I’ve been worrying about getting a Chinese visa.  I have to show proof of hotel bookings and flights in order to get a visa.  But there is no guarantee that you will get a visa.  So, it’s a huge expensive leap of faith since, of course, the tour and the flights are non-refundable.  Thus, worry.  Then, a visa takes 4 days typically.  I don’t have 4 days off work.  You can pay to have it expedited, but there’s no guarantee that it will then take one, two or three days.  All of this has been running around in my head for a couple weeks now driving me crazy.  So, I’m glad it’s visa day.  I’m not sure why I’m worried.  I’m not a threat to China.  There is no reason why I should be denied a tourist visa.  But I had dreams of having my application thrown out because I wore a tank top or because I misspelled something or left something off my application.  Stop it brain!  There was a line when I got to the embassy.  AT 9:00 they opened the door and everyone walked in.  Security at the China embassy is lax compared to the US embassy.  The US embassy checked your passport before you came in.  You could only come in one at a time.  You had to put all electronics in a plastic bag and leave them at the security desk.  Then everything else went through an xray machine and you through a metal detector.  At the China embassy we just all walked through the metal detector as it beeped and the guy behind it ate his breakfast.  Then you take a number and wait your turn. She took my paperwork looked over it about 7 times, then told me how much it would cost and told me to come back at 3:00.  I went back at 3:00 and went through lack of security again.  I paid for my visa and got it!  Easy.  So, I’m going to China for two weeks in October!

While I was waiting for 3:00, I decided to try a new coffee shop to have lunch and work.  I found one called Clay Studio Coffee in the Garden.  It was across the street from a terra cotta clay museum.  They still make statues and wall murals that look like they were made a long time ago.  I didn’t go to the museum, but it’s top of my list next time I come back.  The coffee shop was in a garden full of plants and terra cotta stone carvings.  You could sit in the gardens or in the shop which looked like a green house.  This may be the prettiest coffee shop I’ve ever seen.  I wonder how I might be able to live there.  Then I think about all the bugs, geckos and snakes that probably live there and I think that it’s the perfect day time coffee shop.

Then I went to my favorite pizza place for dinner!  I’m also attaching some random photos I took walking around.  I like the combination of glitzy temple next to run down dirty building.  It’s always interesting to see.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore