Day 4 - More headless chicken
Apr. 11th, 2008 07:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanithryudo7 PM local time - At the Shanghai train station
I will refer to the adage about how plans never last past the first engagement of the enemy. We'd thought we'd had everything planned out for today ahead of time. But apparently we were wrong.
Firstly, while exiting the training in Nanjing on Wednesday night, we'd thought ahead to buy the ticket back to Shanghai on the Friday morning 8:00 train. Once we got there at 10:15, however, we found we'd miscalculated how much time we'd spent on the road/subway to and from the Entry/Exit Bureau. By the time we'd finished obtaining our loss reports and getting our passport photos taken, and hurried over to the embassy, it was already past 11:30, which is when they close for the lunch period from 11:30 - 13:30. So we also didn't get a chance to even ask the questions we had regarding the passport application.
Secondly, because we couldn't get clarification for the application process, we didn't know if we also needed to provide proof of citizenship like the forms mentioned, and what date on the plane ticket would qualify us for an emergency passport (which could be issued in a day). In order to be safe rather than sorry, we ended up spending the next 2-3 hours: (1) making a very expensive long distance call to my dad to find our certifications of naturalization, scanning and emailing them over along with the e-ticket confirmation of our return tickets on the 26th; (2) then finding a web cafe to print all this stuff out. (Also took the chance to send a quick email to my company while we were at it to let them know there might be delays on my return. No, didn't get a chance to do anything online other than that since we were pressed for time, so I'm still experiencing net withdrawal.)
Thirdly, the above ultimately turned out to be a waste of time and money as the embassy clerks didn't ask for proof of citizenship, and told us we didn't qualify for emergency passport. *hates* Although they did take a photocopy (of the photo-printout) of the certifications when offered, which made me feel slightly better.
Fourthly, by the time we were finally done at the embassy, it was about 3:30 PM (their closing time) and we still hadn't eaten past breakfast. So we grabbed a bite to eat and wandered around a few stores/bought a a few more clothes/etc. In retrospect this was a bad idea as we forgot to account for the much higher number of people travelling long distance on Fridays after working hours. As it turned out, by the time we got to the train station at about 6 PM, there were no fast (two hour) trains left for anywhere, and the tickets we ended up buying were for the 9:00 PM train which also takes 4 hours to get to Nanjing... meaning we'll be getting home at 1:30 AM. Joy.
Karma owes me. It really does.
I will refer to the adage about how plans never last past the first engagement of the enemy. We'd thought we'd had everything planned out for today ahead of time. But apparently we were wrong.
Firstly, while exiting the training in Nanjing on Wednesday night, we'd thought ahead to buy the ticket back to Shanghai on the Friday morning 8:00 train. Once we got there at 10:15, however, we found we'd miscalculated how much time we'd spent on the road/subway to and from the Entry/Exit Bureau. By the time we'd finished obtaining our loss reports and getting our passport photos taken, and hurried over to the embassy, it was already past 11:30, which is when they close for the lunch period from 11:30 - 13:30. So we also didn't get a chance to even ask the questions we had regarding the passport application.
Secondly, because we couldn't get clarification for the application process, we didn't know if we also needed to provide proof of citizenship like the forms mentioned, and what date on the plane ticket would qualify us for an emergency passport (which could be issued in a day). In order to be safe rather than sorry, we ended up spending the next 2-3 hours: (1) making a very expensive long distance call to my dad to find our certifications of naturalization, scanning and emailing them over along with the e-ticket confirmation of our return tickets on the 26th; (2) then finding a web cafe to print all this stuff out. (Also took the chance to send a quick email to my company while we were at it to let them know there might be delays on my return. No, didn't get a chance to do anything online other than that since we were pressed for time, so I'm still experiencing net withdrawal.)
Thirdly, the above ultimately turned out to be a waste of time and money as the embassy clerks didn't ask for proof of citizenship, and told us we didn't qualify for emergency passport. *hates* Although they did take a photocopy (of the photo-printout) of the certifications when offered, which made me feel slightly better.
Fourthly, by the time we were finally done at the embassy, it was about 3:30 PM (their closing time) and we still hadn't eaten past breakfast. So we grabbed a bite to eat and wandered around a few stores/bought a a few more clothes/etc. In retrospect this was a bad idea as we forgot to account for the much higher number of people travelling long distance on Fridays after working hours. As it turned out, by the time we got to the train station at about 6 PM, there were no fast (two hour) trains left for anywhere, and the tickets we ended up buying were for the 9:00 PM train which also takes 4 hours to get to Nanjing... meaning we'll be getting home at 1:30 AM. Joy.
Karma owes me. It really does.
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Date: 2008-04-14 03:22 am (UTC)Anyway, does sound hellish, although I don't understand why the embassy didn't consider your passports requests not applicable for emergency passports. What asses. But I've noticed that embassies are always asses.
Do you guys have running water? Or a public bath? Time for a hot, hot bath to relax yourself.