owenkrout

I think we have a power struggle for the Admiralty going on here. Look out P.J.! Post the palace guard. It might be a coup in progress!! I think the stress is getting to me.

Hey James, cat is not too bad! The one mystery meat that I had at a BBQ place was rat, I am convinced and it wasn't great. Conversation: Me: "Yan, what is this anyway?" My daughter, thoughtfully, "Ox, I think." Me: "No, I am from Kansas, I know beef. Beef is red meat." Daughter, taking another taste: "Pig." Me: "No, that is not pork, either." Daughter, laughing: "I don't know either!" BTW - Dog is really good.

I figure that as long as they charred it well it killed anything harmful. Also figure that 400 degree boiling oil will kill off the nasty things, so I do eat from the street vendors. We pass some of the questionable ones up though. Oh, yea. I had forgotten about the pineapple on a stick. Most Chinese bread is steamed and made without sugar, (so my wife says) and not much to my taste. Harbin and Shenyang were both Russian several times, so you can get some decent, but not great, baked goods up here if you look hard.

My parents caught me on line the other day. When mother asked if I was done with my classes for that day yet, I mentioned that it was midnight here. She asked, "Why?"

An effective stategy I believe, but won't they be in recess right then? If they are, you would have better luck at their offices in Texas, I would think. Being in China, I have a good excuse for not accompanying you.

There is a difference in local cuisines, but I have found that all are delicious. Having said that, there are a few things that I just can't develop a taste for, some of which I never got the hang of in the states. I too look the other way when my wife is obviously really enjoying the chickens feet, pigs feet, chickens heads, fish heads, etc. For the chicken feet and pigs feet, I always figured that I knew where those had been. I never liked what passed as tofu state-side. The tofu here is firmer and dryer and has a much better taste. I developed a real liking to it now. I do draw the line at the blood tofu. I just have doubts about the safety of that. The northern cuisine tends to be blander than that in the south, but it is more filling. More wheat products. The exception to that is the Korean food that you get up here. And I thought that Mexican food was hot! The seafood in Dalian and Panjin is absolutely fantastic and cheap! Better, I think than what we had at Shanghai. I don't know the name for most of what we had in Guangzhou, but it was definately the best part about that trip. Up here you can buy about anything from street vendors on a stick and grilled over a charcoal or coal fire. Shish-ka-bob essentially. Squid on a stick is something you don't get back home! The mutton is especially good that way. Nuts! Still a half hour to lunch!

Yes, even someone who grew up a hillbilly like me (no, not Kansas, grew up in Pennsylvania) can operate those new fangled things like computers and printers, But I would pretend that I can't so that they won't think that I am overqualified

Hey, consulate jobs pay very well. I've seriously considered taking the test.

Depression, man. It is Friday here in China, so anyone who doesn't have their pick-up letter in hand knows it is now officially too late for them to make the first group. I still think there will be chaos tomorrow morning if there are really as many gals in that first group as we have been led to believe.

This is going to be a tough one for you as, by law, one of the important parts of the process is to determine that the immigrant is not likely to become a burden on the taxpayers of the U.S. You will have to have a sponsor to do that and I would file as many I-134 forms as you have willing sponsors, plus yourself. The more support you show the better. Just note that anyone who files a sponsors I-134 is legally responsible. I don't know that they have actually used that point to pursue anyone, but I did ask about sponsors here at the Shenyang consulate and they were very clear in pointing out the legal responsibility point. I am sweating getting my wife's visa in hand within the next two months as we will have to re-file the I-134 again as it will have been another year gone by. I am teaching in Shenyang and even foreign professors don't make much here by U.S. standards. Last year's tax return was for the last half year of work in the U.S. and therefore plenty to satisfy them.

An interesting cultural point brought up in another thread was that of whether your gal has a middle name. I did a check of my student’s names as a random sample of current practice and found that 55 of them have two character names and 63 have three character names. Someone, somewhere along the process "gave" my wife a middle name. My wife tells me that traditionally, most, but not all, Chinese had a three character name. One character for the family name, and two for the given name. Her Chinese passport has her name Anglicized as Wang Chunxia, two names. In my wife's case, she and her siblings where given "generation names". The first character of the given name was the same for her and all her brothers and sisters, "Chun", the generation name. The second character of the given name was different for each of them, in her case "Xia". Thereby it is easier for everyone in the extended family to discern everyone’s "place". By using that system and moving the family name to the end instead of the front Someone along the line decided that her three names are therefore Chun Xia Wang. Despite the fact that she had filled out all the papers by leaving the line for "middle name" blank and filling in her first name as Chunxia. Probably more than anyone wanted to know. One of the qualifications for being a college professor is that you have to be able to talk about anything for two hours whether you know anything about it or not.

Number 5 typifies the attitude that I have seen on this end.

I'm in on that letter too. August-12 The CR7 site has one person who got her visa that was an AUG-12 interview. Guess there is hope.

Interesting. I assumed that it was being done with everyone. Someone, somewhere along the process "gave" my wife a middle name. My wife tells me that most, but not all, Chinese have a three character name. One character for the family name, and two for the given name. Her Chinese passport has her name Anglicized as Wang Chunxia, two names. In my wife's wife's case, she and her siblings where given "generation names". The first character of the given name was the same for her and all her brothers and sisters, "Chun", the generation name. The second character of the given name was different for each of them, in her case "Xia". Thereby it is eaiser for everyone in the extended family to discern everyones "place". By using that system and moving the family name to the end instead of the front Someone along the line decided that her three names are therefore Chun Xia Wang. Despite the fact that she had filled out all the papers by leaving the line for "middle name" blank and filling in her first name as Chunxia. Probably more than anyone wanted to know. One of the qualifications for being a college professor is that you have to be able to talk about anything for two hours whether you know anything about it or not.

Dang, I thought this thread was going to die out way back at the beginning! Eric's right. It was just a delusional thought. There is no system. I was glad to hear that CNN is starting to give some press to our cause.

No no! Chinese Astrological Sign.

https://egov.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/cris/js...ps/caseStat.jsp This is for the INS not DOS or DOJ. This is for checking on the first step of the process.

That would actually be efficient and user friendly. Can't have that sort of thing now can we? I agree with Eric, I would have lost my job in nothing flat back when I was in management in industry for the kind of poor performance that seems to be routine in this system. Even in the higher education system, where I was until I came over here, there was actually a functional system, not just chaos.

My wife picked up from the 001 site that the INS is now doing an on-line case status service. Enter the numbers and find out your status. Wish they had that back when we first filed the petition. Maybe DOS will take a hint from the DOJ and set up a site the check on status of these name checks.

Talk about out of quarters. I tried to call CA from here in Shenyang. Was on hold for 15 minutes once and my wife hung up on me and scolded me about wasting money if they wouldn't talk to me. Believe me, you don't want to be scolded by your Chinese honey! Next time I got the gal who hangs up. I didn't get any further than saying that I was calling from China and needed to check on the status of my wife's visa application. Click. Another 10 minutes or more call time wasted. (My wife had fallen asleep watching a movie that time so didn't know what I was up to)

The more that mention it to them the better. They will start to believe it if they hear it enough. Any of your fiancees that are computer literate might try a letter in Chinese. My wife had the idea, but she needs my help just to read the 001 site. Never had the chance to do anything with computers before and I don't know anything about how to teach her how to enter Chinese characters. Always try to point out the human interest side and why they would want to run such a story.

At my wife's suggestion, I sent an e-mail to CCTV-9, which is the international Chinese channel broadcast in English. Presented it as a possible human interest story. Given the loack of response from our own government, I figured it was a good idea to get all the coverage that we can. If you can't reason with them, then embarrass them enough to shake things up.

I'm glad I didn't run into that prairie dog you have for an avitar back when I was varmint shooting on the high plains!

Guess I lost it there for a minute. Thinking that there was actually a system involved. Self administered dope-slap!

Fellows, make absolutely certain your gals know about this. For anything permanent like moving to the US, the Chinese very typically will buy the biggest bag they can find and pack it until they can barely drag it. Over here it is common to see bags big enough to smuggle a couple of Chinese sized gals in.