Visa Woes

I think that I really frustrated Rachel today.

Our Visa expired today. Almost 2 weeks ago, we took our passports to the guy that was suppose to handle it, 15 days before it expired. Only when we took it in wee we told that we needed to have two passport pictures to go along with the application and our 120 kuai. And so we went and had passport pictures made and took them back the next day. A week later Rachel went to check on them and was told that they needed a copy of our departure plane ticket. So we made a copy and took it back the next day.
Last Friday, we went to pick up our passports and we were told that the guy had not taking them to the Exit/Entry Government Building place. We were told that they would be ready today. So this morning, Rachel called before we walked over to the school. The guy still hadn't taken the passports to the office! (Welcome to China.) And he told us that they needed a copy of our credit card to to verify that we had funds to facilitate our travel in country. So, we made copies and blacked out the numbers. Then we drove with the guy to government building. Now we have been told that we will be able to get our passports (with valid visas) back at 5:00 tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon. Seeing as how we leave Wednesday morning, we really need to get our passports back.

Now this whole time, Rachel has gotten really frustrated with the seeming run-around that we have been getting. I on the other hand (as it is my nature) have had a hard time getting worried or worked up about it; I tend to think that everything will work out. I guess that we will see tomorrow.

Tonight, we took Heather and Taylor out for a nice dinner to thank them for all of their help here. It was an awesome dinner. I had caviar for the first time (it was on top of me salmon) and incredible Tiramisu. (Wendy, you would have liked it because there was plenty of tall food.) I would have to save for a month to have this nice of a dinner in the states. For the 4 of us here, it was less than $90, and we each had a glass of wine. When I come back, I think that I am going to totally be in shock at how expensive things are.