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I am getting Very Tired of Waiting to get the word from China about when we can travel (going with my friend to pick up the daughter she'll adopt). Why can't they just tell us? What's the reason for keeping the date a secret until almost time to leave, and not letting us know when they'll let us know? I really, really like the people I've met in China, but the government drives me crazy. It always hangs on to control in such petty ways--often to the point that it hurts its own goals.
When I taught there in 1994, they wouldn't tell me what I'd be teaching, so I wasn't able to bring a lot of books that would have been really useful to my students--instead I had to create a lot of stuff out of my head. And since they are (or were) really into intellectual piracy, they could have copied some really good stuff. But no. I wasn't allowed to know until the day before classes started (and since I was American, they had me teaching a graduate course in American Literature--that was wrong, just wrong. I'm a linguist--and yet I completely adored my students and spent hours and hours combing Beijing for material, anyway).
They've finally gotten the visa thing speeded up, at least--10 years ago it took months to get one, and we got them this time in a week. So maybe 20 years from now, if people are still adopting, they'll be able to buy plane tickets on less than a few day's notice.
Laurie (the adopting mother) did say that we will get travel approval this week almost certainly, but then after that we still don't know travel dates until we get an appointment with the embassy in Guangzhou for the citizenship ceremony (Lydia goes through the ceremony there and actually becomes a citizen as soon as she lands in the US).
Still hoping to go at end of October and return by mid-November, but if I suddenly vanish, I haven't gone through a portal to another dimension (no, wait, that's exactly what I'll be doing).
Grrr, though.
When I taught there in 1994, they wouldn't tell me what I'd be teaching, so I wasn't able to bring a lot of books that would have been really useful to my students--instead I had to create a lot of stuff out of my head. And since they are (or were) really into intellectual piracy, they could have copied some really good stuff. But no. I wasn't allowed to know until the day before classes started (and since I was American, they had me teaching a graduate course in American Literature--that was wrong, just wrong. I'm a linguist--and yet I completely adored my students and spent hours and hours combing Beijing for material, anyway).
They've finally gotten the visa thing speeded up, at least--10 years ago it took months to get one, and we got them this time in a week. So maybe 20 years from now, if people are still adopting, they'll be able to buy plane tickets on less than a few day's notice.
Laurie (the adopting mother) did say that we will get travel approval this week almost certainly, but then after that we still don't know travel dates until we get an appointment with the embassy in Guangzhou for the citizenship ceremony (Lydia goes through the ceremony there and actually becomes a citizen as soon as she lands in the US).
Still hoping to go at end of October and return by mid-November, but if I suddenly vanish, I haven't gone through a portal to another dimension (no, wait, that's exactly what I'll be doing).
Grrr, though.
.