J's Blog!

On a Monday in August, I arrived at the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles around 2:50pm. I parked on the street and paid the meter, then sauntered across the street to the new building. Since a sign said the closing time was 3pm, I feared that I would not be able to process my visa by that day. After entering the building and pressing a “visa” button, I waited for about 40 minutes for my number to be called. Around 3:15pm, the guards closed the door, but the clerks continued to work until all the customers had their documents processed. When it was finally my turn, I gave them my passport and visa documents and got a receipt; the clerk instructed me to come back on Thursday of that week. On Thursday, Bro and I returned with the payment. We only stood in line for about 10-15 minutes and left the moment I got my passport with the visa attached. It was a quick and easy process.

Written by Bro, Edited by Jing Part 1: From Jing’s Point of View It was a dark and cloudy night-- the perfect night for a murder-- and I sat in the driver's seat enjoying a Whopper from Burger King. As I leaned in and took another bite, the force of my bite caused the tomatoes to squish juice out, which perfectly complimented the burger. “This Whopper is a real whopper,” I thought. Heh, I should write that down. I looked over at my brother in the passenger's seat and spaced out, while glancing at "Woody's," the convenience store paired with the gas station we just used. Hah, Woody…WOODY. I smiled. As I leaned in for another bite, a man with three children caught my eye as they walked by. He was a Hispanic man with a medium build and he held the hands of two children. The four were taking a stroll behind Woody's at 11 o’clock at night. The party appeared to have come from Denny's, the restaurant behind our car across the street. I turned to my brother and a...

August 12: Las Vegas, Nevada On the morning of Tuesday, our family set forth to conquer the sandy heat of Vegas. Once we arrived, we browsed aisles and aisles of sparkling jewelry, which I failed to document with my camera. They weren't worth documenting, as the jewels were tiny. TINY! The two highlights of this jewelry show were free water and a $1 jewelry sale booth. I bought many pins that I wanted to give away...but I have no idea where they are at this moment. After this, my family sat down at a booth selling electronic massage equipment. We did end up buying one of these massagers. After walking around several hundred square feet of shiny gold, silver, and multicolored jewels, we left the area and ate dinner at the Sahara Buffet. Decent, I suppose. Soonafter, we watched the Treasure Island Siren's show (finally, after many failed attempts to do so). Sassy Sirens of TI! NEVER, EVER go to The Palace in Downtown Las Vegas! Here's why: When we first checked int...

I had an interesting experience, as you could infer from the title. Weeks ago, I received a letter to fulfill my civic service, so I postponed it to today, when I could actually serve my duty. I had no idea where the court was, in relation to the library nearby, but after circling around the block twice, I found some parking near the library and walked to the courthouse. The security guard x-rayed my belongings and directed me to the jury room. Inside, I was amused to find around 40 people seated with books or magazines in their hands. Perhaps others were looking around, confused at their reasons for being there, whilst a few individuals conversed. The room was medium-sized, perhaps the size of a classroom fitting 50 or so people. I also have to mention that about 1 out of 8 people dressed up in professional clothing (I suppose most did not care - yes, I was one of them). The administration lady motioned for me to come forward, so I filled out a sheet asking about my qualifications and...

Wow, seven weeks of learning! (Especially intense, since I hopped out of finals, just to go back to class the following weekend.) I took three courses within seven weeks; one was research-based, another was about the Chinese culture, from history of olden times to the ways one should interact in the present culture, and the last class taught us a bit more about business in China. In addition, there were seminars to help prepare the English teachers for teaching and living in China. The majority of Chinese students and I waived the Chinese beginner's language course. The three main themes in Chinese culture are: 1) Guanxi - know the right people to get to the right places. 2) Face - never publicly embarrass anyone by giving people a "no" answer. Instead, make excuses if you really cannot make it (in other words, beat around the bush). 3) Face value means more than true value - as evidenced by the Chinese's want of diplomas (instead of transcripts) and Chinese peopl...