…or “why I suck at it.”

So it’s quite late, and I’ve been tossing and turning in bed for a good while now. The issue is that I’ve been all of a sudden sick again, and it’s not been that great of an experience. I really do believe it’s due to the sudden changes in the weather and ambient temperature as opposed to any drastically low temperatures in and of itself; I don’t think my bodies knows what to do when things keep changing! It prepares and is ready for it to be warm or cold, but it can’t handle the shift, and so dies, metaphorically.

The point though, is that while I’ve been sick, I’ve been either not very productive at all, or decently productive on some of my web projects. So assuming I spend half my time productive, half of it not, and a good potion of the rest asleep or in a daze, accounting for time to spend with my Maria of course, I should have time left everyday to blog. Right? So why is it that I don’t, and why is it that it’s been nigh on three weeks since anyone’s updated this blog?

I think it has to do with the actual concept of blogging. Before now, as in, literally a couple of minutes ago, I was suffering quite contentedly in bed, unable to sleep, dreading the possibility that I might be disturbing Maria’s rest as well. And my mind was racing. I was thinking about my restaurant’s website (which isn’t up yet), my art website, which is up here, and some new stuff I’m planning to do for my choir, which, obviously, isn’t up either, neither is the West Campus site. Incidentally, this would be the first time I’m plugging my art website…everyone go and look at it! It represents the “best” of Beijing’s urban youth, or so the propaganda page tells me.

West Campus, incidentally, is a school I’m starting in Beijing! It will at first only offer year long intensive Chinese language and culture courses, hopefully starting Fall 2010, but will move on to offer full study abroad options for a liberal arts education, hopefully with a Fall 2011 availability so we can start searching for partner US institutions. Grandiose, no? They also get a website, one to provide information, brochures, contact information, and a way to register online…hmmm…I wonder if I’ll get paid for any of this web work; they’re all decently complicated…

Um…but yes my mind was racing, and I was even mentally ranting to myself, “hmmmm…this would make a good blog post.” So here I am, finally. Partly also due to he fact that I got tired of lying in bed unable to sleep and I wanted to spec. out the requirements for the IFC website.

So what this post will be about then is just a mish-mash of everything’s that’s been going on, with the hopes that it will make some greater sense, and that it will in some small way make up for the lack of anything interesting floating around here. Ah I’ve also modified the layout a bit to have static headers and footers; I’m not sure I like it…

So I think the restaurant’s a good place to start. We’re switching owners. My aunt and uncle, God bless them, are no longer going to be working with us, thank God. This means that we have to find somebody to buy out their 50% stake in the restaurant for $$$K, plus work out some way to repay the $$$K RMB that they “loaned” to the business to cover operational costs. Without going into too much of the details because I’m not entirely sure I’m at liberty to say at the moment, it’s being worked out, and it should be good.

What I am most excited about is the possibility of greater interactions with a local farm that my father is associated with. This should allow us to get good dairy and meat supplies, plus develop new foods like homemade cheese! I’ve been missing cheese in this country, and I have grandiose dreams of being Beijing’s one and only source for freshly made mozzarella. There is also the possibility that we may partner with another good friend of ours and jointly open yet another restaurant in the same complex as Connections. This will be a all vegetarian restaurant, specializing in fresh juices, fruit and vegetable cocktails, and entree size salads, something wholly lacking in this country. This will also entail greater cooperation with the farm as we will need to grow the entree salad vegetables, things like endive, mescalin, arugula, also things either lacking or inconsistent in this country, and which I will even admit to missing. Again, I have grandiose dreams of being Beijing’s one and only source for fresh, home grown, specialty vegetables.

I am also leaving my role as full time manager of the restaurant, mostly because it’s too time consuming. I have faith and confidence in my staff and the training I’ve provided them, and will still be on hand in a very part time manner, perhaps a couple of hours every other day. I’m going to promote on waitstaff and one cook to be my eyes, hands, and ears while I’m away, and they will be responsible in my absence. We’ve been kind of operating this way for the past week, mostly due to circumstance since I was sick, but also due to premeditation because I was just sick of being there 91 hours a week, and things seem quite smooth. Again, I have faith.

The only other thing interesting about the restaurant is that I think I’ve finalized with my choir, the IFC, the option of using Connections as their “home away from home,” or “home base,” the most pertinent bit of which would be the using of it as their ticket distribution hub. I needn’t tell you all the great benefits this entails. I had always wanted a stronger tie between the restaurant and my choir, and this provides it. Part of the reason why I got a piano for the restaurant was so that there can be impromptu rehearsals, sections, or other music related events, open mics, sing alongs, etc. that can happen at the restaurant and involve the choir. If I can be the one and only place to get tickets for our upcoming concerts, then that’s a step in the right direction. The website I’m spec’ing out for them is to give them the ability to handle online ticket sales on their own without using a third party service that charges an obscene service charge per transaction. Plus, it looks like my Epiphany music center idea may come to fruition at some point relatively soon as well, and all these things will work so well together I just know it.

Which is a great segue for that topic! I got Cary, my father’s business partner, interested in Epiphany. I think he’s always been half way interested, though no one’s taken the initiative to develop it really. My father had done some work, and I’ve built off of that to come to where we are now. Again, without going into too much details because I may not be at liberty to say, but it’ll be good, and it’ll be THE place to go for all your classical music needs in the “heart of Beijing” so to speak, or so the propaganda page states ;)

Also since I am no longer going to be the full time manager at the restaurant, I’m relegated myself to the status of “owner,” which means I get paid when the restaurant is profitable, or if and when that is. This means I’ve been on the prowl for a normal job, hopefully something in a programming vein. I had interviewed with and received a very decent job offer from Pixomondo, a visual effects company opening their Beijing office. Unfortunately, the timing had sucked because I was just getting deep into the running of the restaurant so I turned their offer down. Or more, I didn’t respond when they asked me if they could negotiate my offer with me…my defense on this issue is that I was really busy, as I’ve always been, and it was during New Years so things were extra hectic. But yes, I should have gotten back to them no matter what and it’s my bad for not. The point also being then that I feel awkward approaching them again since I sort of brushed them off earlier. I’ve also interviewed with Wokai.org, a micro-financing company. They’re in first round interviews, and they’re supposed to get back to me. And if any of you reading this know of any good PHP Programmer jobs, let me know! I’ve already been thinking about posting to this blog post photos of my new Connections menu, I think I’ll also post my resume. I NEED A JOB!!! PLEASE HELP!!!

Our visas are also expiring, again. This will be our, what, third entry? Haven’t figured out where to leave to yet, but need to soon, we have just under a week left to clear immigration. Part of the other reason a “normal” job sounds appealing is that they should be able to help me sort out my work visa issue. At the moment, the stand still is that VS Media hasn’t gotten back to me yet on my employment verification letter, which is the last thing I need before one round of work visa applications with my father can be filed. They’ve sort of fallen off the face of the earth at the moment, I wonder if they’re alright…But since I’ve stepped back from the restaurant, this next trip promises to be much better, and longer, and more fun, I promise, my dearest Maria. I know I’ve been sucking lately, being sick, being busy, but I promise better times ahead.

Whoo I’m on a roll aren’t I! And real tag happy :)

Regarding Maria, since a lot I’m not at liberty to myself say, I will say that she did very well on the GMAT, finished her MBA applications to Tsinghua and BiMBA, is plowing her way through her Chinese government scholarships, was NOT late for any scholarships at Tsinghua or BiMBA, and has many promising projects coming up involving Chinese lawyer and my father. And that’s all I’ll say.

Let’s upload that menu now shall we? And don’t laugh at the over the top English; it hasn’t been edited yet.

Let’s also get the resume uploaded shall we? Download now

And now I’m feeling a little dehydrated and shaky. I should probably stop now as I think I’ve got most things covered, and those that I haven’t, I’ll try to list out real quick. I also need to upgrade this Wordpress install before I’m finished.

1) We’re still looking for an apartment. We’ve had a reprieve because my mother’s not coming until June, but that’s feeling like it’ll be here real soon. We’re playing around with the option of living in the complex that Connections is in because we have so many things going on there (Connections, Epiphany, the new vegetarian restaurant), plus we also want to start our own business so it seems also appropriate, but there’s a lot of logistics involved with that mostly due to the fact that it’s commercial real estate and so is more expensive and lacking a kitchen and plumbing.
2) My best friend from high school’s wedding is coming up in mid-May, so we’ll be both going back to the US around then. Maria’s going to go earlier, see some family, and run her first marathon in Cincinnati! I will, unfortunately, be unable to attend. But this should mean we’ll have exciting things to look forward to come October and the Beijing marathon :)
3) I only need 40 some odd words to get to 2000 at this point, so I’m just stalling and rambling until then. It seems like a nice, round, number, and may very well be the longest blog post we’ve had. I had been toying with the idea of separating this one entry into multiple entries, and just post them all at the same time. But that also felt stupid. Not that this monster of a post isn’t stupid in and of itself, there’s just no lesser evil with those two choices…

Edit:

Already had to correct a couple of typos, and I just realize I never tested the new sites I’m developing in IE, because I don’t have access to IE anymore! I should get around to that huh…?

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Posted by sean x. l. on March 8th, 2010 - 3:21 am
Filed Under :: china
Tags :: apartment, blog, business, Connections Bar & Grill, epiphany, IFC, job, racing, rambling, travel, visas, vs media, West Campus

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So it’s been over an hour, and it’s still not finished. So much for peace and quiet? Here’s the video by the way! I watched for 10 minutes, recorded 8 minutes, got bored and stopped watching, cropped it down to 2 minutes to upload, and spent 15 minutes figuring out the Flash embed stuff.

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Posted by sean x. l. on February 14th, 2010 - 1:01 am
Filed Under :: china
Tags :: Chinese New Year

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So it’s my first Chinese New Year spent in China actually, since I was little anyways. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I’m still not entirely sure what to expect seeing as the festivities go on for a week apparently. I knew there were going to be fireworks, but not like this, and not in the street. There were people setting off huge explosions since early this morning right outside my apartment. And across the street from my restaurant. And on my way home as I walked. Frightening really; I’ve never been this close to fireworks or explosions before in my life. I could feel the particulate fall on my head…And loud as hell! Unlike US fireworks, these don’t seem to have been meant to be pretty and in the sky. Imagine a huge chain of explosives, that just blow up and spark and make a really loud noise and you’ll have the bulk of Chinese fireworks. Of course there’s the regular up in the sky “oh look how pretty” kind of fireworks as well, which have been going off non-stop since 5 minutes before midnight, so that would be over 35 minutes ago. And they’re still going, I’ll update the post when it’s done. But I wasn’t sure how this would affect my business, because a lot of people do go home for the holidays. It’s tradition that for Chinese New Year, you go home. The public transportation system’s been grinding to a halt with people unable to get plane or train tickets because everything’s full. I’ve had multiple foreign tourists come into my restaurant and tell me that they’re stuck here. So the city’s pretty empty, as empty as it can be I guess. And a lot of stores and restaurants are closed. The point being, I wasn’t sure if I’d have any business, and sure enough, today wasn’t that great of a day at the restaurant. It was fine, as a normal day goes, better than fine actually. But for a holiday, unlike the other holidays I’ve had where I’ve done great business like Christmas Eve or New Years. What is interesting is that definitely the Chinese have cleared out; my restaurant was filled with foreigners, though sometimes with their Chinese significant others. We shall see how the week plays out, whether I have business or not, whether I can stand the constant war zone noise outside my window. Seriously, it’s like the news footage of the Iraq war. I even took video, and am going to try uploading it here later for all to enjoy. If you have post traumatic stress disorder, be warned.

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Posted by sean x. l. on February 14th, 2010 - 12:31 am
Filed Under :: china
Tags :: Chinese New Year, Connections Bar & Grill

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Which must mean that once again, our visas are about to expire. Apparently it’s gotten a lot harder than it used to since the Olympics for someone to get a F or Z visa. The F is the “foreigner in the country but looking for work” visa that would have let us stay for up to a year without having to leave. The Z is the “foreigner in the country actually working” that would, and hopefully will, let us stay for up to two years without having to leave. And it’s the appropriate one to have. Although it seems quite likely now that Maria may even get a student visa through her MBA program, but best not to give up any current pursuits in case anything else falls through.

But, like the title says, it means we’re off to Seoul, again, tomorrow, for even less time than last; we leave Thursday, come back Friday. The tightness of the travel schedule had originally been to accommodate an activity the IFC was going to participate in. They had been asked to perform on Beijing TV, nationally broadcast no less, but the BTV people wanted a large showing of foreigners, and what with it being the holiday season and all the IFC just couldn’t scrounge up enough singers, though of course I signed up since I have no life and no reason to leave, though I kind of do actually; it’ll be nice to get to go to Bangkok. Either way, they cancelled on me last week, after I’d already gotten our airplane tickets, so what can you do.

Since we’ve been there before though, we’re kind of nixing the whole “tourist in Korea” thing and opted to stay in a hotel real close to the airport and will just camp there. It should be fine; Maria managed to find a very nice looking place for a good price. Hopefully we won’t have to run this whole gamut again, and the only thing we’ll have to do is leave the country so we can enter on our working visas. Though that in and of itself may be difficult as the process seems to be, as mentioned before, much more difficult than before, and we will most likely need to return to the States of all places to get it.

So it used to be easy, very easy. There’s a whole long list of things you need to apply for one, ranging from a translated resume, a translated offer letter, and the offer letter needs to be for a “fancy” position signed by a “fancy” executive of the company inviting you. Oh, your resume needs to be “fancy” too so it seems justified that your skills are needed. All these things in the past used to just be for show but apparently someone actually looks at it nowadays. They want our ORIGINAL college degrees (pain in the ass), and they need actual signed work verification letters from EVERY employer on your resume. Can’t be emailed, can’t be faxed, can’t be copied; needs to be the actual damned thing. So we’re left in the position where ok, I’ve a lot of employers on my resume so that it can be “fancy,” but I don’t want to track down all of them and ask them for this silly work verification letter. Sigh. On top of all this there’s a health inspection that we needed to have done, and have; thankfully that was relatively painless, and it’s convenient to know we’re healthy, though it was expensive for just a sheet of paper. And they really go over board with the health inspection! They took lots of blood, did an EKG, did an ultrasound, took an x-ray, checked your hearing, vision, general physical health. Sigh, again. It’s in process is the point. A long process.

Ugh and it’s gonna be so expensive to have to leave the country this many times! There’s Miguel’s wedding, there’s Kelly’s wedding, and some time between the two there’s the last time we have to leave the country back to the States to get our working visas. It’s actually I just don’t want to go to the States heh. And I’m sick again damnit. This city has been very cold lately, so business also sucks. Heh and I haven’t had time to blog so I’m doing it now.

Business is actually alright. It’s surprising but for a restaurant in China to be profitable it just needs to make 1500RMB a day. That’s just over 200$. It sounds small, but when you’re only charging 30RMB per dish, you’d need to serve 50 people at least, per day, which given how cold it is, is no mean feat. Ah either way.

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Posted by sean x. l. on January 13th, 2010 - 12:48 pm
Filed Under :: china
Tags :: china, Connections Bar & Grill, rambling, visas, weddings

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After three months, I have figured out how to get most of the essential bits –for my conception of “living well”– in place. I can buy food; I can buy office supplies; I can mail things; I have a Western gym; I can re-charge my subway card. I’ve decided to record some of this in case it might be of use…I wish I could have found another silly American girl’s record on this ahead of time, but given that I didn’t want to inconvenience my Chinese hosts too much, I figured it all out myself–so maybe my record can help the next silly one.

So! There is a chain of food stores called “Dia”–they have their own house brands for things like peanut butter and yogurt, and they are cheap and frequented by locals. The total price is usually visible on the monitor at check-out. There is a produce market in front of the Dia I go to, behind Gulou on Doufuchi Hutong, where you can buy enough vegetables to fill your backpack for 20 kuai or so. Until I got enough Chinese to express myself more properly, I pointed and gave hand signals for “more” and “less”; they have no monitor for the total but are friendly and happy to repeat numbers. You can get eggs, fish, tofu and seaweed at the produce market too (same deal as the veggies, just different vendors).

For office supplies, there are a variety of markets up and down Di’anmen. You go in the front door of what amounts to a multi-story flea market, and each individual vendor has an individual stand wherein they display their wares. No prices are marked, but if you get really lost they’ll use a calculator to display prices. So far I’ve bought Christmas cards, hand weights, a thermos, suit hangers, and fingernail care supplies here. Better prices than a more Western-style store–at least some of the time. Those with actual bargaining skillz will doubtless make out more like bandits–my situation more probably resembled a deputy sheriff’s.

There are post offices, and there are international post offices. I failed to find an actual address for the international one, so I went to one near the Qianmen subway. China Post has a green logo, and the term “EMS” is often associated with it on signs. I just lugged all my Christmas/New Year’s cards and other mail over to one, walked in, didn’t take a ticket, went to a “comprehensive mailing service” counter, paid the 6-10 kuai per envelope (was it the best price? No idea.) and saw each one weighed and stamped while I stood there. All without Chinese–nay, without talking, except for them telling me the price–also visible on the monitor–and a “bye-bye” at the end. I would have called a friend to help with the “mailing options–can I do this cheaper? issue–but I had left my cell phone at home. D’oh.

Back in the day, I needed to find places to run: now that the weather and the ridiculously hard park paving stones have taken their toll on my outside running, a gym was in order. I searched far and wide and determined that there were no reasonably accessible gyms near Houhai. However, I am taking Chinese class near the Dongzhimen subway, and decided to look there for gyms. I found two: Hokay/Hosa, a large, dark, basic gym; and Powerhouse, of US provenance and decent reputation but completely unfindable. I went to Hokay first, since I happened to walk past on my way to somewhere else. With my dinky bit of Chinese and a sales guy’s dinky bit of English, I arranged a tour and concluded it was spacious and serviceable. It’s in the basement of the East Gate Mall near the Dongzhimen subway, exit C. They offered me 1699 kuai/2 years and a free yoga suit, but only if I would sign up on that day. I hate pressure. A couple days later, after still failing to locate Powerhouse, I called and was fortunate to find they had a guy who could speak some English. He picked me up from the subway and led me to their gym, which is small but bright and clean. (The locker room is VERY small and sort of decrepit, but the showers are clean and hot.) After trying out everything I thought I might use–a free trial workout, over the course of 2 hours–I agreed it was good and sat down to talk price. 6 mo would put me out 2000 kuai; 1 year would cost 2500. Without too much hard bargaining they offered me the full year for the price of 2009 kuai–good luck as 2009 was on its way out. I said yes, and I have had an excellent three workouts so far. Powerhouse has better hours than Hokay, too: 7 am to 10 pm on weekdays, 10 am to 10 pm on weekends. I am so happy not to have to run in the cold every fricking day, and the weight-lifting machines are really quite excellent too.

As for Powerhouse’s location, I knew from my internet searches that it was in the Kenzo Oriental Plaza. It turns out KOP is actually comprised of four buildings surrounding Ginza Mall (each does have a separate outside entrance, marked Apartment A, Apartment B, etc, but I don’t recommend going outside to get to Powerhouse). If you get out at Dongzhimen C, and take the Ginza mall exit, you can go through the mall–don’t go back outside– past the ZD Nail Salon inside Ginza Mall and find the elevators–take it to floor 3, and then wind through a series of signs and corridors and another wooden staircase just past the Hong Kong Cafe–and then there is Powerhouse. NEVER would have found it myself. Dude.

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Posted by maria j. g. on December 30th, 2009 - 8:39 pm
Filed Under :: china

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So there’s been some progress, as can be noted by my and our general absence from this blog.

First, my IFC (International Festival Chorus) Messiah concert has been postponed until the 19th of December. Apparently they’ve been having more and more problems getting government approval to perform Handel’s Messiah in a public venue, and it was going to be a GREAT venue (sorry, Chinese site only, but it does illustrate just how weird Chinese web URLs are: www.zxyyt.com, it’s the first letter of the each Chinese character as written using English letters). So what they’re going to have to do now is perform it on the sly, at an independent location, specifically the International School of Beijing. Apparently it’s a big deal, the Messiah I mean, and subject to lots of government scrutiny before it’s allowed to be performed. Either way. This just means it pushes off my performances and rehearsals a bit.

Secondly, thanks to my connection with the IFC, I am also performing at the British Embassador’s Residence, singing Christmas carols. We’re also “performing”/”rehearsing” at the Bookworm, a coffee shop in Sanlitun, the bar area of Beijing, this coming Thursday for either “Beethoven Basics” or “Basic Beethoven” or something like that, for their classical music open mic night. Who knew such things existed huh? Sanlitun itself is weird, and not quite my cup of tea. There’s this huge “Village” complex they’re building, basically a tricked out shopping promenade, with massive numbers of massive stores. We’re talking three stories of Nike and the world’s largest Apple store; completely out of the locals price range, but trendy, I guess. Um, what was my point?

Right, thirdly, I’ve actually signed a contract with Connections. I am their full time manager now, for the next year, unless terminated in writing with 45 days notice. The restaurant is for most intents and purposes ready. We’re just missing staff and suppliers. There’s still a big part of me that’s unsure of whether or not I should really be continuing with this, but that’s all part of some much larger general concerns of mine regarding my relative success or actually lack there of since we’ve been in China and the almost irrational and unreasonable way that I am treated or considered by my parents and extended family that I will not get into here.

Fourthly, we saw 2012 in theaters. This is Maria’s first time, and only my second. So in China, apparently, the movies are expensive as hell by local standards (35 RMB/5 USD on a weeknight, 75 RMB/11 USD on a weekend), you pick out your seats before hand and they’re assigned, if there are any English subtitles in the original movie you can kiss those good bye (which actually means we’ll need to watch 2012 again since there were lots of time when people were speaking other languages that we have no idea what was going on because there’s only the Chinese subtitles), and before the credits even begin rolling, the lights come on, the movie is over, and the theater empties. No staying for the credits in this town.

Fifthly, and related to the “Fourthly,” we wandered around Wanfujing a good bit. It’s about 5 miles from our apartment, and we wanted a walk, and I hadn’t been there in a while and I remembered that there was a movie theater there, so we headed out. We passed what the internet is apparently calling the “night market” which is this long city block of nothing but street food, most prevalent of which were things on skewers, with an emphasis on the weird and gross, like still moving scorpions, starfish, sea urchins, bug “pods,” various internal organs, etc. The place has really gussied up since last I was there. A couple of new shopping malls have opened, all selling high end durable goods. What we’ve come to realize is that brands that in the stores one would find only in department stores, for some reason have their own massive stores. They definitely like their things big.

And lastly, construction at the apartment should be finishing up relatively soon, within the week actually. Which means that for once, and finally, we will have a place that is all our own, livable and clean. Thank god for small favors.

And as a side note, we’ll be revisiting some of these things and hopefully that means there’ll be pictures!

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Posted by sean x. l. on December 6th, 2009 - 9:57 pm
Filed Under :: china
Tags :: apartment, Connections Bar & Grill, family, movies, rambling

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Having successfully hopped, skipped, and jumped over to Korea for the sake of sorting out our visas, I thought I’d put down some of my thoughts on the entire process and Korea in general.

1) Everything’s expensive there, basically the same price as in the US, but in won, which makes everything looks horribly expensive because it’s just about 1,000 times more worthless than the dollar. So a can of pop will set you back 1,000 won…

2) Hotels, transportation, entrance fares, etc., i guess this means durable goods and services, cost the same as the US. Our hotel was 135,000 won a night and it wasn’t that good. Food’s thankfully cheaper, especially the good Korean food, with lots of yummy sides!

3) It is quite a short flight from China, so if you really need to sort out your tourist visa and get in on your next entry, it’s not a bad choice, though, as mentioned, expensive. It only takes like two hours, and there’s good public transportation from the Seoul airport. But it’s far! ICN, the new one, the only international one, is 75 km away from Seoul. It takes an hour and a half by public transportation bus, probably longer by subway (we didn’t want to try it), and supposedly an hour by taxi, but that’ll set you back 100,000 won, or 100 dollars.

4) Do take the subway to try to get around. The maps are convoluted, they actually try to draw the lines to scale and have every little turn show up, but they go everywhere, are quick, inexpensive, and relatively frequent, though not as frequent as Beijing’s. Seriously, the maps suck; they’re dense, they’re angular, and one map doesn’t look the same as the next so there’s no consistency and where a station was on one isn’t where it is on another. It’s just all wrong. And the colors all look the same to me…

Otherwise the subways are more than sufficient as a means of getting around; certainly better than LA’s ;)

5) They do all sort of speak English, sorta, kinda, not really. I’ve never been comfortable with the idea of going to an Asian country that I don’t speak the language in, this is why. It’s like, there’s lots of good looking street food, but I can’t ask if it’s vegetarian for Maria to eat. The good news is that the language is not tonal like Chinese, so you can read and pronounce it as it looks when written in English. The written language also looks pretty good; I think Maria and I had figured out some of the underlying patterns by the time we left.

6) We were able to get street food though, and very good ones: baked goods shaped like a fish with sweet red bean paste in it. The lady was making them on this huge, rotating waffle iron type machine with fish molds on it. We had been walking around for a while that night actually, looking for street food, unwilling and not ready to call it a night without more dessert.

7) In China, anyone staying the night has to register within 24 hours with the local police department; tell them you’re here, where you’re staying, give them a photo, etc. These usually last for as long as your visa allows you to stay in the country. So like good little foreigners, we had registered immediately when we first got there, and like good little foreigners, we had left the country before both our visa and police registration had expired. We assumed that this meant we had some leeway on the whole “24 hours, must be registered” thing, because technically our previous registration hadn’t expired. NOT TRUE! Apparently, it’s whenever you enter the country, you have 24 hours to present yourself to the local police department. Not that anyone gave us trouble with it since we were a full day late, but, well, I can see problems arising.

8) As far as personal updates go:

a) My IFC concert has been postponed due to difficulties in getting the required government approval to sing Handle’s Messiah
b) Renovations at my apartment may finally finish, next week; there’s light at the end of that tunnel
c) I’m not sure I want to work for my father anymore…but that’s a much more complicated matter that I’m not sure I want to touch upon here
d) My great uncle passed away Monday morning. He’s the first of my relatives to pass away for me, and the first funeral that I will be attending this coming Sunday morning
e) As great as this apartment is that I’m staying in, I’m not sure I want to any more either, considering that at some point my mother and her entire family will show up, and most likely for a lengthy period of time.
f) I am still sick. Blah.

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Posted by sean x. l. on November 26th, 2009 - 12:42 pm
Filed Under :: china, reference
Tags :: funeral, reference, Seoul, tips, travel, visas

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So we have been in the country for 54 days now; our 60 day tourist visa (“L”) will expire next Saturday. We have to leave the country by next Saturday. Although there’s actually a little give on this if you overstay your visa; apparently it’s a $40.00 per day fine, but if it’s just a couple of days, you can usually talk your way out of it when going through immigration. As my father put it, the immigration officer has no real easy way to accept your money, and there are very long lines.

We were originally supposed to have switched to working visas (“Z”) by now already, but somewhere along the processing line, the ball was dropped and we’ll have to start that process over. Once that’s done though, we should be able to stay in the country for a year at a time, maybe even two depending on how we do the renewal. But that will have to wait.

We were going to try to extend our tourist visas. The longest you can stay in the country on one of those is 90 days, and we’ve only been here for 60. I went down to the local visa issuing bureau, another one of those monolithic buildings in architectural praise of the all mighty power of bureaucracy, and, if I gave them a good reason why I wanted to stay, they’d let me, for another 30 days. The problem with extending it though is that it will void my current multiple entry visa. I think something along the lines of you’re only allowed to hold one visa into the country at a time, and the extension will count as a brand new 30 day tourist visa. Now we don’t want to lose our multiple entries, because it’s convenient. Plus, on top of voiding our current visas, we need to have a domestic bank account, in our name, with $3000.00 on deposit, each. Granted we need domestic bank accounts in our name anyways, but there’s just not enough time to process all of this! And I have to wonder, what tourist would have a local bank account, in their name, and that much cash when you can just use any ATM to get money from your US accounts?

The other option was to get an “F” visa, which is for foreigners coming with intent to find a job, which lasts for six months. That’s its own bureaucratic nightmare, needing certified letters of invitation from a company, etc. The grand plan had been to take a 24 hour train down to Hong Kong, which counts as leaving the country for some reason, trying to apply and get an “F” visa while there, and failing that, just come back into the country on our next “L” visa entry.

Then we were thinking of flying down, because we don’t have enough time to devote 48 hours to travel.

Then the “F” visa option was starting to sound stupid and not worth it, and my father assures me he’ll have our “Z” visas squared away as soon as possible.

So now, we’re going to Korea! Woot? I’ve never been there, never had any plans to go there, know nothing about how to get there, what to do when we’re there, etc. But we did get a really good price on the airplane tickets. Unfortunately we were unable to book a flight there and back on the same day (it’s only a two hour flight to Seoul) due to the last minute nature of our booking. So we get two days and two nights in Korea. Again, woot?

To sum up then:
“F” visa: stupid.
“Z” visa: get it ASAP!
“L” visa: multiple entries, good, losing said multiple entries for an extension, bad.

It’s my fault, really. I should have been better on top of what was going on with our working visa process. Ah well. It’s actually a horrible time for me to be leaving the country right now. My restaurant’s renovation is nearing completion, so is my apartment’s, hopefully, I have two concerts to give within the next two weeks, and it’s my birthday. Ah well. It’ll be sorted. At least it’ll be a mini-adventure to Korea!

Edit: apparently Obama’s also visiting Seoul…….??????

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Posted by sean x. l. on November 15th, 2009 - 7:40 pm
Filed Under :: china
Tags :: adventure, bureaucracy, visas

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It was an early snowfall this year. Apparently it’s good fortune. If it snows in November, it means the next years harvest will be bountiful, or something like that. It came on real fast, completely out of the blue. Incidentally, the mosquitoes are quite hearty and are STILL around somehow. And it looks like it’s going to snow again, later this week. Now I like the snow, and I like the cold. Any excuse to wear a nice wool coat is fine by me. But I wonder if this was all my fault, somehow. My father had told me that the past few years there had been little to NO snow in Beijing. I had been quite disappointed actually, because I remember from my childhood that the city was beautiful in the snow. Now that I actually show up though, and now that I actually need to get places, wouldn’t you know it, and the snow starts coming down :)

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Posted by sean x. l. on November 8th, 2009 - 2:42 am
Filed Under :: china, photo albums

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(Sick)
So I’m sick, and have been for a few days. And I realize now that a good many of my blog posts begins with the word “So.” I wonder why that is…But I think it’s the weather.

(Weather)
It was like this when I was in New York; as the seasons noticeably change, I would get sick. This meant once when the summer months ended and winter began, and again when winter ends and it starts to warm. I probably got lucky the year and a half or so I was last in LA because there are no noticeable season changes there. But here, in Beijing, wow; it was quite warm when we first arrived, then all of a sudden, snow! Photos to follow incidentally. It’s been like that since the end of the month. It’s actually quite appropriate really, as November began, so did winter.

(Sick)
But I don’t like being sick. It throws off my sleeping schedule because I just sleep when I’m tired, and that happens at random intervals during the day. Other times I just can’t sleep because of the symptoms, like now. And in general, I’m just completely sapped of energy. I do think I’m getting better though. One of the good things about China is that most drugs are over the counter, including antibiotics. I’m taking those, and some other random Chinese medicine, to good general effect.

(Maria Runs)
Maria’s been getting more and more adventurous in her running lately. We’ve uploaded maps of her runs for anyone who’s interested.

(IFC)
I auditioned for and successfully got in to the Beijing International Festival Chorus! I was actually very nervous for some reason. I’m actually always nervous during auditions, never so during rehearsals or performances, but something about auditions rattles me. It looks pretty interesting, and the venue that they perform in is quite grand. They’re also very English which I find very amusing. The first rehearsal is tomorrow and though I am sick, I doubt I’m contagious, and I’d very much like to get back into the swing of things. Part of why I may have been nervous as Maria points out is that it’s been over a year and a half since I last sang. A pity really. I also hope to join their smaller group, the International Festival Chamber Choir. I don’t know much about hem yet though, but it seems like an added opportunity to sing and perform, which is always good.

(Updates)
As far as general updates go, I’ve been obviously a little bit absent from the renovation work going on at Connections Bar and Grill. Incidentally, the IFC people had heard of my restaurant! A testament to our current marketing scheme! I foresee great things in the future; this looks to be the start of a beautiful friendship! The schedule is still set though; we will open in one week. Next week will be the all important perfecting of our recipes, our new supply lines, and the hiring of new employees. As my father put it, I missed some of the craziness this week, but there’s plenty more next week, and it’ll all be mine. Yay. [insert sarcasm tag] I keep going over and over the operations of the restaurant in my mind, and it scares me.

You see, unlike in the States, where restaurant layouts make sense, apparently in China, regulations prohibit such things as a large open kitchen where one person can have easy access to all the supplies, utensils, plates, and cooking. You need a separate room, with its own wall separating it, for your dish washing and your produce preparation. This means that for one person to operate the kitchen in its entirety is for most intents and purposes impossible. That one cook will have to go to the “salad prep” room to get the produce ready, then go to the kitchen to cook everything, then go to the “dish washing” room to get the necessary plates before putting it all together. Apparently it’s a hygiene regulation.

So to get around this, I’m thinking we’ll keep the separate rooms because we have to, but just not use them. It just means there’s a lot of pressure on the cook, a.k.a. me, to make sure all the prep is done in the mornings and MOVED into the kitchen so that I won’t have to keep running back and forth between quite distant places…I’m thinking, down the line, once the restaurant is highly successful, a complete and utter overhaul of the kitchen will be needed. We’ll speak of this when the time is appropriate.

As far as renovations go at my apartment, I think we’ve hit a snag. Apparently it’s out of my hands, as it should since these are my mother’s renovations, but I think they’re doing it wrong. The plan was to rebuild the sun-room, this nice, enclosed patio type space on the second floor. There was some water damage because the roof was leaking, so they were supposed to tear it all apart, and redo it. Well the tearing apart went fine, but it looks like they’re walling up the windows! They’re just turning it into…a room. I doubt that’s what my mother had in mind. The problem with informing her is that this construction is already way behind schedule; they were supposed to be done by November 1st. And now if it looks like they’re doing it all wrong and will have to do it again but correctly, it’s just going to take even longer, and I just can’t wait for the day where I won’t have to worry about construction workers trampling through my home!

I think that’s all for now…I’m going to sort out some beautiful photos of Beijing in the snow and upload them next.

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Posted by sean x. l. on November 8th, 2009 - 2:26 am
Filed Under :: china
Tags :: apartment, Connections Bar & Grill, International Festival Chorus, renovations, running, sick, snow

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