Sunday, January 9, 2011

All Quiet on the Blogging Front

Hi everyone! If I've been neglecting my "Life in the Middle Kingdom" blog lately, it's because I was neglecting my actual life in the Middle Kingdom.

Yes, the past few weeks took me back to the motherland, where I enjoyed my brother's wedding in Albuquerque, saw my family, and ate green chile almost every day. I also enjoyed the mountain views and clean bathrooms.

My flights back to China took me from Albuquerque to Salt Lake City to Seattle to Beijing. On my first attempt, fog in Salt Lake City delayed the whole itinerary by a day. On my second attempt, starting on Jan 7 and ending on Jan 8, technical difficulties in Seattle kept us on the tarmac for over two hours before take-off. The navigational component that allowed us to fly over Russia was broken. But eventually we went anyway -- wonder how they worked that out.

Anyway, I arrived in Beijing late last night and have been making a near-heroic effort to stay awake all day today. Tomorrow I will start intensive Chinese lessons and try to get a visa to India.

Hope you are all doing well, and happy 2011! More blogging to come.

3 comments:

  1. Wait...you haven't gotten your visa yet? How quick can you get one?

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  2. According to the website, 1 week (fine for me). According to the people at the visa application center, 7 business days (not fine for me). Hopefully they do it faster anyway.

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