Going to China I realized that they have a fairly large scope of government and I had read about their messy desk dwellers. But I thought it could be finagled like it is at home. NO.
They are a completely different species, I think that if the Chinese government wants to really prove that Chinese did not evolve from Homo sapiens they should simply point a few scientists towards the Bureaucracy.
My visa permits my to stay in China studying for some period of time longer than six months. While in the States I did the billion forms, the ridiculous physical, etc. Then I get to China and have seven days to get my residence permit, then thirty days to apply for my visa. Wait, what? Didn't I need a visa to get into this country? So one would think. Because of the volume of students with my similar situation, ECNU organized for the police to help take care or our visas.
Dilemma A:
Students must report to the Second Floor Office of the Building of Teaching the Liberal Arts for JW202. (A form I had already filled out)
I go to the building, only to be recieved with the statement, "No, you don't need to come here. You go somewhere else for the form, but wait, here I have your form." It was odd.
This is really minor, but just strange.
Dilemma B:
Never before have I been struck with so much awe.
The police were supposed to come to our school at 9:30 to take our passports and get our visas. I arrive at school at about 8:00 (school starts at 8:00) and decide to forgo class for my visa and join the line of about fifteen people. I tell my teacher and she gives me the look, "Oh good luck dear, oh how I know what this paperwork things can mean. Please survive." By 8:30 the mob reaches the entire length of the school. My goal is to finish by about 10:30, so I can catch the second half of class. At 10:00 the office calls the police station asking them where they are. No one knows. I call the director of my program, she calls ECNU to find out what is happening, and they tell here that the police have been on campus for the past two hours and that I need to go to the first floor of the Foreign Students building (which is where I was). At 10:15 the office sets up desks and hands out arbitrary number cards to the masses. Now, this is no ordinary line. I was near the front, and I didn't need to use any effort to support my body. When the desks showed up, the entire force of the line pushed my off of my feet and sucked my up into the very front, sandwiched between a wall, a desk, and a very tall Russian. Also, this is also in a building without air-conditioning with outside air temperatures of about ninety degrees and similar percentage of humidity. Steamy.
The police saunter in at about 11:00. In China, rank is very important, and since these are government affiliated people, they are treated like kings. They are presented with food, beer, and air conditioning. They take a few students, finish about two or three visas, then they all stand up.
Since I was compressed against the glass door to their room I was the involuntary commentator for everyone else in the mob who couldn't see. I joked, "Oh, the must be exhausted so they are taking a coffee break everyone. Stand back for the cadres."
And then exactly that happened. But it wasn't a coffee break. It was a lunch. At 11:20 they took lunch. Now, I am fine with the idea of nourishment, but that is an early lunch. And what about us? We have been standing for three hours, and we havn't gone to lunch. Plus they only did stuff for twenty minutes. Someone asked the office person as she walked past to clean up the policemen's food and she shrugged, "They go to lunch." It was really the defining moment of me understanding the Chinese ranking system. She had been pushed and shoved all morning by thousands of whiney students, and really it was the policepeople's fault, but the go to lunch. That' s how it works.
Now, this seems really down on China, but I am not. I am really just fascinated. Luckily this all happened while I am still honeymooning.
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