What's Next?

Well I guess I should just come right out and say it... I am coming home today! It's had been a crazy 4 days that have led to this. It was definitely not planned or expected for me to be headed home so early. Here's the story...
 
On Wednesday (Dec. 10th) I headed to Hong Kong to get my work visa. I had all the required documents (work permit and invitation letter) all I had to do was go to Hong Kong and get the visa in my passport. Or so I thought. So I arrived in HK at 2pm and headed straight to the visa office. I had to fill out the application for the visa again and wait 2 hours to have my number called to give them all the paperwork. Once my umber was called I was relieved because I was about to submit my visa application and have nothing else to worry about, I could enjoy HK. But no.....

I gave my paperwork to the agent and she checked all the documents. After she marked up all my Deby documents saying that my name matched and passport number, all that stuff, she then looked at my visa. She was taken by surprise. She started asking the other agents questions, still not saying anything to me. Then she looks at me and asks,"why do you have a diplomatic visa?" I was like what? And she showed me the visa page and said ,"this is a w visa, it's a diplomats visa. How did you get it?" I was shocked! I applied for a tourist visa in June I had no idea I had a diplomat visa. So I tried explaining this to her but she just kept. Asking, "is anyone in your family a diplomat?" Why would I lie about being a diplomat? That's a big deal! But my answers weren't enough for her. She went back and talked to her supervisor. when she returned she told me that if I couldn't explain how I got this visa then they can't do anything except think I'm lying. Great. I have no idea how I received a diplomatic visa and she didn't like my explanation of how I got the visa. So she gave me back my passport and said I would have to return to the states to get the visa.

Well that was a setback! Here I am in a foreign country trying to get my visa and I am denied because I have a diplomatic visa. Are you serious! So then I had to figure out if there was something else I could do. The only option I had was to call the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. Well that posed a problem because D.C. is 13 hours behind HK. So that means when I am awake D.C. Is asleep and vice versa. Well now what? Thankfully I have some awesome friends back home who offered to help.  My friend Nina called the embassy for me and tried to figure out what happened and if there was anything they could do. After she emailed them all my paperwork they admitted their mistake and said they would fix it I just needed to send my passport to them in D.C. I'm sorry but I was not comfortable sending my passport to America while I stayed in Asia, that is just asking for something to go wrong.

So there I was in HK with no way to get a new visa. And D.C. wanted me to send them my passport. Ugghhh. What was I supposed to do? So I decided to go back to Beijing and use my return flight to go home on the 30th. I could send my passport to D.C. And they even said they would do my work visa too. Sounds like a great plan, right? Well I had this feeling to check my visa again and I noticed that the enter by date was the 9th of December. Crap! That was two days ago. So now I am really freaking out! I am in HK with a possibly expired visa. An expired visa means I can't return to Beijing and I didn't have enough money to purchase a plane ticket home. Immense crying freak out. What do I do? I had reached the point where I just wanted to go home. I prayed God would just send me home. I'd had enough.

 My friend Nina contacted the embassy for me again to find out what they would say and if there was something they could do. While waited to hear back from her I prayed to God asking what I was supposed to do. I felt like I was going to be coming home. There must be a reason I am supposed to be home. When Nina got back to me she told me that D.C. had contacted her and said I was ok to enter China on my current visa. They said once I was back in Beijing I could send my passport to them and they would fix everything and give me the visa.

Now I was wondering what God wanted me to do. I still wasn't comfortable sending my visa overseas without me but did this mean I was supposed to return to Beijing after I got my passport and visa fixed in the States? I had just decided before I got the news that I would go home and start looking into something else (maybe international school or whatever God has planned for me). So I just needed to get back to Beijing and make a decision about what to do, and continue to ask God because He is the one that knows. But at least I knew my visa wasn't expired according to the embassy.

So since I couldn't get a new visa until I went back to the states and my flight back to Beijing wasn't until Saturday, I decided to go to Hong Kong Disneyland Resort! Yes that is right I went to Disneyland!!! I had never been to any Disney park before. How cool is it that my first ever Disney experience was in Hong Kong?!? It was so much fun! I love Disney!!!!

On Saturday I was to fly home. So I headed to the airport at 10:30am to catch my flight that was at 2:50pm. I wanted to get there extra early to make sure everything would work and I could go back home (to Beijing). It's a good thing I went early. As I was checking into my flight the lady at the counter started flipping through my passport. I knew then that she was looking for a visa. When she asked me if I had a new visa I told her no because the embassy in D.C. said that it was still valid. She went to ask her boss a d guess what? She came back and said no they are wrong the visa is expired. ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!? Now what do I do? This has been one stressful day after another. 

I had to go talk to the visa counter in the airport and see what they say. Ugghh! So I went to talk to them and they said I could apply for a visa but it wouldn't be ready until Monday at 7pm. I knew this would work because the visa office already said the couldn't give me a new visa. So my other option was to get a transit visa. You can enter China on a 72-hour visa free transit entry. But the catch, you have to have a plane ticket saying you are leaving Beijing within 72-hours of arriving. Well it's a good thing I had a return ticket from Beijing to Kentucky on the 30th. I just had to go the United desk and have them change the flight to the 15th. Thankfully they could, I just had to pay a $300 change fee. (This HK trip has cost me a lot of money!)

After I got the new plane ticket I had to go back and check into my flight to Beijing from HK. I encounter the same question. Do you have a new visa? No, I have a plane ticket leaving Beijing in less than 72-hours. She looked confused and had to go talk to her boss. UGHH is there no communication about visas and everything in Asia? But she came back and said everything was ok. She gave me my plane ticket a d I headed for the gate. 

Was this really happening? Was I really going to leave Beijing and headed back home within 48-hours? This was not in my plans. I thought I would be staying in China longer. But God's plans are better than our own. I didn't (and still don't) understand why all this happened, but I believe God has something great for me I just can't see it at the moment. But just because we can see or understand doesn't mean God isn't at work! I can't wait to see what God has for me next. 

So I returned to Beijing. Said "see ya later" to as many people as I could and I headed home to pack all my stuff. Tanith joined me to help me and keep me company. We also cooked one of our infamous meals. I am going to miss that girl. She better get her butt to KY ASAP!!!

So now I am coming home just in time for Christmas. I will have to go to D.C. to get them to fix my passport and give me a work visa. And I will continue to pray about what God wants me to do next? Will I return to Beijing? Will I return to IVY? Will I go somewhere else? I don't know what's next but I know it's exciting :). I had a vision of Jesus running through the airport holding my hand pulling me to my next adventure and we were both excited. I can't wait to see where we go!!!!

Holidays in this Strange Land

It's the holiday season! This is my favorite time of the year! I love getting together with friends and family and just spending time together! It's the best thing in the world. Quality time... it's my love language! I know people say that Christmas is their favorite holiday because they get presents and tons of food. Well I could care less about the presents and the food, although there is some delicious food at Thanksgiving and Christmas! The best thing about Thanksgiving and Christmas is that families make it their mission to be together for the holidays. Whether it is seeing one side of the family for Thanksgiving and the other for Christmas or everyone gets together for both. That is the best part of the holiday in my opinion!

Unfortunately this year I will miss it (and more). These Western holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) aren't really celebrated here in East Asia.

America is the only ones who celebrate Thanksgiving and, here in China, I don't really have any American friends. I'm not complaining. I love all the friends I have here in China that come from all over the globe. But when it comes to beginning the holiday season with Thanksgiving there is no one here that actually celebrates it. :(. That was hard, but thankfully I have some awesome friends (*cough* Tanith*cough*) who want to celebrate with me even though they don't actually have this holiday in their home country. So the group of foreigners I work with decided to go out on Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) for a "Thanksgiving" in China meal. Sadly there was no turkey but again it's not about the food. It's about the company. :)

I did call home on Thanksgiving. It was cool to FaceTime with my mom and get to see all my family after they had stuffed their faces full of Thanksgiving food prepared by my awesome Aunt and Grandma. It was great talking to everyone for the brief time I had but I was a little envious. I wanted to be there so bad. Not just for the delicious food that you can truly only get back home, I mean it's called home-cooked for a reason ;), but for the company of family. My family has been going to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving for at least the past 8 years and I always enjoyed it, but the phrase "you don't know what you got til it's gone" really resonated with me. I don't have the quality time with family this year and I definitely miss it.

But now that Thanksgiving is over.... I get to look forward to Christmas.... here in Asia.... where December 25th is just another working day. You read that right, I have to work on Christmas day. Our school is having a party for Christmas but I think it is called a Snow Party. In preparation for the party we have to decorate our classrooms with Christmas decorations. I don't know why but this makes me want to go home even more. I miss decorating the tree and making holiday cookies. Because all of these things are done with friends and family.  Holiday movie nights, baking Christmas desserts(No Bakes, sugar cut outs, peanut butter balls, etc), and just being together. WAAAHHHH Can I go home?

But a good thing is I have some great friends here that I get to spend the holiday with. My friends at church are having a Christmas dinner on Christmas. So I am leaving school that day and traveling the hour distance to go to their house and have Christmas dinner! I am super excited! Then I think the day after Christmas some of us foreigners at IVY are getting together for a Christmas dinner. So I will still get to spend time with friends. It's the family traditions of Christmas that I will miss out on. Hopefully I will get to Skype/FaceTime with my family so I will get to see them at least :).

Everyone tells me to enjoy this adventure because it's a once in a lifetime. I agree I am going to enjoy it but there are definitely ups and downs that come with it. I miss the holidays and my family and friends back home. But I wouldn't change this for the world. I know this is where God has called me to be. I don't know for how long but for right now this is where I am meant to be. I have learned and grown so much during my time here and my time isn't over. Just keep me in your prayers this holiday season! :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Remember the reason for the season, the birth of Jesus! :)

APEC Holiday

So we had a holiday the second week of this month (November). It was so nice to have a vacation. The reason for this "unexpected" vacation was because the APEC (Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation) Conference was held here in Beijing. So all the world leaders from around the globe were here in Beijing. So Beijing had to make it perfect air conditions and traffic conditions. LOL. So everyday was "beautiful" by China standards (once you live here you define beautiful weather as weather that allows you to see and breathe ok, it's not perfect but it will do). So Tanith and I took this time to begin The Adventures of Allie and Tanith.

The start of some AMAZING adventures!

So on our first day of vacation we went shopping at yuan yi and then headed to Wudaokuo. We had so much fun not setting an alarm to wake up and just waking up whenever we wanted. I was so glad to not have a schedule it was very relaxing. 

Nanlouguxiang

On our Saturday we went to Nanlouguxiang. This is the hutongs off of Line 8, the subway line by our apartments! It was so much fun. There were so many people!!! When people back home think of China being crowded I am pretty sure this is what they think of and expect. But just so you know it is not like this everywhere! So we went here to look for some stationery to write letters home, because wouldn't it be awesome if the letters that I sent home were on really pretty Chinese stationery? :) But I guess any paper I get here could be called Chinese paper, heck I am pretty sure all paper is Chinese because they invented paper-making (I only know this because it was on a quiz I had to take in my class). Anyways, in Nanlouguxiang we tried this horrible fried thing, I still have no idea what it was but it looked like an onion ring but there was no onion inside. Then we bought pretty flower headband things and wore them the whole day :). We also stopped in the shops that lined the hutongs. All in all it was a great day!

Nanlouguxiang, Beijing.

SO SO SO MANY PEOPLE!

On Sunday I went to church and then out to eat with some awesome people. We went to this place called Bite A Pita. There were 15 of us total and one of my friends was good friends with the manager so they moved people around so that they could put some tables together so we could all sit together. I was shocked! That would never happen in America. He serious moved other customers to other tables so that we could have the bigger table. TIC (This is China). Then after dinner I went with Gift and Polina and Tim to see my first movie in China! We saw the new Ninja Turtles movie in 3D. It was awesome! And yes it was in English and there were Chinese subtitles. 

On Monday, Tanith and I went to a park by the Lama Temple with some of the Chinese girls from school. It was a lot of fun. It was the only day during vacation that I had to set an alarm to get up to do something touristy. LOL. I was adamant about not setting an alarm. I wanted to rest and just wake up when I felt like it. But Monday was great. The park was beautiful. The leaves were a pretty yellow and the sky was a perfect blue, it was all very picturesque. We saw some Chinese doing a really pretty fan dance, and I wish I had gotten a video because a picture just doesn't capture the beauty. It is so cool to walk around the parks here in Beijing because you can see the community they have with each other. People just go to hang out. I just don't think I can describe the type of atmosphere there is at the parks. But it is so much fun and the Chinese are very nice. :)

Ava, Panda, Tanith, and I

Tuesday was our last day of vacation. Tuesday was a lazy day! I stayed inside pretty much all day just lounging around watching movies. You need to have one of these days every once in a while! I had to prepare myself to go back to work LOL because sadly it had to come to an end, the vacation not the adventures! But 6 days was just not long enough!