Rant – Height and placement

I will start this post with stating I am NOT a very tall guy. I’m 5’9 – 5’10” depending on who happens to be measuring. I also understand the Chinese are not super tall, and I’m easily taller than 85% of the population but some stuff really bothers me at the weirdest times.

Today while walking to Carrefour in order to check out the apple juice and to just get out of the apartment I was walking down the street checking out the scenery and the locals and WHAM! Hit my head on a tree! You may think, “no no no, you hit your head on a tree branch!” NO, it was the tree trunk! 50+% of streets has this overwhelming population of trees either in the middle of, or hanging over the sidewalks. Other trees hang over the sidewalk so I get a lovely face massage by tree leaves, fantastic…

This would normally be okay if they were trimmed, or just something! But alas, they are just left to do their own thing and just annoy me. I hope it gets better or I learn to stop looking around.

Here is the pictures (click them):

Tree that assaulted me!

Me, not looking happy.

 

Hanging leaves.

Me again not too happy.

Then during the same walk I see this beauty intersection.

Did they actually stand back when finished paving and high five each other over their amazing workmanship? It makes my head hurt.

Ummmm… what?

Maybe it would be easier if I didn’t think about “why” it is like this, and just accept it for what it is. I think it is best both for my brain, and my sanity.

Registration – a long process!

So if I have learned anything so far about the Chinese it is that they are completely incapable of any type of organizational skills with their paperwork processing or that they just make up information just to get you to leave the office. If it wasn’t for Tanya doing the talking I’m sure I would of rung the neck of a few 5 foot child-like police officers.

First off, I have to exchange my X visa within the first 30 days of arriving at the local Public Security Bureau (PSB). At first this doesn’t seem like a difficult task with the schools help and direction…. WRONG!

I was told to go to the local Wangjiang police station to get a registration form that I need to fill out, make a copy for the school, and then take it to the PSB office. Sounds alright…

Then I asked the admin lady at the University where the police station was and she told me… but gave me the wrong directions/address. So we went to the closest police station to the apartment Tanya and I are staying at and ask them for the address and directions… except one catch… They don’t know where that police station is.

This is where I start to lose my patience as each time I visit one of these so called police stations filled with the bright young minds of ChengDu (all of the officers are under 30) they get the exact same look a dog gets when they crank their head sideways and look at you like you’re crazy for asking. Did I forget to mention that all of these offices are about 4KM away from eachother and we are walking to each one? yeah, that is what I want to do with my free time before I start school on the 5th, I want to walk 30KM a day 37 degree weather.

So after we asked a bunch of locals and a taxi we made it to the right police station. They proceed to give the the previously mentioned dog look and explain to Tanya and I that we must go to our “local” police station to my apartment and not the local police station to the University. What the….

So off we go, back hitting the streets and walking back to the apartment where we ask the guards where the local police station was, and luckily it was only a 1KM walk or so which isn’t so bad in comparison to the others.

We made it there after asking locals along the way and we got the registration paper now that I need to fill out, make copies for the school and finally take it to the PSB so I can get temporary residency.

So the saga continues and it’s not over yet though so I am not out of the woods just yet.

On the bright side though, tomorrow I get my schedule at 4:00pm and yesterday I got all of my books I will be using (7 of them!)