Going going ...not quite

Where to begin. That always seems to be a problem with me. Do I start at the China Eastern Desk checking in to leave for Shanghai? Do I begin with my wild hair brained idea to go teach english overseas? Or do I start at my misunderstanding of who was going to get me a visa to China and how was that going to happen? I do know now... much to the contrary of everything I have heard before... you must have a visa to go to china. must... no ifs and or buts... but that is getting a little ahead of myself ... so let me tell you how I ended up in San Fransisco on my way to Los Angeles on my way to Shanghai. Some time in the middle of July I had decided I needed to get out of Albuquerque. I needed a change. My work was stale and uninteresting. Business was slow.... hmmm... Road Trip! Do something different... shake things up a bit. I thought, lets go teach english in a foreign country. I still have my teaching license, I am certified in English as a second language why not! I started researching sites on the web and putting my resume out and I started to receive invitations to apply... There are several tiers of people and companies interested in placing you from China to South America and all points around the globe. After several false starts, ESL China found my resume on Daves ESL Cafe and proceeded to find me a post at one of the colleges and universities across China. Initially we talked about a placement near Bejing but ended up at a college in Wuxi 130 some odd miles from Shanghai... At this point things get interesting. My contact at ESL China sent me a contract to look over I accepted and I sent it back to him signed. Now the plan was for me to get to China ASAP... In the meantime, in order to leave I needed to sell my car, find a home for the cat, rent out the house and empty the house of all my worldly belongings. Everything started happening like it was meant to happen. My expublisher heard about my adventure asked me what I was doing with the car and I said I'm selling it ... he said I'll buy it... done deal... I had to find a good home for Chairman Meow and two days after I posted my flyer, my girl friends best friend took him in. Awesome! Now I needed to rent my house out. Hours after I posted my ad on Craigslist bingo! A wonderful couple rented the house for the winter.... everything I mean everything was happening as if the cosmos was conspiring with my plans. In the mean time... Contract signed,letter of invitation received... plane ticket bought... I had everything lined up. All my worldly belongings went either to friends or neighbors. I am scheduled to begin this adventure halloween. I get on the plane in Albuquerque, I say adios to the land of sand, I get to Phoenix and connect to my flight, I land at LAX with plenty of time to catch my flight to Shanghai. After a long wait, I get to the ticket desk to check in and then the world stopped... Where is my visa? My visa? what visa? I didn't have a visa so I couldn't board the plane and I miss my flight. I could not believe what just happened. Visa? My understanding was that that was going to be taken care of when I got there. I was so very wrong. I must admit at that moment I felt foolish and stupid. I had totally misunderstood my Chinese counterparts and during my rush to get there failed to check up on it myself. Though the girlfriend claims "I tried to tell you" adding insult to injury. So with ego bruised my trip my adventure... the great walk about abruptly stops. It's Saturday now and the Chinese Consulate is closed until Monday. I'm in LA and could not remember nor did I have my friends Phone number to have him rescue me. Always carry phone numbers with you in case of emergency. My cousin Michael though lives in San Fransisco and there is a consulate there. Embarrassed... I devised a plan to fly up to SF and stay with my cousin for a few days. The cost of the one way to SF was prohibitive and I am realizing that the cost of not having the visa will be quite expensive. So now I am in SF with my cousins Michael and Carma. I spent last night listening to Zs band play italian music, eating and drinking my sorrows away knowing that all will be well. Yea maybe I kinda accelerated this process a bit... you forget small important details that way... like what is said to whom what that means etc. Messing up on the visa was my first ESL experience. Is what you say really what you mean? If I took to time to really listen would I have paid better attention to this? Lesson learned. Tomorrow, I will work on getting my visa. I'll keep you posted... Pictures of my time last night in SF Happy Halloween!