China and visa and everything since my last post

Hey peeps, well it's been a few days since my last post and lots has happened since I left Sydney last week. I have received my work permit from China and subsequently the visa. I have actually left Aus for China and made it to Beijing. I have started my new job and have learned some Mandarin.

The second part of the visa issues was that after much disorganised muckign about and several well-'executed' pagan rituals, I got the work permit original delivered to Sydney and my Sister applied for my visa on my behalf and got it. It was a pretty good effort though to be fair. My sister was really the one that made it happen as without her I would not have been able to have the presence in Sydney as it was required.

Leaving Tas was REALLY hard Saturday morning, not just because of the heavy drinking all week, but it was really nice to say goodbye to those that I saw Saturday morning and at the airport. In many ways it started to sink in just who and whaat I was going to be leaving Saturday morning and I hadn't really felt anything about leaving until then.

The trip to Beijing was long and went Ltn - Syd - Brs - Bangkok - Beijing over 36hrs. I was pretty tired by the end as I didnt really sleep much - just the odd few minutes. Economy-class seats... Anyway I got to Beijing and getting through customs was piss easy due to the really awesome visa I now have. It's basically an unlimited one so I can come and go as I please which makes the effort required in gertting it seem ok. When I cleared customs I walked out and found that my driver had my name on a piece of paper and was waiting at the exit. He didnt speak any English so we just walked to the car and drove to my new place.

Beijing was having a bad polution day Sunday so I could not see the sun. It has happened again since Sunday and apparently not seeing the sun is pretty common here (due to pollution). I was not met by anyone from my office so I had a shit of a night really but I managed to find some random ppl that helped me out which was great and I made it tot he office the next morning ok.

My new office is pretty full on. It's really busy and ppl always look tired/stressed. Most ppl have at least some english and I have now started learning Mandarin with a dude twice a week so I will have plenty to practice in between lessons =) The culture seems to me to be really "gogogo" and I am sure that if I stick with it it'd be rewarding job-wise, really staying will come down to whether or not I like living here. I will stay at least until Kristy gets up here at the start of October, and I have to pray that I am not required to work at any time during the public holiday period.

So, now I'm starting to settle into a routine for work but it's only been less that one week. When I get confirmation that I will be staying in my apartment and not moving soon I will be able to unpack and settle a little more, so I think staying til October at the earliest would be the right thing to do. I have an 'ayi' who is an apartment cleaner but she also -apparently- irons for me and does the dishes. That's a big awesome point and I can see myself getting REALLY lazy, heh when I get home I'm either going to find a wife [sorry ladies =) ] or have to pay a cleaner lol. But yeah that's really cool.

The biggest issue here for me is not being able to effectively communicate with everyone. I have found that event the absolute simplest things become a real challenge and it frustrates me a shitload. I bought a phone card today using Chinese (hack) which was fullfilling to the max and I was like "YES - take THAT China! I used Mandarin to p0wn your street vendor" lol, you get the idea.

OH - and I have three new goals for my impact on this office. I want to:

• Make ppl smile more
• Make ppl be louder generally
  
• get ppl doing the 'thumbs up' thing

Umm, for tonight I think this will do, there's a lot to talk about for life here but I'll leave it for now. I hope everyone back home is doing well and I hope EVERYONE knows that I miss you all terribly. It's amazing how much a part of me you all are and I didnt really ralise just how much until I left lol. Anyway, talk later and keep the emails coming!

Buh!