So picture this: it's late August, and I'm beginning to actively dread my impending re-departure. To add to it I have real concerns over whether I'll be able to visit the country (see part 1) at all due to visa issues, but I am officially packed up and off to the airport.
It's worth noting that I had spent about a week emailing everyone involved about the visa issue, to which I got some confident 'don't worry, the police in the city know you are coming!' - type responses. At a certain point, you just have to believe people.
The check-in person at YVR, alas, was having none of this, and so it was that I informed my higher-ups that I was, in fact, not bound for China on the day I was supposed to due to not being given a visa. Their solution? I go beyond my contract's scope and get down to the travel agent (something of an idiot savant for inefficiency about 98% of the time) and arrange my own visa.
The only thing that could be accomplished with any speed was a tourist visa, as a work visa requires city-specific documents that take weeks to get at the best of times because, you know, China. However, I was assured confidently by the travel agent (whose entire job is knowing everything about Chinese visas) that I could somehow transmute it into a working visa while in-country. Awesome.
Having already said all my goodbyes, I checked into a hotel for a couple nights to wait the visa process out, rather than going back to the island/crashing friends' couches in Van into oblivion. The flight was uneventful, and I was picked up by school car (AS IS THE RULE when coming from Vancouver).
I was sure my working permit would be organized in a few weeks. After all, I'd been given a generous 60-day stay on my visa with which to illegally work, what could go wrong? Many local adults were working hard on rectifying this situation.
5 weeks later they admitted they couldn't get it done....but....was there another option in 'China'? (dramatic sound cue)
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