Dan R

What!? Have you forgotten "Beep Beep" by the Playmates. And our parents said our generation had no real music! While riding in my Cadillac What to my surprise A little Nash Rambler was following me About one-third my size The guy must have wanted to pass me out As he kept on tooting his horn <beep beep> I'll show him that a Cadillac Is not a car to scorn and how about Brian Hyland's "Sealed With A Kiss" what were you guys doing at summer camp? How about the Supreme's last song "Someday We'll be together" maybe someone could arrange to play this outside the GZ Consulate on a loud speaker.

Thanks, now I will start calling.

There was a post earlier asking what the phone number to call at DOS to check on interview schedules. I can't find it. PLEASE SOMEONE post the number

I second this question. I emailed GZ to ask the same question. They immediately answered with. "It takes time be patient". So how do we follow up at this point?

Trigg that was very brave to risk the wrath and/or ridicule once again from your wife so that the rest of us will learn from your example what not to do. A true leader. Mmmmm did some one say Durian? The local markets had frozen whole Sau Rieng from Thailand this weekend. Boy was that deloicious.

open ocean only applies if you go beyond the territoial limit.

SBC, At&T and Cingular have easily switched SIm cards. I am on Verizon so it is limited to the U.S. but we can text message each other easily . Verizon has an international rental plan for traveling to other countries. I just used her phone.

Wow someone who knows everything! I only know something about many things and much about something. There are somethings of which I know nothing but nothing that I know everything.

on the homepage go to your control panel. Click on Edit Avatar Settings.Then go to your image avatars. If the picture is on the internet put the url for the picture in the block next to :your avatar". Then click add. If it is in your computer use the browse to select the file in your computer. I think the problem I also got was the size setting. Try this at 64x64 then add the avatar. Good luck!

Who did you find for shipping? That is so cheap even for sea mail. I am always interested in good freight rates.

It is Hoisin Sauce available in jars at any Chinese market in the U.S.

Marco Polo's Father and Uncle are credited with introducing noodles and rice culture to Italy. Italians were so intrigued by it that they made a pasta shaped like rice kernals. (sorry don't remember the name for this pasta.) Flat bread is made from the mediteranean to China of various grains found along the way. Origins are lost in antiquity and it may just be that this is the easiest way to make it. Many things have been exchanged over the 2,500 years of trading between China and the Mediteranean area. Most northern Chinese introductions (like gun powder and fire works) were introduced when the Mongolian empire controlled from Moscow to Korea. The item that most surprised me was finding Indian fry bread a common breakfast item in Beijing. I had learned to make it after trying it at an Indian Pow Wow. While in China I found many kinds of fried bread, the Beijing breakfast food is exactly the same. The Chinese burrito " is what in American Chinese Restaurants is called Mu Shu. Unfortunately this name seems to mean nothing or confuses the matter for Chinese friends. Mu Shu means "wood ear" which is a tree fungus that is just one of the ingredients in mu shu in American Chinese restaurants. Rice flour skins are used for wrapping everything from Beijing duck to Chow mien. Also used are very thin wheat flour totilla type bread in the north. If anyone finds out the Chinese name for the burrito type dish, I would love to know. It is basicly a non fried "spring roll" or what we call egg roll not fried. The Vietnamese version is delicious and the healthiest and called "Goi Cun"

are you calling her cell phone? That message comes up when the phone needs to be prepaid and even sometimes when it doesn't get the signal

Check out Hawaii Market on Valley Blvd in San Gabriel sometime. They have a great variety and very cheap. 99 Ranch is a nice market too but a little higher price than Hawaii. You wont believe all the types of tofu Hawaii Market carries. In San Gabriel she can even get a cell phone that displays Chinese.

Thanks Carl. I checked out all the forms on USCIS's website. The only thing I didn't find was a I-793. I did find the I-765 form for Application for Employment Authorization, is this a change or is this the right one?

As things progress and her hoped for interview gets closer, we are looking now at what comes later. I have been reading here and elsewhere and checking on required documentation. When we applied as K-1 it was classified as nonimmigrant but the process would be about the same as for immigration because of the intent. Fair enough. So why do we have to fill out the same information on different forms that we already supplied the same government for the visa? And, why does she need to see a doctor for a physical or vaccinations when it was required for her to enter the country and she is already here? Ok, ok, I'm just venting. I should realize by now that there is no rhyme or reason to what we are asked to do. I also know I must do this and that and when it is done follow the next instructions even if they repeat what I just did. So all of you senior members please help me make this easier. Are there a list of documents that she should bring with her that will make it easier for us to make the hurdels. Should she have multiple copies with translation of her birth certificate? The vaccination record? Will we need the divorce record after she arrives for anything? In other words could someone make a checklist of the documentation she would be advised to bring from China to make transition to America easier? Also could you note at what stages we will need the documents? It always helps to be prepared before walking into the coliseum. Thanks for all the help so far from you who have walked through fire and survived. Just had a thought.....why don't we do a reality show CFL SURVIVORS. We can all contribute scripts. Nah .... it wouldn't work..... nobody would believe it. A reality show needs some credibility.

Thanks for the info Ken. I bookmarked that website. This may be the answer I needed on providing insurance for Ping. Currently I am uninsured and this seems to be good coverage at an affordable rate for her. It also includes pregnancy after the first 12 months. Now do you have one I can get within reason?

Ken if you get to Wuhan in Hubei Province sometime try out the Taoist restaurant. I have been there twice they don't allow any animal products. There is another vegetarian restaurant there run by a Buddhist temple. Both are said to be among the top vegetarian restaurants in China. You don't need the names the cab drivers know them. I also ate at a vegetarian restaurant in Shenyang but was very disapointed at the quality.

Tight chicken? Yes in Los Angeles all the Chinese restaurants catering to Chinese use roasters (older birds) because the meat isn't as mushy. Foster Farm raises fatty birds for the California market and the southern chicken with less fat in the skin is more like the Chinese ones. I have been in the food business for 28 years and in Los Angeles there are many ethnic groups that prefer different types of the same animal. It keeps it interesting down here. Don't spend the money on free range because they aren't out enough to make any noticable difference. Chinese duck is also a little different than the French style usually sold here. In the U.S. there is a style called Buddhist exempt that you might be able to request from a butcher. This means the head and feet stay on the bird in violation of USDA regulations. Nothing wrong with it but it prevents USDA from doing some required inspection so it requires a religous exemption like Kosher and Halal. Oh if she tells you she wants a black chicken to make medicinal soup, there are farmers in Oregon growing them. It is called a Silky. They are small like cornish hen and poussin but have a blue-black skin. Poussin is a bird that might suit our ladies' tastes

Shelf stable packaging which is usually good for 1 year as mentioned above has been around a long time and used extensively in Europe. It saves on refrigeration costs and allows more items to be sold without installing refrigerated cabinets. It took many years to introduce the juices in the U.S. because of consumer resistance. Eventually we may see greater acceptance and see prepared fish and meats available on the shelves or racks as in other countries. One reason markets don't like these is that they try to present a fresh off the farm image even though products are distributed cross country and come from warehouses. Most beef at your market is from vacuum packed bags that is 1 or 2 months old.

Here is a product that lets you adapt your toilet while others can use it to sit. It might be handy for the American spouse to practise with before visiting family in China. It would be best used with a low water use toilet so there isn't as much water to splash in the bowl. http://naturesplatform.com/ American Standard makes this model http://www.aecasia.com/AMERICANSTANDARD/toilet.htm but I don't know if it can be ordered in the U.S. Installing is not so difficult. The toilet should be installed above the base floor on a raised platform. This is how they are built in at many restaurants in China and Japan. You enter the room and step up. The tank mounted in a similar built out wall. You can use a standard old style tank mounted above on the wall. Here is a state of the art low flush toilet that is available in the USA from American Standard and meets codes. Iy can be installed and then boxed in to step up to it. The special tank can mount on the wall. http://www.americanstandard-us.com/pdfs/po...ecSheet_816.pdf Good luck and let us know what you end up doing.

Oregon,someday you must try Chinese bacon with green beans for breakfast. They have a very meaty bacon with heavy smoke. Unless you raise and butcher the pig you can't duplicate it. Our hogs are bred and raised to be fattier to supply our sausage needs. Also the meat used for bacon is cut to save the meatier parts for other things. The fattiness and low smoke of American bacon is what has made it a difficult item for export. We do indeed have a culture. From the food we eat to the way we dress, walk, talk and approach to politics. When you travel you can usually pick the Americans from the Europeans and South Americans or Australians. While we do differ also by regions there is still a cultural bond. In WW2 spies were uncovered in Germany by serving pie to see which end they started at. Not everyone is the same but in general we have ways of doing things that distinguish us. It doesn't take a single lifetime to adapt to a culture. People living only a couple years in a different culture and returning here can have trouble "fitting in". I am sure when our spouses visit home their friends will notice these changes. My college classmates from Asia had similar difficulty fitting back. China is already experiencing change as "returnees" move back from abroad bringing cultural habits and customs they learned.

Don't worry just take reasonable precaution as you would in any unfamiliar place. As a foreigner I think you are actually safer than a Chinese because everyone is already watching you. Nothing malicious just curiosity. When you keep hearing people say "loawai" they mean you and they are probably telling friends to look. My Chinese friends had advised me to stay away from military places because soldiers view Americans as the enemy. Well that made me nervous, but I found police and military guards friendly and helpful. The only problem for both sides was frustration over poor communication. Don't worry about social errors just try to learn while you are there. It takes years to learn. Enjoy your trip. It is a wonderful place.

Section 5 paragraph D lists the requirement on the I-129F for those who have been married before. No where in the instructions do I see a requirement for those who have never married. Your marriage history is required in the biography form. http://uscis.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/f...iles/I-129F.pdf

I think this has been discussed not so long ago. There is no single certificate but there is a currently not married document requirement for those who were married. This is simply your divorce decree which must be certified. You can also take the certified document to the US Department of State to have it authenticated for China if you want to later get married in China. In that case you must also take it to the Chinese consulate for authentication. We both had no trouble getting our papers from our respective local offices.