Recap of the Last Week...birthday, food, visas, and partays

It's been about a week since I last posted.  I'm sorry for being slow!  There has been a lot going on, and I've been trying to do it all while also exploring still.

The visa process is slow.  I think I mentioned last time that I am not able to leave Beijing during National Holiday (this will be the first week in October) because my visa process is not complete. This isn't the end of the world, except we had to cancel our last class this past Friday (our boss fought for us so that we would get paid for it because this is visa stuff and not personal stuff).  Three of us who needed to do our visa work went to the office.  We were numbers 425-427 and they were on number 91-92....Thankfully Jing, one of the women at the school do does a lot of the visa stuff, had connections so we ended up only having to wait about an hourish or so.  So now I have a permanent resident card and I'm just waiting for my passport to get done.  I can go and pick it up on October 11. xD

Our department celebrated mine and another coworker's birthdays last week, which was lovely.  They got a cake and sang happy birthday. Hah, it was nice. I didn't do anything for my actual birthday, which is fine...because I spent awhile at the visa office, but the four of us (three teachers and our boss) went to a really good vegan restaurant.  It was delicious.  Also, Starbucks in China is the same except they have some slightly different drinks and snacks to choose from!

Yesterday was awesome.    A group of us, 7 to be exact, got together with our boss and had a video game and board game day.  Four of us had switches so we brought those along so we had a bunch of controllers. <3  We played Kirby, Mario Kart, and Poketekken. Some people had to leave, but we ended up also playing Cards Against Humanity.  Talk about getting to know the people you work with! <3  We also ordered Poppa Johns, which taste just like Poppa Johns at home.  And, of course we had a lot of snacks.  Honestly, it was a really nice day.  

This just means that I am behind in getting prepared for this week...but the good thing is I don't work tomorrow...sooo.

There's been a mixup with my pay.  I was supposed to get paid on Friday...everyone else did...but I didn't.  The cash office says I did, but chances are there is a mixup in some numbers, so hopefully that will get worked out soon!  I have 40RMB left. xD

Still having issues with my computer, so the pictures are on facebook. 

Food:

I went out with some people for dinner at a local mall...apparently Beijing is the land of malls.  But, anyway, we ended up at this Cantonese restaurant.  I tried congree for the first time, and it was surprisingly good.  It's like a rice porridge and mine had some beef and a raw egg in it.  We also got roast pork and some dumpling things.  Oh, and I had a plum tea, which was also amazing.

I now have a reward card for the tea I always get at school, and I realized that Happy Lemon is also in a mall near me, so guess who is drinking all the tea?! I also tried a Lychee Rose Green Tea from another place that was good...I have a thing with fruity teas.

Work:

Classes are going well.  I'm excited about break because it will be lovely...I'll be able to explore some of Beijing in depth. Yay!

RMB:

I've spent a bit...mostly on things I need. Some on things I don't need.  I needed more Drain-O, for instance.  But I've also bought some soda and nutella, things I don't need. I've been writing down everything I spend.  I really want to see what an average month is, so once I get paid I'm going to have to add it all up and see.

Dumpling update:

I've had the beef and onion ones again at work, and I had left overs. Yay!  I also had some at the Cantonese restaurant..they had a shrimp on top xD