travel for work next month, and helped out on a couple of initiatives. An eventful day that sort of flew by and was pretty productive! Not much more I could ask for. I went home feeling good and looking forward to more days like this. I love being engaged and excited about what I’m working on. And with the recent shift in my responsibilities, I’m getting more and more of that, which is just awesome.

Do you prefer to work from home or at the office?

And the package I received, which was pretty thrilling:

girl holding thumbs up standing next to canvas vertical banner with "does paperwork have you tied up in knots? canvas has a cure!" messaging

It came out beautifully!

What a cool design. Simple, lightweight, and effective.

The academic cost of moving

laelene Posted in stories，Tags: academics, childhood, classes, experiences, family, moving, school

09 February 2014

When I was growing up, my parents and I would move every few years (no, I’m not a military brat nor are we missionaries – the two most common guesses). As a kid, this was never really an issue – I’d just help pack up my stuff and settle into another new room. I’d go to a new school with new teachers and new friends. Life would continue on its merry way and my experiences expanded further. I even went to China for a full year of schooling when I was 9 and came back without skipping a beat. But then came 7th grade.

We were living in St. Louis at the time. I’d been there for 5th and 6th grade. I don’t know when I found out, but sometime in 7th grade my dad found a better job out in New York. We’d be moving over winter break. In a way, I was glad – there was one class I was really struggling with and I was convinced I’d get my first C in the class. That’s a seriously awful grade for a straight-A student with a Chinese-American upbringing. I don’t know if I would have actually done so poorly, but I was glad I’d never have to know! The move to the New York school system meant that that particular class would get lost in the shuffle; there was no equivalent course at my new school, so it wouldn’t transfer and count for a grade.

I thought my problems were over with this fresh start, but boy was I wrong. My counselor at the new school was concerned with placing me in the advanced track in case I had a gap in education (this was only for science and math classes). She convinced my mom and I that the best course of action would be to take the classes for the normal track and then test out of it before starting high school. So I finished up 7th grade and the next year came and went as well… my counselor had left by that point, so when I went to find out how to test back into the advanced track, I hit a wall. There was no such test to be found. I was stuck taking algebra while my peers in advanced placement had moved on to trigonometry (or something like that… the details are fuzzy now).

$girl sitting at hotel desk studying with textbook, homework, and graphing calculator$

Studying in our Houston hotel room.

What I do remember clearly was that I blazed through my freshman math class with 100% on all homework and an infuriating 98 or 99% on the final. My teacher loved me, probably because I made him feel good as a teacher. At the end of that year, I went to him and asked what I needed to know for the follow year’s math. He got me a book and told me which chapters I’d need to focus on and my mom spent the summer tutoring me. I even brought all my materials with me when we went to visit my dad down in Houston, where he’d been working for awhile. His company headquarters had moved and we were planning on moving there to join him eventually (though we ultimately ended up going out to Los Angeles instead).

Before I started my sophomore year, my mom and I went to the principal and counselor to present all the work I’d done (fully documented in the form of homework and tests). We convinced them to let me take the next level of math with a compromise: they said I still had to sit in the class I was “skipping” due to New York state laws that force you to spend a certain number of hours in that classroom. So I doubled up on math that year and “caught” back up. I don’t remember what happened in science. I wonder if ultimately it made all that much of a difference in my education. The one main component was that I was surrounded by less motivated peers in the normal track, whereas when I got back into the advanced track classes, I was surrounded by overachievers.

Sooo the moral of the story is not to move your kids around in the middle of a school year if you care about high academic performance. Between the different school systems in America, you never know what a transition will do. At least try to hold off until the summer so there’s a much more clean break. I’m going to plan on not moving anytime during the middle and high school years for my kid(s). It’s a whole lot harder to get caught up after the fact and with each step you miss, it could set you back that much more.

365great Day 331: help

laelene Posted in 365great，Tags: 365great, experiences, moving, opinions, panda, pictures

08 February 2014

Sometimes, the best course of action is to get help. When you’re not very good at something or would be much better with the assistance of others, why waste time trying to go it on your own? I’ve always been taught to be very self-sufficient and I’m just now learning how to lean on others. It took me nearly my entire college career to learn that I sometimes needed help with my coursework, whether from a TA, fellow student, or tutor. I also never considered getting help in the house, like a maid, housekeeper, or nanny. However, I’ve completely rethought that approach after reading an article about not wasting time. It’s an interesting point that hiring people for household chores could be argued as a moral obligation. At the very least, it’s gotten me thinking about the people out there who would love to have a job so they could support their families. Since I am in a position where I can put money towards getting those tasks done and I don’t like doing them, why not hire someone to do it for me? They get to earn a living and I get to not stress about those things. So when it came to moving, Panda and I agreed that we should hire some folks to help us out. I certainly didn’t want to struggle with carrying loads of furniture up and down stairs. And as I’ve learned from watching them today, they’re very good at what they do. I mean, they were carrying couches through our hallways and didn’t leave a mark while I just carried a suitcase and managed to scrape black on the walls. -___- I’m more than happy to pay them for their service so I could get moved faster and with a whole lot less strain. I’ve learned that getting help doesn’t have to affect my pride at all and it can actually be a win-win situation! How great is that?

Confidence: the most attractive trait

laelene Posted in general blog, relationships，Tags: experiences, friends, panda, pictures, relationships

05 February 2014

When I think of what attracts me to a person, the only common factor I can find is confidence. It doesn’t matter what they look like, what their experiences have been, what their heritage is, how social (or not) they are, how intelligent they are, or how much we have in common. Across the board, my closest friends have been the ones who are neither cocky nor needy. They don’t need to be aggressive, but they’ll be as assertive it takes. They stand up for their beliefs, but don’t overpower people with them either. And they certainly aren’t clingy (I can’t stand clingy behavior). They have a wonderful balanced feel that makes them easy to get along with.

That’s exactly what attracted me to Panda when I first met him. He was comfortable with himself – he knew he was good at what he does, he didn’t feel self-conscious, and he didn’t go around seeking validation. He walked with a strut that was not quite peacocking, but let his presence be known. He didn’t feel embarrassed to laugh at himself when he goofed up. He didn’t sit around worrying about what perception others had of him. He just went out and did what he is amazing at, like being an engineer, managing things, researching, and planning.

guy walking on treadmill with confident stride

His confident stride.

He didn’t even want or need a relationship when we met. He was perfectly happy with how his life was. Maybe that’s exactly what I liked. The time we spent together was not because he was dependent on me to make him feel good about himself or to have something to do with his time; we made time for each other because we wanted to be in each other’s company. I don’t do well when I feel suffocated in a relationship (romantic or platonic) and perhaps I feel so far more readily than most. But when someone wants to see me every moment of every day (or even every day, really), that’s when I feel claustrophobic. I once had a roommate like that, who tried to join me on almost all of my social activities, clinging to me and my friends. I didn’t mind inviting her to some events and having her tag along here and there, but every single time got to be too much.

I must get it from my family’s lifestyle. We don’t see each other much: my parents and I see each other about twice a year (or in passing when we lived together), my relatives in China and I see each other once every few years for a few days, and even Panda and I are often separated by thousands of miles (generally for a week at a time). In these types of arrangements, you need to have the confidence to carry on your own life when others are not around and not a constant presence. While I don’t think you should “need” anyone as an adult, it sure is good to want certain people. If the reasons you spend time with them are because you like them and you get along well, it’s far more rewarding than because you feel obligated or guilty to do so. I certainly don’t want to get stuck in those situations, where the connection isn’t genuine. Why waste each other’s* time?

*On a side note, I totally went off on a grammar rule tangent with each other’s vs. each others’ (there seems to be a slight consensus that the first case is accurate, but my spell check indicates I should check it… alas, you get the point).

365great Day 326: travel buddies

laelene Posted in 365great，Tags: 365great, experiences, friends, pictures, strangers, travel

03 February 2014

I really enjoy traveling solo. You get to experience things in ways that nobody else would. It makes you more open to what will happen. And funny enough, it makes you more likely to find travel buddies to spend your time with. When you travel with someone (or a group), it’s too easy to stay within the safe confines of those social interactions. While you may speak to strangers in passing, you rarely strike up an in-depth conversation the way you could if you were alone. It’s like bringing a bubble with you when you travel, always keeping things at arms-length. Whenever I travel alone, however, the barriers break down far easier and I find myself suddenly having dinner with three guys I met the day before, or being followed around a castle by a couple of locals, or on a moped with some random stranger. It makes things infinitely more fun when I can explore a city with my new travel buddies, whether it’s just for a few hours or for a few days. It’s a great way to enjoy a new city.

365great Day 324: massages

laelene Posted in 365great，Tags: 365great, experiences, massages, pictures

01 February 2014

I’ve all but forgotten the days when I used to be so ticklish that I couldn’t get a massage without stifling laughter the entire time. Thankfully, I got past that phase and am no longer so sensitive to touch. These days I enjoy massages so much I’d get one every day if I could. I especially want some extra ones now since my muscles are sore from doing power yoga earlier in the week. Nothing feels better than getting some tightness kneaded out of my body. I love relaxing to a massage and I always fall asleep during them, so I end up getting a nice nap out of it too. After this long night of trying to order blinds, I sure need another massage even though I just got one last night. It’d be great if I could get my next one this week! I need it.

Haggling at Home Depot

laelene Posted in lifestyle glimpses, stories，Tags: experiences, home, panda, pictures, shopping

01 February 2014

Omg what a night. Panda and I were going to move some boxes, but we ended up spending over six hours at Home Depot haggling over blinds. At first we got help selecting options by a rep of one of the brands of blinds, which probably took an hour. Then we sat down with a store sales associate to work out a price quote and discovered that what we were told didn’t cost extra actually did. PLUS for awhile the type of wood we wanted wasn’t even showing up in the system and we had to figure out why the pricing wasn’t matching up. Ugh. Sooo we reworked everything and then haggled for a better deal because of the misinformation and trouble that we went through, but the assistant manager didn’t even seem to care and took no responsibility for our experience.

sketch of rough blueprint of condo with window measurements

They could totally tell Panda’s an engineer when he brought in this diagram.

Granted, it wasn’t Home Depot’s fault, but I do consider it their problem. After all they’re the ones selling us the blinds and the manager didn’t even apologize that it was such a hassle. Whether or not it’s their fault, they should take some responsibility for the experience we had. We weren’t being offered anything that a normal customer coming in with a completely smooth transaction would have gotten. What sort of goodwill is that, after hours upon hours of time spent for wasted effort due to a breakdown in communication? After much back and forth, we finally got offered something beyond the discounts already in place and I struggled to decide if I wanted to take the deal. If I was going to go for blinds of that quality level, I wasn’t going to get a better deal than what was on the table. However, did I want to do business with these people after it was so much trouble??

Panda was pretty keen on getting them because of the pricing and time we’d already invested in the process. We discussed for a long time and I finally decided I was ok with it if we didn’t buy anything else there (we were going to get a washer dryer set, overhead lighting, and many other random things there too). This sort of transaction left a bad taste in my mouth, but it is so steeply discounted compared to anything else we’d be able to find that I didn’t want to just walk away. Once we finally decided to go for it, we started the tedious process of finishing the quote and applying for a Home Depot card. Panda’s application was denied due to some confusion with our current address and verifying his identity, so I opened one up. There were many hiccups with my application and it took nearly an hour on the phone to get it all sorted out.

So finally, we wrapped up at 10 as they were closing… after arriving around 3:30 that afternoon. I don’t even know how our day got away like that. I mean, I thought I disliked shopping before, but now I pretty much hate it. So much trouble!! But at least we walked away with a good deal.

365great Day 321: strength

laelene Posted in 365great，Tags: 365great, childhood, exercise, experiences, fitness, health, pictures, strength, travel, yoga

29 January 2014

I love feeling strong (and being strong). It’s rewarding when I can surprise people with how strong I am and what I’m capable of. Growing up, I was pretty good at picking up athletic skills. I sprinted well, climbed most things, and learned to swim with little effort. I remember back in 8th or 9th grade when I could do the flexed arm hang for ages. One of my favorite parts of track practice was when we did weights. Cardio has never been my thing. As a voracious reader, I learned to carry 30+ books to the car on a weekly basis. As a good Chinese kid, I always helped my mom carry most of the groceries in the house. My personal challenge was to do it all in one trip, which usually meant a good 5 bags per hand. When I went back to China for a year in 3rd grade, I was able to outrun even the 6th graders. In more recent years I just like the confidence I get when I can do something that people doubt my body is capable of, like carrying my 6-foot something friend pictured here. I’d rather be able to do that than run a marathon, personally. I think it also gives me more confidence to travel alone, since people never think I can hit/punch/kick as hard as I can, so I can surprise them if I needed to defend myself. One thing I love about yoga is that it builds my strength. My favorite pose? Plank! And overall I think your body just feels better when you’re strong, which is a great way to live.

UK Vacation Day 10 recap

laelene Posted in lifestyle glimpses, photo blog，Tags: england, experiences, flying, food, london, panda, pictures, planes, travel, trips, uk, united states, vacation

29 January 2014

Alright, finally wrapping up the UK vacation from this fall. Our last day there was just to pack and get ready to go. I managed to wake up before the alarm, shower, and get breakfast. We finished packing and then went off to Pizza Express so I could get a pizza to bring home. I was too freakin’ yummy to pass up. We showed up a little before they opened and I got to watch them bring up some dough they were going to make the pizzas with. On our walk back to the hotel, I decided I had to try the Malteser McFlurry and the Sweet Chilli Wrap, which are unique to the region. I didn’t know they had onion rings too! Why don’t they offer those in the US? Then it was off to the airport via the tube. We got a chance to hang out at the Star Alliance lounge for a bit before boarding our plane and heading back stateside.

[See all the rest: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8 and Day 9 recaps.]