Mengxin

Kevin, Ditch the phone card. www.onesuite.com . (you can thank me later. ) Welcome to Candle.

Right on! Congrats.

Jeff and Sara, That's great news. I am very happy for the both of you. I hope you both share a wonderful lifetime together. Take care and best wishes. http://chineseculture.about.com/library/extra/character/fu3.gif http://chineseculture.about.com/library/extra/character/lu4.gif http://chineseculture.about.com/library/extra/character/xi2.gifhttp://chineseculture.about.com/library/extra/character/xi2.gif http://chineseculture.about.com/library/extra/character/ji2.gif

That's some good news. I never liked that stupid tax anyway. If you've never been to Peking aiport before, it's a hassel. My 1st time I went to the gate and the lady needs to see the boarding pass, passort and airport tax. for some reason I could not for the life of me understand that they were trying to say "airport tax." I went to 3 different counters, before i could geuss what they were talking about. Feel a little stupid now though because you have to walk past the tax booth to get to the security check point. pudong airport is a piece of cake to get around, PKG isn't.

I'm with you all the way, until you mentioned taking "The Bus." I will argue that all day.....at least until she breaks me down and make me give in too. I hear you dude, the bus sucks. (it doesn't make sense either...not to spend an extra 8 rmb, to get where your going 30 minutes earlier?) ...Two ways of doing things, her way and the wrong way. (kidding baby )

I brought my Chinese books with me. I read in pin yin and mama read the characters. My wife had to leave us to go meet someone at the hospital for a while. Mama can't speak a lick of english and I couldn't speak Chinese well either , except for wo bu dong and wo yao bing pi jo ching. It was sort of stuffy at the time, but in the end it turned out all right. (...and no J, she didn't get a pearl necklace form me. ) as her parents got to know me better the more they liked/trusted me with there daughter. I would have never known anything was up with them if my wife wouldn't have mentioned it to me. Her parents are always very nice. (...even when they both look at me funny at the same time and then look at each other.):greenblob:

Sending $$$ is a touchy subject. I think most foreigners believe we all have a Tom Cruise bank role and drive Mercedes all day. Afterall we are all only fat and lazy Americans...(so some think, because they see it in the movies.) . Money shouldn't be an issue in the minds of many of her friends I'm sure. They are probably wondering why you want to make her beg for it. There is pleantly of room for argument over this discussion. As long as you and your wife are cool with the situation, it's all good. If not, I suggest nipping it in the but right away. It's between you and her, not them. Her friends will all talk smack, I'm sure. This situation with her friends doesn't tend to work in your favor. Trust me. Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt.

If you have a shread of doubt don't do it. It's not worth it. Too many fishes in the sea.

You set it up so nicely I couldn't let it go.

I agree with Dave, Picking a political party is like picking your favorite color. Whatever, it doesn't matter. You can jump ship anytime. As long as the person your voting for is doing what is in the best interest of our country. (Right now I think I country should focus more heavily on getting my wife over here to be with me.) China is communist in name only, although I can see how it does effect my wifes parents lives. They retired in the same apartment they lived in when they were working for the company that owned the buildings. (I never saw that before, where the company owned there employees away from work too.) They have hot water during the day, only during set hours. That would never fly in the US. My impression of China was totally changed after my first visit to Shanghai. Amazing place, I love it there. The people are friendly and I never felt threatened or like I was put in a dangerous situation, with the exception of a few crazy taxi drivers. Being free Americans, don't we have the right to vote for communism if we want to? Did we quit when the Germans bombed pearl harbor!!! No! let's protest, who's coming with me?

Jason, So let me get this straight... Jun's dad is passed out in the bedroom and you gave her mom a pearl necklace? OK, So where was Jun when all this was going on? Shouldn't you have given the necklace to Jun instead? Don't know if we all needed to know that, but thanks anyway. Seriously though, I did the same thing Frank did in the other post post. (Coughed up the $1K.) Most of the $$$ went back into the wedding party anyway. The wedding party was a great time and I already knew that a dowry was part of the wedding tradition. (Just didn't know how much $.) I made a mistake and joked with my wife about how cheap she was to buy from her parents. "I got a great deal, I would have paid $2K. " Ouch!!! It wasn't funny to her though. I got lit up pretty good for that one. PS. J, just kidding about the necklace bro. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Trafficking by Marriage Brokers Called Serious I read this article this morning. You have got to be kidding me? Just more fuel for the fire. Sometimes after reading some the posts here, after reading the visa procedures and getting jerked around by my lawyer. (The Visa is at a complete halt until the A%$ H*#@ gets back from vacation with his wife. I rcvd no RFE or NOA2, it's got to be in his PO Box.) I get a really discouraging feeling. It makes for a lot of stress. My wife and I are still happy to talk to each other everyday. We both stay cool about things, although we have our moments. We've only been married 3 months. We have known each other for a year, next month. Our relationship is still strong and we are both committed to our marriage. It's not always easy to talk about. Friends and Co-workers Know I got married. They ask me about married life and I reply that it will take about a year for us to be together in the US. (At the rate we are going so far I think it could take 2.) Friends ask "why can't she come over for a visit?" or "why does it take so long?". News articles like this are a very big part of the reason why. Either we need to be protected from the terrorists or (in this case) we are the terrorists that try to beat the system. I don't need to have a terrorist slow me down, I hired a lawyer to do that for me. It's a lose-lose situation, but my wife and I still remain committed and optimistic that it will all be worth it when we are together for good. I'll try to put some sort of timeline together soon. I was happy to put the NOA1 on my fridge when I got it. Unfortunately, it's gonna stay up there till Adam gets back in a few weeks. I want to take it down now. Today is valentines day in China and my Lao Po got her flowers. She's very happy and it's always great to talk to her when I get bummed. Like the words of the great "Joe Dirt" said, "You just need to keep on keepin' on". I will or I could end up in an institution somewhere. Wo fon za ‰ä¥á†‹¶“I (kidding... ) Wo yao de ai lao po.

She watches Friends to help her with her english. She loves it.

Ok - Just one more The Moment - Yan-Zi Go to > Lyric & Song > 02. (chinese charaters) > "Listen" She's actually from Singapore.

Penny - Ni Yao de Ai I love this song Sui ran jing chang meng jian ni Hai shi hao wu tou xu Wai mian zheng zai xia zhe yu Jing tian shi xing qi ji BUT I DON'T KNOW Ni qu na li * Sui ran bu ceng huai yi ni Hai shi tan te bu ding Shui shi ni de na ge wei yi Yuan liang wo huai yi zi ji ** Wo ming bai Wo yao de ai Hui ba wo chong huai Xiang yi ge xiao hai Zhi dong zai ni huai li huai Ni yao de ai Bu zhi she yi lai Yao xiang ge da nan hai Feng chui you ri sai Sheng huo zi you zi zai

Garth Brooks - Friends in low places. I love bringing my country CD's to China with me. Wo hen hao ting!!!

I still have no timeline dates to put up yet, even though I have been waiting 2 months for my NOA1. After I got back from being married in China, I gave my lawyer all the documentation he asked for. He told me he would mail the package the next day. Two weeks went by and I started checking the mailbox. Waited a 3rd week. Then the 4th week I aksed my lawyer if he got anything in the mail yet. He told me he forgot to mail the package and he didn't tell me. I waited 1 month for nothing, thinking he took care of it. He appologized and then mailed off the package the next day. I got a tracking # from him. 3 days later the package arrived in Chicago. I was wondering...why Chicago? and figured he knew what he was doing. Two weeks went by and started checking the mail again. Nothing...waited a 3rd week, Nothing. So last week (4th/8th week), I tried calling my lawyer to find out what was going on. Everyone else had NOA1 after only two weeks. I have waited 4 and still don't have it. I'm a K3 from CA. I think he mailed the 129 to Chicago without sending the 130 to CSC 1st. He hasn't returned my calls in the last 4 days. I will go to his office tommorow to take the paperwork from him. So now I am back to square 1 all over again. That sucks. If he mailed both the 130 and 129F to Chicago can I still submit the 130 to CA? I need to get back on the right track. There is no longer timeline than a K3 from CA from the timelines I saw. I already know I have a long wait. It makes it even worse that the guy I hired to help me has screwed me.

What operating system are you using? Windows 98 or XP? (I think you have 98', XP doesn't have the auto start box like you described. It's labled differently.) If the problem is with all your programs downloaded from the internet and CD there's a chance there's a problem with your registry. Not the CD. I can run Chinese SW on my computer too. (Don't mess with it, if you don't know what your doing.) There is also registry repair software you can try from ZDnet.com or Downloads.com Try running windows update http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp You can look for answers here too. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;EN-US;136214 http://support.microsoft.com/ If you have the CD that came with your computer, you can choose to format your drive two ways. Clean like the day you bought it (wipes out your personal stuff) or format the drive and keep your personal stuff untouched. You should back-up all your personal files 1st. Hope that helps.

I just got off the phone with my wife. She told me today was a traditional holiday in China. I thought "my god another holiday?" She said people still have to work, but it's a day to celibrate with family. She is always really good about sharing chinese traditions and folklore with me. So not to be caught off gaurd by another holiday again, I did some research. Here's some links I found on the internet explaining the Chinese Dragon boat festival and other neat traditional stuff I found while looking around. ("My favorites" list must have about 1000 shortcuts by now.) enjoy PS. Chinese Valentine Day in 2004 is on 8/22/2004 (Don't miss that date guys or you will be in deep Zongzi.) http://chineseculture.about.com/library/we....htm?once=true& http://www.chinapage.com/quyuan2.html http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/CFestivals.htm http://www.chinapage.com/festival/festival.html http://chineseculture.about.com/bl_index.htm

Why don't the watermelons in China look like the ones in the US? In China they look like green basketballs, in the US they have the oval shape. Both taste the same. I bought one in China last week off the watermelon cart, dude used a knife to cut it open and show us there wasn't any bugs in it. If we could do that at the grocery stores in the US there would be a huge mess in produce. It's bad enough already people need to handle all the fruit in the bins and shake them around to make sure it's fresh. Imagine if we were allowed to cut them open to check the freshness.

I have some bad news. After being a member of the site for only one week. Meng and I are splitting before the party even got started. We were supposed to be married in Harbin in two weeks, but we were having too many communication difficulties and we decided not to marry after-all. Unfortunately things didn't work out. I wish all of you and your wife's all the best. Hopefully for those of you with visa's pending, your wait will be quick. Just to share a lesson learned with all of you. Don't sell yourself short. Good/Open communication is nessesary for a healthy relationship. Meng and I had a good thing going, but it eventually unraveled. Fortunately it happened before tieing the knot and submitting any paperwork. Best Regards Doug

Merry Christmas Everybody, It's the newest member of the gang logging on the for the first time. My name is Doug, I'm from the Silicon Valley. My fiancee's name is Meng (pronounced Mung) from Harbin. We 1st met online, exchanged e-mails ect ect. then met in person in Harbin last month. We had a great time together and her family made me feel totaly comfortable and welcome. I'm going back to see her again next month to be married for Chinese New Years. I'm really looking forward to it. The big cerimony won't take place until this summer when the weather is a little more reasonable. Niether of us have kids or been married before. I have already gone over the posts and the site already, there's a lot of useful info in here. I found my way to this site because I read Marty's story on www.chinaadviser.com. Marty's story I got in touch with Marty because I am about to go through about the same hassles he did. I don't quite have my act together yet, because there is only a short time to prepare the paperwork I need before I leave. I was kind of panic'd until I read his story. Marty pointed me over here, I'm glad he did. I read about the new marriage laws that took effect Oct 1st. Whew, got lucky. It looks like all I will need is the noterized single status form, my passport and visa before I go. I read that the financial proof from the employer and the medical check were canceled after Oct 1st. That jives with Marty's experiance. I still need to make my way down to the consulate in SF with my single status form. I want to give her the affidavit of support, Form I-134 when I get there also. Does that need to be noterized also? The other hang up is that she doesn't have a passport. Hopefully that won't hold us up too long. I read the posts about aquireing the chinese passport. Here's the info I found on the web regarding the paperwork I will need. http://www.chinaconsulatesf.org/eng/qianzh...gmjh/t42743.htm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-paci...fic/3166419.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-paci...fic/3154536.stm http://usmarriagelaws.com/search/traveling...ina/index.shtml I think that's all we're missing unless somebody can suggest something else. She hasn't been able to make it to the marriage office in Harbin yet, because she is in Shanghai taking care of her mom in the hospital. Her mom is better now and hopefully she'll be home soon. Hope Santa was good to you guys and don't drink too much egg nog. Zia Jain, Doug (Meng gave me a chinese name "Gao le Gao".)