Sorry haha I actually haven't had access to the internet for the past 2-3 weeks really.

So what have i been doing?

Well we had some problems with my visa.  With the rubbish i went through with my last school and them keeping stuff of mine we couldn't get another work visa   I will exploit that school when i get back to England!  I will inform the world of what they did, but for now you may have to remain curious haha
So it got closer and closer to my visa expiring, so close that i had to rush to Hong Kong to apply for a visitors visa.  This had problems too.  To apply for a visitors visa now you must show hotel bookings, return flight details (you can request a sheet saying you have intention to return and that works too).  Finally got that sorted but had to live in an airport for 2 nights ... so got about 3 hours sleep in 3 days ... didn't really eat very much either ... wasn't fun!

Then when i returned i went to get married.  Now i am officially married, exciting!  My wedding ceremony is still in September though for when my family come over.
So we went to ZhengZhou as that is the place to deal with foreigner and Chinese marriage.  More problems there of course ... if you come to China you will realise that they try to find problems ... it's fun for them hahahahaha  So information for people maybe wanting to marry a Chinese national.  You need a CNI saying that you haven't been married before (apply for it at your embassy, you will need to wait 21 days for it to be issued), you need 3 wedding photos, passport and make sure your Chinese partner has an up to date family book (hu kou)  must be typed as we found out!  They don't accept original written ones anymore!  Make sure everything is stamped and ready on there, and then their identity card.  Also your passport and visa must be translated by and official translation company, usually the wedding place can advise you of somewhere to do it!  Then you fill out a form and you are done!

After Zhengzhou i went to Handan to see a friend get married and then onto see a few of his family members before going to AnYang to sort out his passport.  We also looked around for some places maybe to hold our ceremony in ... i've found some i like!

Now i am busy sorting my puppy out haha He will go to England next month, 6 months quarantine :(  But he will be out for xmas!!  But, I wont see him for 3 months as i don't go to England until September :(

Advice for anyone wanting to send a dog from China to England ...  Quarantine premises will send you some forms which you need to send the dog, Beijing airport you must have these forms, special sized box, then you must go to the government hospital in Beijing to get vaccinations and medical checks, they will issue you a health certificate and a licence to allow you to export the dog from China.  Also you MUST have a plane ticket and be on the flight with the animal ... this i found a problem as i don't go until September, but at a little extra cost you can get an agents to help you!  Anyone wanting more info or numbers etc please PM me and i can send them to you.

I can't think of much else right now ... i don't want to get into funny stories of seeing people that had been hit by cars, busy buses with extremely rude people etc etc ... i'll leave it with the nice stuff!!

Questions?

So here it is!!  Enjoy the essay ...

5^th – Went to the bus station about 6am, we were told that there were no buses available to Handan … but, there was a bus going to a place close to there.  So we got that bus and off we went.  After about 7hrs of traveling the bus stopped on a bridge and we were told to go down the hill and take another bus to Handan.  A few people standing stranded in a place we don’t know waiting for a bus we don’t know if it is coming or not.  After about 10-15mins a bus surely came plodding along.  Then we were told it would be 2hrs to Handan … not so good for someone who is travel sick haha.  Upon arrival we took another bus to his hometown FengFeng.  By this time my feet were like ice … I didn’t realize it would be colder there than in TianJin.  So we just spent that night warming up.

 

6^th and 7^th – We just stayed at home and enjoyed the New Year, watching TV, talking and all that merry stuff waiting for the next travel installment to begin … HA.

 

8^th – Us and my fiancé’s father waited outside for AGES for a taxi a couple came along with ridiculous prices (because it was the day after New Year and still spring festival – Spring Festival lasts for several days.)   Eventually an over-crowded bus came along and off we went.  I managed to get a seat because my dog (oh yes I forgot to tell how I got him here … cuddled him like a baby hahaha) looked like a baby.  Then we got onto the second bus to AnYang.  That bus took about 1.5-2hrs.  Once we had arrived at AnYang we actually had some people meet us with their big posh cars, nice!  Now was the time for fun.
So I have already met my fiancé’s close family, but not the others!  First we went to his Aunty’s house and met lots of people (remember I am a white foreigner … more people want to see me L).  Then off to another family members house … EVEN more people, by now my feet were freezing again, so in one house I managed to sit in front of a heater.  Whilst sitting I would have random people come in to stare at me and then … continue to stare.  Family members, yes I must meet them … randomers wanting to see a foreigner … not so keen on that!

Night was coming and I was still so cold, thankfully I managed to find a quiet(ish) room and sit in a bed haha  Then slowly and surely, one by one they all came in.  It was ok though as most were family.

 

9^th – In the morning I assisted the family in a tradition ritual of giving money to lost relatives (so Grandparents and such).  I won’t say too much but mostly is about burning money for them (their money, slightly different to ours), bangers and bowing to them.

Then off to meet more family and see more of the foreigner … YAY!  I am glad that all the meeting people is over and done with, it was almost painful!  But, by now the cold was really starting to hit us, catching colds and my feet were painful.

 

10^th – We went to meet his other Aunty who had almost raised him, it was nice to meet her.  But, there were some problems there and I didn’t want to get too involved.  People starting trying to get me involved though and I was cold, tired and couldn’t be bothered.  I was getting sick of sitting around at peoples’ cold houses, being stared at and just getting more ill.  I was getting angry and started walking home hehe.  Part of the trip was to meet family, but now it was becoming the whole trip!  We had a more important issue to address, which was his passport.  But, they mostly cared about drinking and eating and not helping us.  So we decided that afternoon we were going to go to his brother’s house (close to AnYang, countryside) and get our rubbish all sorted.  But, of course something had to go wrong to stop us … his brother drank too much and couldn’t … GAH!  Li also now decided to tell me that the family book he needs to have to get his passport was old and his father hadn’t bothered to get the new one … now delaying us to get his passport.  To top that day off after getting back to his Aunty’s house we were bombarded with people wanting to see the foreigner.  It turned into like a horror movie … I will make this someday!!!  So … I was in the toilet when I heard lots of people coming in, I didn’t know who and so I quickly went into our little room where Li was waiting.  He turned to me “did they see you?”   Supposedly they had told them I wasn’t home … cover blown!  Next we hear them asking 10,000 questions and coming closer and closer.  We sat behind the door stopping them from coming in … they tried several times.  So here is my movie picture, imagine us sitting pushing against the door and on the other side hundreds of hungry foreigner seeking Chinese people!  Nice eh?  I get no peace!

 

11^th – Early morning we set off to AnYang to get the bus to his brother’s house, whilst in AnYang we thought we would go check out if the passport place had opened yet.  So we took a taxi to a government building, they told us we had to go to a different place and that the place had opened.  So off we went in another taxi to this place ... we arrived … it was shut … no number … no open date … NOTHING!  So then off we went again!  This time I needed to buy some new bras … guys stop reading!!  Now as some of you may know most sizes in China are quite erm … petite!  So here is me trying on these tiny things which are like nipple covers to no avail!  The women go off to find me the biggest they have … they are bigger than my body nearly and most definitely not sexy, to top it off expensive!  It wasn’t going well.

So we went back to his brother’s home and spent the night in his brother’s shop, we managed to make the bed warm (stop thinking that).  Whilst at the brother’s home he found some telephone numbers, he rang … China is soooooo annoying at times haha.  They always contradict each other, one says the place will open on the 12^th others say 13^th and others 14^th … nobody knows!

 

12^th – We decided to try again.  With it still being Spring Festival everyone was going out and about.  First bus … filled a little.  Then came our bus … busy!!  As we went along more and more people got onto this little mini bus.  I think there were about 40-50 people all in this little mini bus.  More and more people tried to get on but obviously couldn’t, so what did they do???  Stand on the road so we couldn’t move!  What did they expect us to do?  Let them on the roof?  We had about 3 groups of people do that!  Now does anyone remember the famous stunt of maybe 18 Chinese people in a car?  That is not even close to this!!

So anyways, we finally got to AnYang and went to the passport place … closed!  Yes, we were angry!  We decided that day that we wanted to come back to TianJin and April when we go back to get married we can sort that out too.  So that night went to his parent’s house (still had a bag there) and my feet were so painful, my cold was so much worse and I am just dying haha.

 

13^th – We get up at 4:30am, take a bus to Handan (after waiting for 45mins and no taxi).  We arrived in Handan to find there were no bus tickets left to TianJin :’( .  I could hardly walk as my feet were so swollen.  We managed to get tickets for the 15^th, no other tickets left.  So we decided that night we would go back to his parents and the next night stay at a friends in Handan.  We had lunch with that friend and stuff which was nice.

My feet were so bad though that I couldn’t walk, so had to go get some medicine!  Hint: severe frostbite – soak your feet in boiling water, then apply frostbite cream, wrap them in something and sleep.  You wake up feeling so much better!!!

 

14^th – He went back to AnYang to see if the passport place had opened … it had!  WHOPPEEEE!!  But found out he has to go to three other places first to get something stamped before he can go there … which he had no time to do!  They also said once he gets married everything must change again … so we still have to wait until April to get it ha!

 

I am sure I have forgotten some things but that is basically the gist of it … oh and some of my stuff has gone missing and we don’t know how, why, when, who, what or where.   So basically next year I am staying at home :D

Because it's flooing cold!!!!!  (yeah i made a new word up!  It's my word of today!)

Ok, before i start ... nobody take this offensively in anyway shape or form ... simply a mistake and i am sure it wont happen again.  (Get fussy people nowadays)

So i had a class a few days ago and one of my students had to talk about a topic given to them, this students topic was Africa.
The student began "Africa is full of black men" .... after students started laughing i said "please don't be racist ".

The student continued "and black women" .... I couldn't stop laughing ... i think the student may have gotten their 'ists' confused

You know  it can be a popular tourist attraction, but when it comes to living here it all changes.

I shall not go too much into that.

A story of warning!!!!

Just helped a friend buy a mp3 player, cheap but ok.  They told us it was a 1gb .... yeah right.  But, it's hard to check at the actual place so he took it home and true enough it was only a 128mb.  What they do is basically hack the memory and make it look like 1gb, when you open it there should only be 1 folder ... here there are two.  Then you  have to check by placing as many songs on as possible, to obviously prove there is that much memory ... even the mp3 player will lie and say it has more.

So today i took him back to argue (i am the translator haha) First he is like well i will get a new one.  He firstly accused us of breaking the first one.  We tried to get him to place songs on the mp3 and he was like i don't have that many songs, eventually we got up to 110mb but still not enough to check.  So my friend took over his computer and started adding more.  The seller started getting angry and was like well i will give you a refund, but my friend had forgotten the earphones.  So he was like well it's 20 yuan for those earphones ... NOT POSSIBLE! Cheap little skanky things.  So we argued only 10 for those.  He kept messing around and was like well just take this one home, it's real!  We were like no it isn't!!!  So after much arguing and trying the new mp3 (which kept turning itself off when we put 200mb on it .. hmmmm!), i basically (after phoning my fiance haha) was like Give us the money or i am calling the police.  He still kept saying to take the new one blah blah blah.

Eventually he admitted they all are fake and it's either full refund with earphones or 20 off without.

Watch out people. (That place is a guys shop in Yang Huo, TangGu, TianJin.  He has a laptop on his glass top and behind him is a watch, mobile phone etc shop.  To the right hand side)