From bad, to worse, to just plain ridiculous.

I’m currently sitting in the Founders Arms drinking a pint; it’s a charming pub overlooking the River Thames in London.  I’m due to leave in just a few days, and trust me, I didn’t expect to be here.

The last few weeks seemed to have snowballed.  Although, I think I’ve been forcing the idea of leaving to the very back of my mind, as if it was never actually going to happen, but here we are.  This fantasy about going to China has become a daunting truth and there’s no backing out now.  I’ve had the leaving dos, I’ve listened to the farewells and I’ve absorbed everyone’s novel advice.  If I was ever going to be ready it’d be now, and yet I couldn’t feel more unprepared.  My mind is trying to balance and remember every single thing I need to do before I leave.  There are things you don’t even consider when you’re facing something like this, and those “little things” are what knock you back last minute. Like my bankcard for example, which happens to run out whilst I’m away.  Luckily I spotted this in time and I’ve managed to have a new one sent through.

The real bombshell really did arrive last minute though…  This week I got an email through from my manager in Xi’an.  He stated that I’d need to get my visa processed within the next few days, once I had received the required documents from him.  I read this a couple of times to check I understood exactly what he was saying, because as far as I was aware, the school was overseeing the visa process.  I (naively) thought that I could get on a plane and go to China, leaving the technical side of it to my contacts in the ASTON school.

No.  My manager told me that he’d be sending over my work permit and letter of invitation from the Chinese government, which I would then need to forward onto the Chinese Application Service Centre in London.  I decided to roll with it.  Sure, it’s only a week before I leave, but obviously my school would give me enough time to get the visa application processed.

No.  The documents were due to arrive during the afternoon of Thursday the 16^th February.  The documents take four working days to be processed, and I’m due to leave on Monday the 20^th.  Not to mention the fact that the application centre is close on Saturday’s and Sunday’s.  So I wouldn’t even have four working days.  This would have meant going to London Friday morning, and hoping the visa could somehow be processed by Monday morning, before my flight in the afternoon.  Now I know the Chinese are seen as efficient workers, but even for them that’s a push.

Luckily, I was given a lifeline.  The Fedex tracking number revealed that the documents were due to arrive one day earlier than expected, meaning I’d be able to get them to London on the Thursday, which would provide an additional day.  This was much more doable.  All I had to do was rely on Fedex to deliver the post, a day earlier, as the call centre assured me it would.

No.  Despite the package arriving at a depot approximately 40 minutes from my house, it was delayed due to an “incorrect postcode”.  Fedex had interpreted the “U” in my postcode as a “V”.  So I asked the call centre if I could just pick up the package from the depot myself, but I was informed that this was definitely not allowed.  Eventually I amended the postcode and I was once again reassured that the package would still arrive a day early.  Feeling content that I had saved the day I left the situation as it was.  I knew that I could drive back from visiting my girlfriend in Cardiff and collect the package.

Umm no.  I got home yesterday to find that documents were nowhere to be seen - I’m not the sort of person that breaks down under stress like that, but yesterday was probably the closest I’ve come to buckling.  My girlfriend even mentioned that this was “the most stressed” she had ever seen me.  Not surprising under the circumstances I guess. 

Anyway, once again, I phoned Fedex, again, and again I spoke to the call centre.  This time something different happened though; I got patched through to a UK based call centre.  The assistant informed me that my package had not been released due to the postcode being, and that I would not receive it until the following day.  Straight away I argued that I needed this document now, and that I would HAVE TO come and collect it from the depot.  She replied, “Yeah, that’s fine”, as if it was no big deal.  Having been previously told that under no circumstances could people come to the warehouse, I almost threw the phone at the wall.  Seeing sense (and somewhat taking my frustration out on those around me), I managed to restrain myself from obliterating the phone.

This brings me on to today, and why I am currently sitting in a pub in the middle of London.  I woke up at 6 a.m., travelled to the depot, collected the package at 7 a.m., travelled to the nearest train station and boarded the first train to Farringdon, in order to make my appointment at the visa centre for 10 a.m.  I was lucky enough to arrive at 10:15 a.m. and £110 later I was told my visa will be ready tomorrow.  Although that’s as long as the Chinese government don’t refuse my visa, and the ways things have been going, that wouldn’t surprise me!

I apologise for focussing on this ordeal, but it literally has consumed me over the past few days.  Sitting here now though, sipping a pint in such surreal surroundings, it doesn’t actually seem so bad, especially as London was not on my to do list.

Hopefully the visa will go through, and if it does, I promise that the next blog will be a bit more positive ;)