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.

'Your adrenine took over!' My hubby barked. Well, I knew my adrenine was up then, that made me hit the gas pedal so hard that it roared angrily. I am driving a stick shift, I have no choice, that is the only motor vehicle we have now other than a Harley. Not ready to learn down-shifting on a motocycle yet so the Toyota is my only choice. Never learned driving before, after 1 month coaching from my hubby, I am doing okay with the 1st gear, turning around, start and stop.(even got to know how to start on a up-hill) But the switching gear thing just freak me out: clutch in,1st gear---let go---clutch off---gas---speed up---gas off---cltuch in,2nd gear---clutch off---gas---gas off---clutch in---neutral---clutch off---break little, slow down---clutch in---1st gear---turn. The parking lot is that big enough, so I have to finished all the above in about 15 seconds. I really dont know how to handle that. Frustrated. Maybe I never can pass the test. Any tips on learning how to drive on a stick shift?

I dont know about silk wall, but I am sure that silk is a very delicate fabric, even for dress, it is advised not to wear too many times out under the sun, it will make the whole thing faded. Someone said that the best way is to put away the silk dress so it wont be damaged by different conditions.

I like drinking tea, which cause the dark spots on my teeth, I have been using Lesterine Whitening Pre-brush Rinse, it works. I was reading somewhere that the condition of the teeth has influence on the Cardial-Vascular system, I have been always pay much attention to my teeth. I have my teeth cleaned every 6 months, use Lesterine after brushing my teeth twice a day, do the flossing daily, and I have been doing that for years, my teeth condition is perfect.

Thel good part of living in China is that the gas price is fixed there rather change on a daily basis here in State.

I got that straightened out more 20 years ago as per my mom's requirement. It was painful, but I am very thankful to her decision.

I dont know if any of you know Maggie Q, the super model in HK, she is mixed race with Vietnam, French and Chinese. She is very very pretty and very popular in Asia. I remembered one of her commercial I saw in Shanghai, it is about certain brand of skin product, the product will make your skin freckleless, and enhance the light skin color. Her skin is so gorgeous in that commercial and I admire that. I saw Maggie Q again, on the US version of ELLE, her picture was still gorgeous the same way, except she had a freckle make-up style, that is to say, she put a lot of freckles on her beautiful face. Is this some kind of culture shock that I have to experienced? The reason lies behind is quite simple: western like freckles a lot, it is cute on the face, asian like a freckless face cause it is elegant. The commercial, as well as the magzine, the models, have to deal with target marget in their business. Chinese girls like light skin color, western girls like a sun-tanned instead. In 2001, I wanted to follow the international trend while I was in Phuket island: I used a SPF4 sun oil whilch would darken your skin instantly in the sunlight. I was exposed to the tropical sunlight, cruising the Indian Ocean for 30 mins, I ended up in the wheelchair in a Phcket hospital, got severely sun-burned. I have to admit that I look better in pale skin color, and some western girls look better in tan skin color. The Phuket cruise could well be my last attempt to tan my skin, except this April, when I wrongly bought some skin lotion which has a tan effect on the skin. It took my a while to figure that out, and it was too late, my skin already has that summer glow. It is so nice that I can buy some skin treament products back in Shanghai, and have my skin back to the nomal pale color graduately. In Shanghai, we see the shelf full of lotion that will whiten the skin, and here we see all kinds of products for a tan skin. This give me a lesson to learn: be careful while shopping the skin lotion here, make sure it does not have a tan effect; Likewise, those who want a tan skin better be careful shopping in Shanghai, they might easily end up buying a whitening product intstead.

Thanks for all the inputs, esp. Lance, thank you so much for your advice, I hope I can work on my accent a little bit so people will understand me more easily. I found Asian people do have different accents, when we were in Thailand, my husband could not understand Thai people speaking English, but I did. I am getting more used to the way people speak English in daily life, as well as the American accent. But sometimes I still fail: one night we were out to get some KFC(yes I like junk food), we were doing the drive-thru, the girl asked me if I need some silverware and I was dumdfounded. Assuming I understood her English, my husband did not help me. I was a little mad at him afterwards: how was I supposed to know that 'silverware' meant the 'plastic' fork and spoon. It is more proper to say 'plasticware' or 'tableware', isn't it? Speaking of outsourcing, some companies do try to outsource their call centers overseas(say India), but it does not work out because of the communication barrier--it is hard to understand a foreign accent, and get understood. So those companies have to put their call centers back in States.

Me and hubby are cat-lovers, fortunately, we adopted a cat this year. He is a stray cat and just showed up on the patio. He is a sweatheart and very very well-behaved and very very cute. He likes sticking out his tongue which makes him very goofy looking. I always like lifting up his forelegs and kissing him on his shoulder. As a response, he would purr. Both of us enjoy the moment of affection. OP, you might want to tell your SO that according to scientific research, having pets help to lessen the stress and people having pets tend to have a longer life expectancy. Personally, I dont think it is a cultural issue, it is a personal taste issue. We Chinese people also do a lot of petting and treat them with affection. Yes there are places in Asia that people eat dogs and cats, but those people treat them as food(thats their personal choice). No one would be so brutal and inhuman to eat Pets.

Yes that is right, DS-230 part 2 is for IR1/CR1. For k visa, you got DS156 instead.

Well wish you a happy B-day. 07/07/07 sounds a fun day, maybe me and my husband should dine out somewhere that day. Thanks for reminding.