I’m legal! (I think)

After three weeks, one crazy physical exam, lots of paperwork, a trip to the Public Security Bureau, and one of those weeks without my passport, I am now the proud holder of:

- one Residence Permit for Foreigner in the People’s Republic of China; and

- one People’s Republic of China Alien Employment Permit.

I don’t think there are any other permits I need now, but I’m checking on that just to be sure. 

Since these are personal documents, I won’t include pictures of the actual permits, but the AEP is actually like a passport, so here is a picture of the cover:

Pretty, isn't it?

And just so you don’t feel as though you’ve been cheated reading such a short post, I have an update on the apartment search. I did more thinking about the three places I saw, and reevaluated my assessments in the spreadsheet, particularly with regard to Apartment 1. 

Apartment 1 received the lowest scores for its bathrooms (neither had an enclosed shower) and storage/closet space (just the small walk-in closet; no dressers). In talking with the representative from Silk Road Ventures, I found that temporary shower enclosures can be added to the bathrooms in Apartment 1 and the landlord could furnish a dresser and/or armoire for the bedrooms as part of the lease contract. Those plusses together with the fantastic sun exposure and spacious balconies of Apartment 1 put it at the top of my list.

So on Monday morning, I contacted SRV to let them know I am interested in that apartment. Today, I found out that someone else had put in a bid for Apartment 1 last week and signed the contract with the landlord Monday evening. Oh well. That’s life.

SRV has already found four more apartments for me to check out, so that’s what I’ll be doing this Thursday afternoon.

I think this post needs more pictures. How about a look at my culinary accomplishment from Sunday night? I’m getting a little bit more adventurous . . .

Wood ear! (a type of edible fungus, a.k.a.,Auricularia auricula-judae) Adds a neat texture
to any dish.

Broccoli, Chinese cabbage, wood ear, enoki
mushrooms, and noodles sauteed in soy sauce.

Today, I had lunch with three friends in one of the cafeterias located on the second floor of our office building. This cafeteria's specialty is noodles. I was so entranced by the chef who was making the noodles right there in front of us that I unfortunately didn't get any pictures. Just to give you and idea of how amazing this was: the chef would hold one end of a long strand of dough about the circumference of a man's wrist in each hand, and shake it to lengthen it out. Then he'd raise the two ends up so that they would twist around one another (it looked a little like raw challah bread). He did this about five or six times with the same piece of dough. Then he put the dough on a table and cut noodle-length chunks off of it. He then took each chunk and shook-twisted it even more, resulting in long, thin noodles (he had his back to us for this part, so I couldn't see exactly what he was doing). He threw them into a pot of boiling water and then served the people waiting in line.

I'll have to go back another day--not just to get pictures, but to get more of those noodles!