The Uncarved Blog

It’s really true that there is no place like home. Whether it’s a dumpy little house in a bad neighborhood (been there), or a spacious place in the suburbs (been there, too), it’s good to have a place to call your home. No matter where, or what, your home is, there is something comforting about having that place to return to, and knowing you can rest, relax, and…well…be at home in it.

Unfortunately, we still have no idea where our home will be once we get to China. I received an initially somewhat distressing email today from my contact person at Nankai University. I had written her to ask a couple of questions, basically about Ben living in the dorms with me, and about how much it would cost for him to live there too. I also asked about the difficulty of us moving in on August 17. She suggested there would be some kind of “visa problem” if we came to Tianjin before September 1, and that we would not be able to move in to the foreign student dorms if we came at that time. She also suggested that this “visa problem” would prohibit me from being able to register with the school.

I was pretty distressed and confused after reading this email. What she was saying sounded much more severe than anything I had expected, and thanks to the very little information she actually provided in the email, it wasn’t very well-explained or informative, either. So I felt a bit panicked. And I began trying to find out if we could change our travel plans. And I started frantically emailing my brother for help and advice. It was a messy 30 minutes there, to say the least.

However, I was able to catch up with my brother on IM, and after chatting with him a bit, I don’t think an actual “visa problem” will exist. If I have a visa (which I will on Monday) then that’s all there is to it: I can legally be in the country as a student. She may be referring to the fact that we will need to register with the Public Security Bureau very quickly after arrival, and that they aren’t expecting my arrival as a student until the beginning of September. And there is still the possibility that we won’t be allowed to move into the dorms on August 17, which is when we plan to arrive.

So, we are in the process of doing a bit more research (through Ben’s employer) into the possibility of not living on campus, but rather getting an apartment near campus. Meanwhile, my brother is going over to the school on Monday to find out some additional information.

And in the meantime, we are waiting to find out something about the place we will soon call home.