Buying books was a little difficult for me today. The BYU bookstore has changed the way they stock their textbooks, switching their old by-subject system for a new alphabetical one. With a little sigh, I started singing the alphabet song. The thing is the song rolls off my tongue so easily that sometimes I go past the letter that I'm singing for so I had to sing it all over again. Needless to say, I took forever in the bookstore.
When the cashier asked me for my thoughts on the new system as part of some feedback scheme, I told her that it was fine but I just had to sing the alphabet song over and over again. The sad thing was she just laughed and assumed that I was kidding.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Unwanted . . . by China
With a U.S. passport, a Hong Kong permanent resident card, and a ten-year China home visit visa, I have never had trouble going anywhere in the world. I don different identities, slipping into and out of the various languages, sometimes out of convenience, sometimes out of laziness. If I'm headed to Barcelona with my friends, I pull out the U.S. passport and breeze through security. If somebody in China customs is giving me a hard time about certain procedures, with an unrepentant smile, I sometimes pretend that I have absolutely no idea what they're saying.
Which is why I was shocked when they wouldn't let me on the plane to Shanghai in the Detroit airport. All I forgot to bring was my flimsy China home visit visa. I had left it back home in Utah, safely tucked away in a plastic folder. I tried to convince them that I do indeed have a visa and please can they check my name in the ether of some computer program? Isn't it obvious that I'm Chinese? I tried frantically to demonstrate how I could speak all three languages. The stewardesses who were smiling so patiently at the bumbling business class flyer a moment ago turned around and glared at me, "you think anyone can go to China? Why should we believe you?"
Used to living in my little Utah bubble, I wasn't sure what surprised me more: the fact that somebody would think I'm lying or that I was refused (no! retained, turned away, and bundled off to a different airport where I was somebody else's problem) by China!
I'm ashamed to report, that I did what any respectable college girl would do: I called my parents ten times, and when that failed, I cried.
In someways, that worked. The stewardesses came back to me, promising me a free flight back to Utah (and then from there to Shanghai but it turned out my visa was expired anyways). I was surprised that my little histrionic outburst had effected such a change, but then I suppose that I had passed the test: after all, terrorists trying to enter China illegally don't cry.
Which is why I was shocked when they wouldn't let me on the plane to Shanghai in the Detroit airport. All I forgot to bring was my flimsy China home visit visa. I had left it back home in Utah, safely tucked away in a plastic folder. I tried to convince them that I do indeed have a visa and please can they check my name in the ether of some computer program? Isn't it obvious that I'm Chinese? I tried frantically to demonstrate how I could speak all three languages. The stewardesses who were smiling so patiently at the bumbling business class flyer a moment ago turned around and glared at me, "you think anyone can go to China? Why should we believe you?"
Used to living in my little Utah bubble, I wasn't sure what surprised me more: the fact that somebody would think I'm lying or that I was refused (no! retained, turned away, and bundled off to a different airport where I was somebody else's problem) by China!
I'm ashamed to report, that I did what any respectable college girl would do: I called my parents ten times, and when that failed, I cried.
In someways, that worked. The stewardesses came back to me, promising me a free flight back to Utah (and then from there to Shanghai but it turned out my visa was expired anyways). I was surprised that my little histrionic outburst had effected such a change, but then I suppose that I had passed the test: after all, terrorists trying to enter China illegally don't cry.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Feeling Old
Even though people at the office teased me for being only twenty, I can't help but feel incredibly old now that I just had my twentieth birthday. The big 2-0 is a milestone, one that launches me into another decade of my life. I don't know if I'm ready to leave my teenage years behind yet. Regardless, it was ready to leave me behind. So with some reluctance I will resign to the fact that I'm going to start learning how to deal with adult issues like insurance, mortgage payments, retirement funds, etc. Man, I'm not even greying yet and I'm already being nostalgic.
I had a great birthday by the way. Last week we celebrated all the July and August birthdays at the Barlow Center. My friend Marie is an amazing cook and apparently she's also an amazing cake decorator. She piped our faces onto the cake, and President Obama's too of course.
On my actual birthday, my friends at the Barlow also surprised me with chocolate covered strawberries and a video that they put together for me. I nearly cried!
I had a great birthday by the way. Last week we celebrated all the July and August birthdays at the Barlow Center. My friend Marie is an amazing cook and apparently she's also an amazing cake decorator. She piped our faces onto the cake, and President Obama's too of course.
On my actual birthday, my friends at the Barlow also surprised me with chocolate covered strawberries and a video that they put together for me. I nearly cried!
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