I’m on the move!

Soo before even coming to Shanghai, I had planned on hitting up Hong Kong during my holiday before the commencement of the new school year. But of course with a few hiccups of visa-waiting (school had to apply for my foreign expert visa and residence permit) and toe mishaps, I’ve been kept hostage - hence, I was left to just explore and wild out in the ‘Hai. (I was accused of “hob knobbing” today by my stateside friend, Alison… and you know what, I can’t blame her. I stand contently guilty. LOL) Anyhoots, all this doesn’t matter, because I purchased a roundtrip flight today, that would put me on a plane tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow! I’m feeling a bit adventurously spontaneous, despite the fact that the prospect of this trip has been looming over my head forever-long now. But still, I did it. I pulled the trigger. All this out n’ about-ing has been fun for sure, but with my crew slowly dissipating by the day. (Lisa is back in the States at the moment, E returned to Austria this past weekend, Cubes will head back to Germany this coming weekend, Max will too head back to Germany at the end of the month, and R is Thailand-bound this weekend on business.) I figure, it’s about my time! (Plus, my toes are OK per the doc.) And really, the ‘Hai is sorting getting to me because I now feel comfortable enough here, that I’m ready to capitalize on “free time” before I hit the lesson plans and such.

Soooooo, after getting quotes from a good handful of travel agents, I booked at approximately 4PM. But get this, agents here SEND COURIERS OUT to HAND DELIVER your E-ticket, Itinerary and Receipt, all the while collect cash from you for payment - at NO ADDITIONAL charge! (Some agencies don’t accept foreign credit cards and/or will add a 3-4% surcharge for use of credit card, period. This country is very much less plastic, and more paper-driven.) Poor dude had to come all the way from the west side of Puxi allll the way into Pudong for the transaction, but he made it nonetheless at 6:30PM! Totally awesome! (Now let’s just hope that this is legit!…. ha! But Lisa has recommended this agent, so her word is under the microscope right now… but it should be fine… I think… )

Look at what they actually deliver:

Looks official… It’s got the all-important “red stamp” on it, so that’s a plus. The “Red Stamp” is superly duperly highly regarded here… consider it the government-approved stamp or something like that. Everything that has any legal/approval significance MUST have an original red stamp, or else call it null and void. Head shake and shrug.

So, if you don’t hear from me for a while… don’t get all too worried, I’ll be in Hong Kong with some extended fam-a-lam for 10 days. Looking forward to some chill time in addition to actually understanding people when they speak!

“Ain’t No Stopping Us Now” from self-titled album by McFadden & Whitehead (1979)

. . don’t burn the day. .