A bit of a pickle

Today is the first day of our crazy summer adventure, as evidenced by the fact that it is Monday morning and I am not at work. I have already quit my job so we can begin this hullabaloo.

Original summer plan goes something like this: 1. Go to New Mexico for Sarah's wedding. 2. Go to Washington to visit Kevin's family. 3. Fly to China for a 3-month internship, Kevin at a law firm, me tutoring in English. 4. Come back to Utah in August.

Sounds simple enough, eh? Yes, that's what we thought. That's why we went full speed ahead with our plans.

Now here comes a nice wrench thrown into the plan: About two weeks ago, China changed its laws on getting visas. You've always needed a visa to enter China, and it is no problem to get a 30-day tourist visa. But if you wanted to work, you needed an F visa, which required a letter of invitation from the company you'd work for, and which we have.

So we go to apply for our visas, and the consulate informs us that the laws have changed. You can no longer get a working visa by simply submitting your passport and letter of invitation, having an agent (usually a company in San Francisco or Houston) physically take your paperwork through the consulate, and FedExing it to you in time for your flight. No, that would be too easy. Now they've changed the laws so it is infinitely harder to get a short-term (less than 6 months) work visa. If we were staying for more than 6 months, it would be doable. But since we are not, even if we got the coveted working visa, it would be good for 6 months, but only 1 month at a time. Basically, it would be a 1-month multiple entry visa. You could go to China, stay for a month, leave the country, come back to China, stay a month, leave again, ad infinum.

We were planning on doing that. They said, "Jump;" we said, "How high?" They said, "Oh, just kidding. You can't jump this high, so we won't even tell you."

So why, if the Friendlies from the Beijing Olympics have names that spell out, "Beijing Welcomes You," are they making it so freaking hard for anyone to come to their stupid country? Aha, I have an answer as well as a frustrated question.

What does China fear more than anything during this Olympic season? Yes, protesters. Heaven forbid anyone should use this time of friendly competition for anything but medal-winning athletic feats. But if you think about it, which demographic group would be most likely to protest? Hmm... could it possibly be college-age me-types who have the mobility to just take of for China for the whole summer? The age that just throws itself passionatly into random causes such as saving whales and freeing Tibet? Hmm... that sounds a lot like my demographic.

However, I don't want to go protest in China. I have better things to do. I love China! I love Beijing! I want to spend the summer there with Kevin working at a law firm and me teaching English. I want to see my friends who are still living there. I want to buy custom-made clothes and cheap DVDs. For heaven's sake, I just want to go.

Hmm... maybe protesting is a good idea after all.

New plan for the summer: We will go to San Francisco and picket the Chinese consulate. Not for freedom for Tibet or anything worthwhile like that. Nope, we'll be protesting the new visa requirements.