THE Lowly Peon

A Productive Day 
13 October 2010, 1:28pm

Today has been a very productive day. And for the few of you who still read this blog, I thought I'd share.

It started early. Very early. I woke up at 6:30 and left my house by 6:57. That gave me enough time to ride a bike over to my egg pancake lady and eat some delicious egg pancake. Then I rode through the rain to the train station, and arrived just in time — early enough that I didn't have to rush, but late enough that I wasn't stuck waiting like a typical Compernolle for over an hour.

On the train, I was finally able to catch up on some emails and some RSS reading that I've been putting off, since I've been so busy lately.

Once I got to Shanghai, I hurried to the Vietnamese consulate. Subway line 1, transfer to line 4, then a bit of a walk. I've done it twice before, so my rush wasn't because I thought I'd be there late, but rather because of the next stop.

My plan was to drop off my passport to get my Vietnamese visa, then go to the US consulate for my 1:30 appointment to get a notarized statement saying I'm not married — this is a requirement for getting married in China. I also needed to pay for some other services we'll be getting down the road. All of this would save me a big trip down the road. And then I'd go back to the Vietnamese consulate and pick up my visa, which generally takes until 4.

But alas! I realized last night that this didn't make sense. If I drop off my passport in the morning, and pick it up in the afternoon, I won't have it for the US consulate. Uh oh. I called my lawyer, read some stuff online, and even asked my dad. The outlook was not good.

After dropping off my passport with Vietnam, I was feeling so down on the US consulate part of my trip that I almost gave up. But I went instead to get lunch near the consulate, where I sat near a really annoying French guy, and then made it to my 1:30 appointment. The consulate people were awesome. I think it's funny how government services in the US are a royal pain in the bottom* — anything from the DMV to the post office to getting beach tokens every summer — but the US government services outside the US are amazing.

I handed the guy my driver's license. He asked where my passport was, smiling a bit. I said it's with the Vietnamese consulate. He said, excited, ah, going on a trip? I said yup, still nervous. He continued, and after confirming it was no problem, I told him great, because I was nervous it wouldn't work. He chuckled and said "you're in America now, no need to be nervous." Woah! Thanks, US government!

So I got my notarized document and paid the bill without a hitch.

Headed back to Pudong to pick up my visa, and realized I had about an hour, so I stopped by the Apple store, where there was a crazy long line for iPhones. I picked up an iPhone 4 dock — something I've been looking for since the day I bought my iPhone 4. (And for those of you who'll criticize this purchase, I will state proudly that I think this dongle, though overpriced, is fantastic, and I will buy one for every iPhone that requires a new one.)

Then I bought some cereal and tortellini (!!!) from City Shop. Daisy, we're going to have a great lunch on Friday!

My visa wasn't ready when I got back, so I played some games on my iPhone. I smelled really bad, since it's humid and I've been running around, and my deodorant ran out but I can't find any replacements anywhere. But hey. So does everyone else here.

Anyway, it was a very successful day! And great, until I decided to take line 1 to the train station during rush hour, which was about the time my energy crashed and I became very grumpy that I was still in Shanghai.

Yay!