sawadee

Yes the foreign guys are treated nicely in Shanghai, by government, and by locals as well.

Thanks for sharing. I like what you said:"This(getting married) really brought an amazing calmness to our relationship. Our marriage has really solidified our relationship and our hearts as two becoming one." This was how me and my husband felt. That made the visa process less stressful. I wish you all the best for your CR1 application and your life with your wife.

I love yesasia too. Their customer service is guaranteed. They have English subtitled TV dramas or documentaries from China mainland, HK, Taiwan, Korea, Japan.

Jim I think your fiancee has the right attitude towards the adjusting, which will do positive influence on your cross-cultural relationship. In my opinion, though, I think it wont hurt to have some home town stuffs in her US new home. When I first came here, I have no Chinese magazines to read, no music to hear, no DVDs to watch(Becasue I pack all my Chinese magazines, DVDs and ship them thru post office by sea, usually takes 2 months), there is no Chinese TV programe booked(which I can do without), not much Chinese food in the fridge(my husband dont know where to get). I remembered how much I craved for a piece of Chinese local newspaper, or some Chinese magazine then. (I forgot to mention that I had 2 with them, which I spend 1 month to finish, one article each time, want to save the pleasure) When I first came here, end August of 2006, I spend days laying on couch doing nothing, the craving for hometown stuffs almost killed me. One year later, after my 22 boxes of personal effects made they way home here, I feel much comfortable. I told my mom, everything shipped here is useful, even I piece of raincoat. I am not saying that in US you can get nothing, but hometown stuffs always seems sweet to me, like a momento of past happiness. I bought 2 piece of newspaper in Shanghai this May, and brought them to my US home, they are laying in my basement now, I have never read them, but keeping them unread there makes me very comfortable--at least I have something new to read from hometown, when I feel like. And we want to go home at least every 2 year--my parents miss me, and I miss my city, but I wont stay long, 2 weeks is enough for me each time. So I can get some fresh tee, new books and magazine. My point it that there will be moments one feels homesick, missing the parts that make a happy and easy hometown stlye life, the stuffs from ones hometown, the hometown way of preparing hometown style food, the hometown entertaining stuffs, news, books, songs will help one feel like home, even though the home could be 8 thousands miles away. Just my 2 cents.

I think it matters is the communication between you two, the VO will judge whether the relationship is a bona fide one on an overall basis, not just looking into the number of emails particularly. Pictures together and with the family, air tickets, emails, boarding pass...that all matters. I would suggest keep everything for evidence.

Using cold water to wash face will help decreasing the winkle and firm the skin on face. Greta Garbo washed her face in iced water everyday. I like that too, it is very refreshing.

Yesterday when we were on the way to Mcdonalds I told my husband we should drive thru instead of eat in, cause they will charge you 'eat-in' tax(I think thats 6%), he looked at me as if I was crazy. I told him with that eat-in tax we could get a nice fresh cabbage thatwould be good for one week's use.

The most difficult thing of driving in Shanghai is that you have to deal with the 'road rage' from others, I dont understand why people are so angry on the road there, if you get starting the engine 0.5 sec later than it should be, you will be honked so badly. I have to say the drivers in Shanghai and Bangkok could be the most skilled ones. As for the directions, installing a GPS will be practical to solve the problem.

Due to the dropping of CNY, it costs the inflation in domestic market. All my friends back in China are complaining that everything cost more money.

In history, the exchange rate of USD and CNY was once 1:11

American life is boring, in a good way though. I can sit on the patio at dusk for hours, day dreaming, with a cat sleeping on my feet. Every week I spend 10 minutes speaking Chinese calling to my family, but that does not bother me. I feel frustrate sometimes due to the awaraness of my grammar mistakes in speaking English, there are no tense in Mandarine, the pronunciation of 'he' and 'she' are same in Mandarine, that is the two major mistakes I often make in spoken English, maybe I have to live with it, there is no solution, they say the parts of brain that control native language and foreign language are different. I like the boring midwest life, I can live that way for ever.

Joanne, I think your husband could have been through a bad day, he might feel bad about that afterwards, everyone has bad days, it is understandable. Maybe later on when he is totally calm down, you can have a talk with him about that.

Thanks for your tips Tony, that might be a sound solution. Jaguar is cool, and my dream car would be a yellow Hummer~~

Yes I forgot to mention that I was really tempting to drive a tractor cause you dont need a license to drive tractor here!.

Thanks for the tips, will work on some of the practice mentioned above. My husband thinks driving a stick is more safe, esp. in winter times when it snows. I plan to learn how to drive first, and will take some driving courses to ge prepared for the test, and I will rent an auto one(a very small one good for the maneuvering part). I think the biggest problem is a psychological one. BTW, my husband learned how to ride his Harley within 2 weeks, I had to ask him: how can you learn to ride the bike so quickly? Now he commutes to work riding on the bike. And it is a great saving on the gas. Too bad, I have to wait for 1 year before I can hop on behind him. (New drivers are not allowed to have passenger for 1 year) Thanks again for the great tips.