The Portfolios

After our stunning victory in the immigration battles, I have now suffered a setback of the medical variety: I busted my knee up in a bad spill at the Shanghai Roller Revival.

The party was going great until late in the evening, with no one skating anymore, when I challenged Coley to a friendly 3-lap race. At the first turn I came crashing down, and I’m not sure why. Perhaps there was some liquid on the course, or perhaps I just took the turn too hard in my vintage 4-wheel skates which are not really designed for speed or hard turns. Anyway, I wiped out bad, smashing my inner left knee on the floor and had one of those sucking-wind-through-the-teeth moments of excruciating pain before I managed to stand up and meekly complete the three laps. I wanted to finish the race.

After that I seemed to be relatively okay. We didn’t leave right away, and I continued skating around the place for a little while, though favoring my left leg. In retrospect, this probably made the injury worse. The next morning I couldn’t really move it at all. Perhaps the alcohol had dulled the pain. So we went to the hospital.

I can only say I am so lucky to have a beautiful wife who selflessly takes care of me when I most need it. Xianyi sat me down at the hospital’s front door and rented a wheelchair, then proceeded to cart me from one department to another as we had a consultation and took X-rays, then purchased some meds the doctor prescribed.

The X-rays showed no broken bones - that was good. But the doc wanted to schedule me for an MRI to see how much damage might otherwise be done. Worst case scenario is I might need some minor surgery - which only worries me insofar as I have no insurance and no idea what it might cost me. Some preliminary internet research indicates that if my problem can be solved by an arthrotomy (a surgery employing a few minor incisions and microscopic tools), I would be walking without crutches within a few days. Even better, I might not need surgery at all - perhaps just a couple of weeks rest and rehabilitation.

After getting this diagnosis from the doc, he sent us over to the pharmacy to purchase some ointment, made by the Novartis Corp, which is indicated to be used on areas with “moderate pain” - and this pain is anything but moderate. Most of the time it feels fine. It can even bear a little weight. But certain movements produce sharp pain that, at its worst, make me want to pass out. It’s not fun. So I’m hoping for the best, and meanwhile, enjoying the pampering of my lovely wife.

We got it!

After one year and one month, she finally has the government’s permission to enter the country. The process was long, expensive and weird, but in the end it wasn’t really that hard.

So when she showed up at the Consulate Wednesday, they informed her that she was approved, but that she’d have to wait another two days to pick up her passport and visa package. Should she not be available (she wasn’t - she had a flight back to Shanghai that night) they would gladly mail the documents back to her anywhere in … Guangdong province, which does not include Shanghai.

She was telling me this on the phone and already I was thinking about paying another two nights hotel lodging when she said, “So I arranged to have them mail it to my colleagues in Guangzhou, and have them mail it to me in Shanghai.” Smart girl!!!

This “visa package” involves some kind of documentation or other and we are NOT to open it by any means. We bring it to America with us, and it is opened on site by the immigration officer at the airport. What it contains, who knows or cares. We’re coming to America!

Cue the Neil Diamond!

So today is the day.

Xianyi showed up in Guangzhou at the Consulate on Monday as instructed, only to be handed a piece of paper which said “Give us your passport and come back in two days.” Still no confirmation that she has actually passed their tests and been granted a visa!

She has had to just wait around in the city for the feds to come through. At least she went over to her company’s local office to check her email and keep busy for a while yesterday.

Today she will return to the Consulate at about 2:30 - two hours from now - and, God willing, be granted entry to the USA.

All our waiting has come down to this, it seems. Hope we get in!

We received the official letter from the Consulate, instructing Xianyi to return to their Guangzhou office anytime, “Monday to Wednesday, 2pm - 3pm”. Huge window there. So she has booked a flight for next Monday. I will stay home this time to save a little cash on flights. I really think this could be it.

It’s frustrating, though, because the letter, like the email, does not clearly say whether she will be granted a visa or not. I pointed out that we know for a fact any applicant who is granted an immigrant visa must be in Guangzhou in person with their passport to have it stamped, and then pick it up from the post office 1-2 days later. So that would seem to indicate she has passed. But she countered that maybe they have called her down there merely to retrieve the many documents of hers that they held onto, such as our marriage certificate, because they didn’t want to send them in the mail. Perhaps - but I think it would be awfully cruel of them to make her fly to Guangzhou just to be denied in person. I had hoped they would at least give us the truth in the mail and offer us the opportunity to pick up our docs in person or have them shipped.

But one can’t trust the immigration authorities to do anything one might consider civil or logical. After the ordeal one must go through to have his wife admitted to his own country - to have his rights honored by his own government, that is - one learns to withhold all the subconscious assumptions one would usually extend to normal social relations. In other words, one learns never to trust.

So that I may end on a happy note, here is a picture of us from a great party last weekend, taken by our friend, professional photographer Charlie Xia.

Visit Charlie’s site and hire him to do work. He’s awesome.

Meanwhile, we will be hoping and praying that our ship has come in.

Yesterday I sent an email to the consulate asking them when we would hear some info. So here I am working at the office, just off the holiday, when my Gmail notifier pops up this beauty:

From: Guangzhou Consulate Immigration Affairs
Thank you for your inquiry! We just sent out a notice on 5/7/07 to Ms.
Deng, Xian Yi to inform her…

Aaaaa! What does it say??? I dropped everything and rushed to my inbox to read the full message:

…to come to this office for continued processing. Ms. Deng should expect the mail within the next two weeks. Please advise Ms. Deng to follow the intructions on the notice when she receive it.

Aaaaaa! What does that mean???? I want to reach through the computer and scream, Just give me a YES or NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hysterics aside, it does sound good. We know that, if approved, she has to go to Guangzhou to have her passport stamped. It seems unlikely that they would make her fly to Guangzhou to be denied in person. Our hearts are racing - it’s nerve-wracking!
I relayed this to Dave online, who donated the following hilarious scenario:

She needs to travel to India…. find the mountain which is touched by the crescent moon… there she will find the magic rocks… which will be guarded by ENDOR the gatekeeper…. she should then steal the rocks and bring them back to the consulate…. where she will wait in line

At this point, I am ready to believe anything.

“You may enter,” says ENDOR

We were up in Beijing for the Labor Day holiday, and it was six days of relaxation and partying. Xianyi and I finally visited the Forbidden City together, although we failed (again) to find our way to the Great Wall. We were just too busy sleeping in each day to bother making the 2-3 hour trip. Anyway, the wall’s not going anywhere. And one of the cool things about Beijing is that you don’t have to go far to see really cool traditional Chinese architecture. The above picture, for example, was taken during our last hour in the city, when I asked the taxi driver to pull over for a minute as we drove to the train station.

The highlight of the trip was the MIDI Festival, China’s only outdoor rock festival. We spent one of our days at the four-day show and had a great time. Probably should have gone on other days, too, but it just didn’t work out. While there, we saw a lot of bands, none of whom I was familiar with. But I wasn’t really there for the music, more for the atmosphere. Here you have ten to twenty thousand young Chinese gathering in Beijing’s Haidian Park just hanging out, listening to music, drinking beer and selling wares. Lots of food stalls, people selling t-shirts and handmade goods, and plenty of cheap, cold beer. It was awesome!

Here was one of the bands I saw, no idea who they are.

Some punks in the crowd.

Mostly I spent the hours skating on the mini-ramp that Eli’s company had set up on the grounds. I fell down about 20 times but it was great to watch some of the guys there who really knew what was up, like this Swedish dude:

I was having so much fun skating, I pretty much missed all the bands. But we could hear lots of music, so that was all that mattered.

Here I am looking like maybe I know what I’m doing. To see what actually happened, click here. It’s pretty funny.