Fu Lai

The request was to give us a minute or two to make a quick post change without the "Edited by ..." line appearing. Notice you posted at 03:43 AM and edited a minute later? I have no idea if IPB software allows this but I do know other software does. I didn't mean anything about a reason given.

Oh, and water... Water quality a concern China Daily, http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/8142202.html

By Tiffany Hoy (Xinhua) http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/102774/8142832.html

Thank you suh! I may have a little influence over what style we go for in decorative furnishing, in place of not showing my face at the place until the main stuff is done ("if you're white like rice it'll cost twice the price and maybe not be done nice")... LOL!! She kinda takes some pride in "I want our home to be different than the others with your American influence" ... while she is busy picking out her electric mahjong table. http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/113920575/Automatic_Mahjong_Table.jpg She was so happy that I insisted on having a round, turntable dining room table. hahaha Little does she know that comes from me being lazy in not reaching over the table for the dishes or waiting on others to pass them around. I did grow up in a 10 member family house that was a little more than competitive over food dispersal so I am laughing at the thought of the "lazy susan" tug of war we would have had every dinner at such a table! http://www.lafurniturestore.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/D/S/DSC_0683.jpg

missed this, old China pictures of New Year's celebrations: http://english.people.com.cn/90782/8126919.html http://english.people.com.cn/mediafile/201302/08/F201302081558501088275211.jpg

Funny, I got a blue print today and immediately my girls says... "there's a wall there they don't have on the blueprint." Ugh. So I will get a digital copy of the blueprint tomorrow and then physically go see the place again to match the drawing with reality. In the meantime we have been tamping through all the home furnishing megastores they have here. We came up with a pricing of stuff for our office/library: 1 Desk Y1000 2 Desk chairs Y600 1 Sofa-bed Y1800 1 Comfort chair Y1000 1 Shelving unit Y1000 1 Overhead light Y150 1 Desk light Y100 Total: Y5650

Thanks for the pics! Always very nice (and always jealous of that nice air, I couldn't see to the other side of the Yangtze last night).

???? I didn't mean to upset you tsap seui if I did and I was talking generally, not about your wife. My wife started to teach me it but it was too difficult. My name is Fu Lai and I have heard Chinese women say they won't think about China another minute once they are headed to America, for various reasons. Mostly because they want to start a new life, etc. I was just trying to add to the conversation if that's okay.

I do too. The culture and historic reference in China is amazingly tight for such a society. I'm not sure it can be compared to any other. I see Sa Jiao as in treating and taking care of each other as kids around here. While I have seen it in other countries, in the USA particularly, it is hip deep in China. Mothers often care for their kids and husbands nearly the same way, it is funny. Husbands are reeled in by wives to reciprocate. Kids practice this early. Hilarious. If I didn't know it is an important game then I might be offended but we really just do it and laugh about it... "SA JIAO" we say to each other, giggling knowingly!

Sorry for going off-topic. It was just a thought. Notice this post. I will submit it, then edit it in the next 10 seconds to fix a typo, then re-submit it. All in under a minute. Some sites allow this to be done without it displaying a [edit] notice, a setting in the admin for how much time they will allow a post to be edited without showing the [edit] notice. This site displays an [edit] notice immediately. Frankly, people edit posts dramatically after a couple of hours with no explanation and those SHOULD show the [edit]. Anyway, it was just a thought. Carry on and thank you.

I would suggest that Chinese women that are going to the USA might be more interested in learning English then teaching you Chinese or about China. Maybe they don't want to think another minute about China and have reasons to put it in their rear view mirror? Or maybe they just CAN'T teach you and want to prevent losing face? It is peculiar that someone coming from such a deep culture as China would avoid it so much. My girl has no interest in EVER going to the USA except to meet my family, we deal with only Chinese people every day [besides me and my work]. So she always teaches me things about China and encourages me to learn more Chinese language. It is ESSENTIAL that we meet each others needs in changing our way of interacting so that we can function optimally. The changing we do for each other benefits every aspect of our relationship. There is no forced change in anything but us wanting to fit better together.

May I request a 2 minute window to edit our posts without having the [EDIT] notification put on the post? 2 minutes lets we who deplore typos, misspells, etc. to fix our posts. Thanks for your consideration. I believe that is reserved for moderators and admins only. Anyway you are given the opportunity to give reason for edit, simply indicate typo correction or such as a reason. I know that many forums allow people to fix typos etc. with a short window before the [EDIT] is displayed, maybe consider it. All forums I know allow people to edit posts with the caveat that a big notice of [EDIT] is displayed and usually with a line of why. Thanks.

I suspect it is used, at least in my girl's respect, to gently point out what they consider failure by the man to assist his girl. Maybe a way to save face for everyone, the girl who needs help and the guy who is not helping?

Carl, I remember those days. Just a thought, Maybe we could get that back again. BUT!! only delete the current post being made at the time. NOT all the posts we made during the thread. Ya know sometimes we post things and push the button and latter wish we didn't. One post delete only. There is a short window of opportunity to edit your post for just this very reason. May I request a 2 minute window to edit our posts without having the [EDIT] notification put on the post? 2 minutes lets we who deplore typos, misspells, etc. to fix our posts. Thanks for your consideration.

I agree as long as we acknowledge that we reciprocate in the same way... get a clue and learn how to communicate with Chinese people and for them as Chinese to take a pause, breath, and step back while we learn a new way.

Harkened by lanterns, wayward souls return. This pic is from a Lantern Festival I attended yesterday in the small village of Huangpi, about 40km north of Wuhan.

But most of all, what the 'stats' tell you is that VISA topics are far less likely to be deleted during a database purge That is disappointing. A database purge is like amputation or erasing history to a messageboard / database guy.

VISA General Visa Discussion & First Steps 11,166 topics 109,896 replies Consulate Process: P-3 ~ Interview 1,783 topics 21,447 replies Interview Results 974 topics 16,303 replies AOS & Immigration Challenges 3,682 topics 27,293 replies Citizenship Process 186 topics 1,498 replies 17,791 Topics 176,437 Replies LIFE TOGETHER & APART Communications, Planes & Shipping 687 topics 7,033 replies Chinese Language Forum 194 topics 1,416 replies The Middle Kingdom - ?? 1,460 topics 20,826 replies Culture & Language Discussion 1,960 topics 33,310 replies Stateside 521 topics 5,621 replies 4,822 Topics 68,206 Replies MEMBERS ONLY Our Stories 2,142 topics 47,236 replies Polls & Surveys 790 topics 18,892 replies Contact List 85 topics 3,804 replies Twisted Candle 4,496 topics 90,228 replies 7,513 Topics 160,160 Replies ----------------- VISA 17,791 Topics 176,437 Replies MEMBERS ONLY 7,513 Topics 160,160 Replies LIFE TOGETHER & APART 4,822 Topics 68,206 Replies -------------- Pretty straightforward. By far people here talk Visa, then sidechat with members and life together after visa

Probably superfluous but this is a good link for a visitor's visa: http://www.chinaconsulatechicago.org/eng/ywzn/qzhz/qz/grqz/P020120801225217510261.pdf

Knowing how much of a seafood lover my girl and generally Chinese are this report came out Thursday of widespread fish mislabeling. The USA imports 90% of its seafood and only 2% in checked so they figure this is a way to label a cheap fish as a more expensive one to make money, fraud. But there are other problems with it. More here. also...

This is good. I still ask who but I have come to understand there are mainly three answers... family, colleagues and classmates. If it is a friend that I know well she will say the name. She has the what, how and when figured out as something I always need to know so she is good with that. She will tell me something she wants to do and I'll ask why. Often she replies, "no why, we will do it." I will ask where is it and she will reply, "in Wuhan." I'll ask where in Wuhan and she'll say, "in Wuchang." I'll ask what street and she'll say "it is far away." Finally I'll ask what is the street and number and she'll reply "you do not know the place so do not ask." So I deduce that she knows where it is but not the address. She still does the "I'll ask a Chinese person" after I give an answer. Example, her 16 year old son wanted to get rid of the peachfuzz on his lip and asked me if he could shave. I said certainly. The hair does not regrow faster or any of that myth. I even showed him and his mother a few doctor sites that confirmed it. She said nothing but 10 minutes later she told her son he could shave. I asked her why she delayed her answer and she said she had to ask some Chinese people and check Chinese doctors first. So I taught the son how to shave.

I didn't mean to portray my girl as a beating around the busher, she is far from it. She is very direct and blunt as can be, with no time to spend dealing with blah blah. Since the Chinese seem to use any sound in the world to agree or disagree, say yes or no, I did convince my wife to use uh-huh and uh-uh as much as possible for my ease of understanding. This is a work in progress right dear? "uh"

Does my wife have to file a W-7 and apply for an ITIN? She works for a government university and has never been or lived in the USA (no plans to either).

I wonder if it will make the visitor's visa easier to get