Tickets, tickets...tickets

You might think that it has been a while since I wrote something?? Well, that is correct. The last couple of days that I was in Linfen, I spend hanging with my friends and going for many meals as I was going to leave. As to when I was going to leave was not yet confirmed. To travel during and before Spring festival (this is the biggest holiday in China, their Lunar New Year, Christmas and a time when no-one does anything) you need to purchase your tickets long before you even decide to travel. This is the time of year when the whole country set off to visit family and friends. Me on the other hand didn’t have all this information beforehand, until we started making arrangements for me to leave for Linyi.

Just to let you in on everything else that happened… I managed to get my visa and am therefore still legal in the country for another month. And the next visa that I will need to apply for will allow me to stay in the country for another year or so. That being something to look into later, first is first. The next step is to get me to Linyi with enough time left that I can apply for my next visa. You might think that there is a lot of time left? Well, I thought so as well until I got told everything closes for Spring festival. The date for this festival is from 20-26 January. This is exactly the dates that I need to apply for my new visa. Some more info that I didn’t have is that even the police stations are closed during this festival and it is with them I need to extend my visa. So I pretty much needed to be in Linyi on the 12th January to get all the paperwork done and hand them in for processing.

My good friend, assistant and slave, Lifei, had all the travel arrangements on his plate. After spending three days brainstorming with me and the guy that would be my new travel partner, Freddy (who is Chinese and need to travel to Shandong Province for the festival) Lifei realized he will need to call in the higher authorities. Something to do with the president of the University, don’t ask? I bargained to travel on the weekend of the 10th, 11th of January. It was already the Wednesday before I wanted to travel and we still didn’t have any good news. On the Thursday before the weekend I wanted to travel, I spoke to Lifei again. He told me that we will know on Saturday. “Mmmm…. maybe he doesn’t understand?” I thought by myself. I want to be there around Saturday or Sunday. But I had to wait.

So Saturday came along and I was up early to find out what was happening. I sat in my flat in anticipation to hear the news. 10:00 there was a knock on my door. Lifei assisted by Freddy standing in my door with smiles on their faces. They did it!!! I had two hours to get all my things packed and get ready for the long journey to Linyi. I arranged for the last coffee with Jess at a place we found along the road that made lovely coffee with rum syrup. Good thing that I was leaving Linfen or I would have spent all my money on coffee.

(Linyi City, Shandong Province, China)