Don

I put our pictues into an album using Photoshop elements and placed captions under each picture with date and location and people in picture. That seemed to work well.

We got pink than blue due to my wifes name was too close to others. She had to do a 10 fingerprint and prove her id.

8 hours by bus take a day in Dali on the trip very nice too. you can also fly from Kunming directly to Dali and than take bus from Dali to Lijiang. LiJiang has many nice sites and an old downtown area you can stay in. Another nice area is Sichuan close to Emei Shan and Qincheng shan. There are some decent cities close to this area that has nice resorts outside the city and hotels inside city. I think Emei has huts along the way that you sleep at, if you want to hike overnight. The earthquake hit this area, but things are slowly getting easier to travel there.

The US has always been a blend of religions and people. There is room for Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism and the rest of the Asian religions in the US. You will find great ignorance of the Asian religions, and some acceptance pains. Already you can find good communities of each of these thoughts in the US and the numbers for each are growing at rates faster than just because of immigration. Look at book sales, you will find many books on these eastern religions.

Actually, next time I come over here I'm bringing my own coffee, a French press and a hundred or so Splenda. Then I just need to score some 1/2 and 1/2. Maybe if I am really lucky I can find some unhomogenized whole milk and skim off the cream (yum!). Ni has an office meeting to go to tonight at 6:00 pm so I am going to go down and ask the front desk to help me order some noodles with chicken and veggies from the place next door. Something else that struck me when I went to the Starbucks was seeing about 30 skinny guys with outlandish hair lined up in 3 rows infront of a hair salon with a manager reading to them from a piece of paper. I didn't have my camera out, I just hope I see it again tomorrow. One other thing that impresses me are the old people here. There are more of them out and about, and they are quite beautiful in a way I don't notice in the USA, having immense dignity, but on the other hand you see a spark of humor too. I see a lot of female laborers. This morning I snapped a pic of some women shoveling concrete, and I see the occasional woman porter as well. I think in the last 2 decades I've seen exactly one woman working construction in the US, and she was a skilled worker swinging a hammer. Sichuan is a big area for undocumented childern, many of the woman. They can not get many kinds of work, so construction is an option that many choose. A great western food shop (near one of the downtown universities) is Grandma Kitchen. It is written up in many guide books and the potato salad was very good. My wife really loved it also. She brought some of her family there after we had went and they loved it also.

Just wait it will arrive in bit. Ours came about 1 week after the NOA letter. Being in the Lee's Summit area, maybe you will get faster processing.

I would really recommend you try the best local style in each area instead of just trying to find Chinese resturants. None of these areas are really known for Chinese food. Your wife can eat great chinese in China or come to San Francisco, San Jose or SoCal for Chinese in those areas I would hunt for great local resturants that might be good. I am lucky my wife is very open and just likes good food so we can try anyplace as long as it is good. Now my daughter really likes only chinese so we do have to let her get some, but if it is not good or made the way she wants it does not good. I get no credit taking her to bad chinese or american chinese food. I get more credit if I take her to a good local style than bad chinese.

If she does not live in Guangdong, she must wait for it. They mail it to a local postoffice near the embassy. It will take a few days, 1,2 or 3 or maybe longer. They do not know ahead how long. Ours was on the long side, about 5 days. Others 1 day.

Just bring Green Card, Passport and a state id card(student ID okay). They will want to see all three if possible. I have done it from Mich into Canada several times. It is a common question adn i am sure that is whey they knew it so fast. If you do not have state id card it will be okay. One time i got held up coming back into the US from Canada because the agent thougth that my passport was too thick (I had extra pages added) and why did I have to go to so many countries (my work requried it). You never know what the agent will say.

China has been a very closed society for a long time. They do not understand their language mis- spoken. In America everyone mis-speaks English. We are used to many people using different versions of the language and speaking badly. In science we always say broken English is the international language of science. So most people can not understand you even if you speak Chinese slightly wrong. I know I have trouble with my wife; even if I speak Chinese slightly wrong (to me at least) she can not understand a word I say. So you will have a very hard time getting anyone else to understand you. Maybe if you were a student, it would be easier for the other teachers to accept you. You being a teacher and equal with them, they seem resentful. Sorry no real words of wisdon on how to help you, but keep trying. Your chinese will improve, and i doubt they will change.

Hey, I happen to know you're at work, dude. Do you still have images turned off? Yes, I do have ANIMATIONS turned off. Does CFV need to send me some 'pics' to get an eMail? I'n currently logging it as a conspiracy to make my member number over 50... -James Have fun with those goats!

My wife and i went to Thailand, she just went to travel agent and got visa, but she was from the south of Yunnan and they have a special deal to get visa to Thailand easy. She much check her area of chna. To get visa they also required health check.

Congratulations!! We had an interview, but still not bad. Just a few questions and not much longer.

There are some post tracking the time for each. I think that the K1 is a little faster right now. If you have a normal case and things look okay from your end it might be faster, but every case is unique. Some times you must take into account family and other considerations.

Thanks Jin it was a good article. It did not really stress one way or one belief, it stress living in your pain and not avoiding. The avoidance of pain causes the cycle of pain. I imagine many additions and medications is the avoidance of pain. Living thru it and knowing it is okay and you will live; just accepting that we will have pain and sort of move on. Plus, as David and the article said that she does not use the Buddhist language, so a Christian or other faith could use her thoughts to learn how to pray better. Pray is opening yourself to God. Buddhist call it meditation or atheist can call it thinking. This article can be used in all cases. Just leave yourself open to experience pain and to continue.