October 26 - This is starting to feel real

On Sunday night, my father surprised me late at night by coming in and dumping a bunch of things on my bed. There were bandages, there were band-aids, a first-aid kit, water purification tablets, and a water bottle with a purification cartridge inside it that is good for purifying 100 litres of water, among other things. It made me feel like I was going to the wilderness instead of a city in China. Not that his fears are unfounded - it was recommended to me that I boil any water for 20 minutes before drinking it or cooking with it - but I found it really funny that he just came to me as if to say: "Here. Don't die." My mom, on the other hand, contributed nail scissors and clippers. Very practical.



Anyway, I really appreciate their concern for me, and I empathize too. It's the first time that I will be inaccessible to them for an extended period of time, plus I've never left North America before. It's not every day that one's son travels halfway around the world. I think I'd be really worried if it were my child.

Yesterday afternoon, I finally received my letter of invitation and foreign expert license (yes, I am officially an expert at being foreign), which was kind of interesting because when I went to get photocopies of it so I could obtain my visa, I discovered that Chinese paper is not the same size as paper here. Both the letter and the license were printed on what appeared to be approximately 8"x12" sheets instead of 8.5"x11" sheets. It wasn't a problem, I just got legal paper copies (8.5"x14"), but it made me wonder why this isn't a worldwide standardized thing. I also discovered that Chinese officialdom is fond of stamping things in red ink. Everywhere.

With my letters in hand, I booked a bus ticket to go to the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa to apply for my visa. It's somewhat of a pain that there is no Consulate of the People's Republic in Montreal, but Ottawa isn't too far away so it's not too bad. Anyway, I had to move fast, because my scheduled departure is two days from now.

Since the Chinese Embassy only considers rushed visa applications between the hours of 9am-11am, I dutifully found myself getting up at four in the morning to get on my bus at 5:15am. I booked my trip to be that early because I had heard stories of long lineups at the embassy starting even before 9am. I made my poor dad wake up and drive me to the bus station in the middle of the night and then set out on what amounted to a sleep-deprived adventure.

The trip took longer than the usual 2 hours because of a huge traffic jam at 7 in the morning about 30km outside Ottawa caused by construction. It was a little bit surreal to have this massive traffic jam in the early morning dimness out seemingly in the middle of nowhere, but I digress. When the bus arrived in Ottawa at about 8am, I immediately hurried on my way to the embassy as quickly as I could, visions of 100 person lines flashing before me.

When I got there, the gate was locked and no one was in sight. So I waited.

By a quarter to nine, a couple of other people had shown up to wait in line behind me and an embassy official unlocked the gate for us, but told us to wait outside the office until nine. Looking through the windows beside the door to the foyer of the office, I was a little bit puzzled to see a small desk such as you would find in an elementary school with a bunch of random items on it, including a toaster. A couple of minutes later, an Indian man in an impeccable military style officer's greatcoat complete with shiny brass buttons and wearing a large turban walked up to the door to the foyer and let himself in. At first, I thought he must be a diplomatic visa applicant, but he didn't enter the visa office itself. He just came right back outside and started wiping the doors down with hand sanitizer doused liberally onto tissues. It turns out he is the gatekeeper and security guard. It seemed a little bit incongruous.

When he finally let me in at 9am, I immediately walked up to the official, handed over my documents and got a receipt. I was told to come back at noon. That felt a little bit anticlimactic, and I didn't really know what to do with myself for the next 3 hours, so I took every single pamphlet about China that they had (some 15-20 pamphlets in all - I didn't count) and went to hang out with the security guard, who had a convenient extra seat for no apparent reason.

The security guard wasn't really all that talkative, so I just sat there reading. The place really started to get busy at about 9:30am, with lots of people coming and going, including a few interesting characters.

The first guy I talked to was a guy from Yellowknife (which, if we're accurately assessing things, is exactly a bajillion miles away from Ottawa) and he had to go home empty-handed because he had come to Ottawa too early. China only issues visas that allow you to enter the country within three months of obtaining the visa, but his trip will be in April so he was out of luck. I felt really bad for him.

My next encounter was with two rather stylish middle-aged ladies. I didn't actually speak with them, but just happened to overhear their conversation. They were complaining a lot about the officials and all their problems obtaining a visa. When I went back inside later to pick up my visa, they were in line again holding up everyone with all their complaints. Their argument was pretty much the same as the guy from Yellowknife. "We're going to China in March and we want our visa now, because we're from British Columbia and we're only here a few days and we don't want to mail our documents!" I had very little sympathy for them because Vancouver has a consulate that serves B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan. However, I wasn't too annoyed with them because listening to them really made me think they were female versions of Statler and Waldorf (the two Muppet Show old-man hecklers), from personal appearance, to snarky comments and even to their laughter. Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!

The third character I met outside while sitting with the security guard was this guy who comes up to us with this huge grin on his face saying: "Is this the CHINESE EMBASSY?!" as if it were the most exciting thing in the world.

I assured him that it was indeed the embassy. The security guard said: "Passport."

The guy then said, with an ingratiating smile: "Actually, do you think I can just go get some water?" He held up two empty bottles.

The security guard made an exasperated sigh, took the bottles and said: "Wait here."

While he was gone, the guy said to me in his oddly perky voice: "Wow! He's Indian! Why is he working at the Chinese Embassy?" I had been thinking the same thing myself, but I just shrugged and told him I had no idea. Then I asked him if he often went to embassies to fill his water bottles. He said: "I go by this place every day! I ran out of fuel!"

I was a little bit confused, because cars that run partially on water are not exactly common, but I just smiled and nodded politely. The security guard came back with the guy's water bottles and the guy took them and went on his way. I went back to reading.

After finishing all the pamphlets, I asked the security guard for the time. He said it was 11:30 and that I should go inside the visa office. The two ladies I mentioned earlier were there holding everyone up, but they eventually gave up in frustration and left amid much grumbling and cackling at each other. My visa was scheduled to arrive at noon, so I waited around in the reception area listening to an English-language CCTV program called Crossover and doing some people-watching.

I think I got a little bit of an idea of the casualness (随便) of Chinese culture from my time there. Unlike my experiences with Canadian and American bureaucracies, this visa centre was a little bit chaotic. First, there is no number system to keep track of who is next in line, therefore people can't really sit and wait, they have to line up in a queue. Second, people of Chinese ethnic origin seemed to think that the lines were optional. It was very common to see a lineup of people of various nationalities all lined up politely awaiting their turn and then going up to the embassy official only to have a Chinese person come in the door, walk directly past the line up to the official's desk and start waving documents and talking loudly and animatedly in Chinese. I was also surprised that everyone seemed to take this in stride - even the people who were currently supposed to be the ones being served!

On another note, I finally heard a great example of how Chinese people convey emotions through speech. English speakers and speakers of many other languages are familiar with using tone to express emotion, but this is not possible in Chinese because the language itself is tonal - that is to say if you change the tone, the meaning of the word changes and you may be speaking nonsense. So, to convey emotion, Chinese people use word stress - forceful or soft, slow or fast, etc. Anyway, I finally heard an example of forceful delivery today and it was hilarious. I guess the guy was upset with the embassy official because after she denied him something, he let loose with the biggest "DAAAAAN SHI (但是)!!!!!" that I have ever heard (dan shi means "but"), followed by a rapid and forceful stream of angry utterances that I couldn't follow because he was speaking so fast. Then he stalked out in a huff.

After that, it was my turn. Turns out I did everything right and I am now the proud holder of a travel visa to China! Since I already have my plane ticket, all that's left is to finish packing and depart on October 28th!