So begins my first real blog post. Anyhows, my job search has concluded. Due to the Shanghai World Expo, or Chinese National Week, or something like that, I am currently unable to be certified as a "foreign expert", which is what I need to be legally employed in China. For those of you unfamiliar with the Chinese visa system, "foreign expert" certificates have historically been the easiest way for foreigners to become gainfully employed in the Middle Kingdom. Because the certificate constrains working hours to 20/week, and because (at least in the past) they have been easy to procure, "foreign expert" has become a catch-all category that somehow includes ESL teachers. Technically speaking though, a "foreign expert" must have at least two years of (post-Bachelor's degree) experience in their area of prospective employment... err, I mean, expertise. My application initially received a glorious rubber-stamp approval, which filled my heart with love for the Chinese bureaucracy. Then, because of my youthful age, my application was "double audited", or, as we say in regular English, "audited". When subjected to the harsh scrutiny of actual people actually checking whether I actually qualified for the certificate, my application failed miserably, thus throwing my plans into doubt, making me look stupid, and thoroughly raining on my premature victory parade.
But fear not, my currently non-existent readership! The oh-so clever Peter has successfully finessed this unfantastic situation. I arranged an acceptably good deal with my prospective employers so that I will work (temporarily) on a business (F) visa, until the proper paperwork can be secured, and they will mitigate my financial risk of flying across the world to work illegally. Yay!
My employers suggest that I apply for my business visa ASAP, a sentiment I agree with fully. Except that... wait... don't they need to send me paperwork or something? How am I supposed to be able to acquire an F-visa on a moment's notice? *Searches through gmail inbox, paying particular attention to attachments...* Oh, yeah, crap. When the job recruiter sent me that email about the "double audit", he(? Heby is not a real name, so it's hard to tell...) also sent an invitation letter so that I could secure a business visa. Only I was too pissed off about the "double audit" dealio to notice. Whoops. Time to go to Chicago, I guess.
[Side note: I sincerely dislike job recruiters. All the schools I have communicated with have really put their best foot forward and tried to demonstrate, as much as one can in a skype interview, that I would be happy working for them. Naturally, one has a number of fears when applying for a job on the other side of the globe using the internet as your sole means of communication, and I've been generally pretty impressed by the professionalism of prospective employers and their willingness to provide various kinds of evidence to assuage prospective employees' fears. Job recruiters, on the other hand... They are in a huge rush. They want you to sign some contract, any contract, so long as you do it fast. I guess return business is not really a concern for them.]
On to the windy city! So, I hitched a ride with my Dad down to Madison, and we stayed with my aunt and uncle. The next (early, early) morning, I took a bus from the union down to Chicago, which was mercifully but a short distance from my intended destination. I then took a cab to the consulate, where I proceeded to wait in line for a long time. The consulate is run in exactly the way you would expect a bureaucracy to run: 9:00-2:30, weekdays only, with an hour-long lunch break during which no work gets done. I successfully got my application processed, but because of the wait, I wasn't going to be able to pick it up that same day. Thankfully, my cousin Amanda and her husband Scott live in town, and I was able to stay in their beautiful condo for the night. Next day: cab, consulate, pickup, cab, bus... and my Dad is no longer in Madison due to the day-long delay. No worries, I'll stay with Jie. Until... whenever I can get back to Marshfield. This turns out to be fun. Back in Marshfield, I pack and prepare to leave... on TUESDAY! Yikes!
-Peter
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