So today was a rather momentous one- I finally got my residence permit! I seem to have spent half my life here pursuing this elusive piece of paper...This now means I can stay, enter and leave China as much as I like until the 31st July next year. I went back to the Entry/Exit bureau after lunch and caught the bus there. I think the bus driver though I was a dumb blonde when I asked if the bus stopped at 逍遥路, the bus stop I wanted,- at least he gave me the kind of look one gives someone when they ask if the Pope is Catholic... which I thought was unfair as I was only checking! Intriguingly 逍遥 means "carefree". There is nothing carefree about the Bureau I can tell you now...
It makes me happy that I don't have to go back there for the forseeable future :D Although I have thought of the best way to explain Chinese bureacrocracy- the sketch from Little Britain with the secretary who spends ages furiously typing into her computer before informing the customers that the "computer says no".
One of our teachers was a bit sneaky today and threw a surprise test. She said it wasn't set for homework and then said we should be studying new vocab off our own iniative... I thought that this was terribly unfair- whoever heard of students studying! We have far more important things to do...
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