HongKongpartI(actuallyaprelude)

So, I left off with when my Chinese boss, Frank, called me during the week before we were to start school. I was pretty much planning on resting up during a quiet week and preparing myself to re-enter the whole teaching thing. Well, out of the blue, W. and I were on our way to McDonald's for dinner actually, I get a phone call. Frank, who has never called me is on the other end and saying that he has bad news. I was thinking that I got some sort of crappy school thing or something that would, at most, be an annoying inconvenience. Well, I should have known better. Frank is not the kind of boss to call you at 7pm for something that isn't dire. Well, It turned out that April, who is responsible for our Visas, as well as our daily living arrangements, was cleaning out her files and noticed that my Visa was Expired!!! This is pretty big fucking news! It turns out that there was some sort of mix up: another teacher, who was staying for six months somehow got the Visa that I was supposed to get, for a year. The shitty part is that the visa had been expired for a month before anyone had noticed it! This is bad. I could have been arrested by the cops or God knows what by the Chinese government( I think the worse thing that could have happened is that I would have been deported, but still...). This was a mistake that should not have happened. Someone should have noticed it. However, one can make the argument that i should have noticed it on my visa; in fact, i sort of did. However, I must admit that all of this paperwork crap and government policy shit is mystifying to me. If you ask the office about it, they sort of tell you it's taken care of and you just go about your business of trying to adapt to foreign culture, learn how to teach and so on. But, lesson learned! If you are living in another country, know the Visa policies, the procedures, and how yours fits into that. If people pooh pooh you when you ask them questions, fucking make them explain it to you clearly! Anyhoo, the blame game is unimportant. Mistakes happen and everything worked out in the end( well, I hope it did!) April is a girl I find charming and simple mistakes like this are easy to come by. However, I hope that everyone involved learned an important lesson.

Back to Frank! So, he is telling me that I am illegal and trying to explain the situation. I am shocked, to say the least. I am walking down Ba Yi lu and all of a sudden, I am not sure what I am thinking or feeling. Frank is telling me that I have to go to Hong Kong, which is legally sort of out of the country ( it's pretty complicated, but you need a visa to enter hong kong from "mainland" china, even the Chinese do!). So essentially, I have to leave the country, get a new visa, and then reenter the country in time to teach the following Monday! This is quite different from my plans of sitting around the house, working on this blog and fighting with my girlfriend on the Im! So Frank is trying to calm me down and tells me to come to the office. I have no choice but to say yes; so Winston and I change our plans and get a bus. I call the girl and tell her, and she is much calmer than i am... so that helps. W. and I take the bus, and he is trying to calm me down. Winston is one of those people who will always, always see the bright side of anything. If he went to hell ( which would never happen), He would probably say, well at least it's warm and i know alot of people here! he tells me i finally get to travel and see one of the most famous cities in the world. So, i start to get excited, but I still want to keep my anger. I am worried about money, my safety, and the logistics of it. I am not the best at getting around and I am horrible with time schedules, paperwork, and other official things. Plus, while I am very competent in Dalian, that is because i had people like Ed and April to help me during those difficult first couple of weeks when you don't know anything and have no base knowledge of any thing to build upon. So, at this point, I am excited and terrified at the same time. We get to the office and April is there. She looks like a dog that someone beat... and I feel bad. I wanted to keep my anger, because I needed the company to take responsibility for this and not try to place the blame and responsibility on me ( not an uncommon Chinese trick), but I also have made many stupid little mistakes and do not want her to get in any real trouble. So, anyway, frank takes me to a Korean Sushi place and tells me his plan. The plan is that I will fly out the next (Thursday) morning and arrive in shenghzen ( the neighboring "Chinese" city) in the afternoon, from there, a Friend of Franks, who knows no English, would pick me up and take me to the border and get me threw. I would be on my own from there, but the consolation is that most people in Hong Kong know English. I would find a hotel that evening, rest up, go to the Chinese consulate in the morning, recross the border and fly back Friday night. All of this sounded unrealistic to me, but I know shit about any of this , so i agree. Plus I have little choice. I am illegal in China. My choice is to go to Hong Kong or wait until the government notices and does what they do... So I talk to Ed, who has been to hong kong under similar circumstances, and offers alot of advice. I make sure that frank knows that I am upset, but I pretty much accept the situation and try to gear up for a crazy couple of days. My mind is full of every possible little thing that can go wrong, but, as I said, I have little choice and try to remain positive. So I go down to Bo- Bo's, a little bar in the area, have a few drinks, regroup and then head home. I pack a little and pass out, both eager and terrified of what the next day may bring!
Well, this is actually just the prelude, but I will get into the rest of it tomorrow or Wednesday. i am tired from teaching. Be sure to check back soon, as this was a pretty interesting journey!