It begins
United States on August 29, 2008 at 1:17 amI planned far enough ahead for this trip to defer for a semester from school, but not far enough to buy a plane ticket months ago.
Just got confirmation email for my flight because I bought the ticket tonight.
I had it in my head before I looked at tickets that Madrid would be cool because I want to test out my Spanish a bit, but when I started looking it was where ever would be cheapest.
Dublin is actually cheapest to fly to, but I bought an Eurail Global Pass and it's not really any good on an island. It would only be good for a 15 hour boat ride to France. I thought it was a 15h Chunnel ride and I told some people that, but I misread the map I was looking at. Blue dashed line = boat.
But on this Dublin thread I found that Aer Lingus is about the only airline flying to Europe for reasonable prices. So to Madrid it is. Read full post »
Short Summary
China on August 29, 2008 at 12:41 amI kept a journal in China and to me it's rather interesting because I feel I went a bit insane during my stay and it comes through in what I wrote, but I really don't want to edit it. It exists, I can read it at least, and I've shown a bit to people. I don't think I'll have enough time to edit and post a complete 30 months of babble in before I leave for my next trip.
So maybe I'll get bored when I'm on the road and write about what went down in China, but I expect I will be content with writing what I am doing in present tense. I've been to Italy and Hawaii prior to China too. So here's, in short, my thoughts on those three destinations.
Coincidentally each trip fell on July 4th and I saw fireworks in each, but the most in Italy because of the World Cup finals.
Italy
Glauco.
Hawaii
Bananafish
China
Unrelenting kindness from the dreaded Communists.
This has nothing to do with my impression of China, but it's the last thing I wrote in my journal and I think it lays testament to my altered state of mind.
"People that beg God to save them are often saved by those too busy, helping, to pray."
Getting My Visa
China on August 18, 2008 at 12:00 amOnce everything was finalized I looked into how to get a visa.
I went to the Chinese Consulate's website and they have a list of what you need, a step by step guide of how to handle taking your ticket, which windows to go to-all that, and the best time to go.
So I have these printed out and I feel ready to go. I grab Steve and Andrew and we leave for New York at 4am. Besides the fact that those two fell asleep on me while I was driving everything was serene. When we got their I took a number, deli style, and was 130.
Turns out that meant there were actually 130 people ahead of me. Normally I think of those numbers like serial numbers with no relation to the start or end, random. Not today. So I sat around all day on the steps of the Consulate because all the chairs were taken waiting for my number.
The building "closes" at 2:30pm which is when they stop allowing people to enter, but they still keep helping everyone still inside.
I must have looked pretty sad because around 3pm some guy took pity on me and gave me his number, 98, he had had enough. That's how terrible this place was the man waited all day just like me and he gave up when his number was just 10 away.
So up comes 98. Read full post »
Preparing for China
China on August 8, 2007 at 11:58 amTentatively set to visit China after graduation, May 31, 2008, for about a month. I have been doing research into the basic travel info: visa, passport, air fare. Some interesting things have come up though.
I am going with a Chinese family, so I run my questions by them a lot. For example the Chinese Embassy website says, very clearly, "No visa application can be done through mail, email, internet, or any express delivery service such as UPS, FedEx, etc. Visa application should be submitted and picked up by the applicant or someone else entrusted." I wouldn't trust someone to go 100 yards with my passport let along a couple hundred miles.
So it looks like I'll be making a trip to New York a few months before my trip, but at the same time the family I am going with tells me that is not true, you don't have to go to the Embassy.
I wish I bookmarked more sites because one told a story of a man charged $1500. He did not register with the local police when he stayed with a local family rather than in a hostel/hotel. I don't want to be that man, again, the family I am going with has never heard of this before.
So in short I don't have a clue what I'm doing or where I am going. At the moment I am going to China for a month, checking out Bejing for a couple days, then to a town I can't spell which is pretty rural.
Chinese visa for US Citizen costs $100 – Everyone else $30. Nice.