Picked up my Brazilian visa!

26.12.2015

I arrived in Beijing at 5 a.m. as usual, but my host's girlfriend Joanne wasn't going to meet me until 10. I ended up spending most of the week with her, not Jay, her boyfriend, and the one who actually offered his place to me in the first place.

So, I killed some time by walking to the Temple of Heaven park. Some people say this place is the other symbol of China, after the Great Wall of course.

As I was walking, I got a text from Joanne with directions to her place. It was quite far away, so I left immediately. She met me at the subway station and we took a bus to her house, way out in the suburbs. We started talking about boys and she told me she was breaking up with Jay. That explained the switch in hosts. We prattled on all morning as she made lunch for me.

I was super anxious about going to the embassy to pick up my visa from the Brazilian embassy, so I left quickly after we were done. There had been a terror alert for that area in the days around Christmas, so I just wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible.

Of course, when I got there, my visa was ready and there was nothing at all to worry about on the terrorist front, or on the immigration front. I was extremely happy that my mission was finally accomplished and I was free to go to South America!

I got myself a Dairy Queen blizzard with durian cheesecake to celebrate. Joanne was working nearby, so I wandered around the mall until she was finished. I got my eyebrows done and met Jay at McDonald's. Joanne soon followed.

We had dinner at Sizzler, a real American import, which had a real salad bar. I ate so much salad I couldn't even start to eat my burger. Oh well, it ended up being my lunch on the train home. Ha. I don't usually enjoy these chain restaurants but it was a welcome change from the norm.

The service was also astounding. After getting our meal, I mumbled "No ketchup?" and two seconds later it appeared! I don't know how the waitress did that, but it was quite the feat. Nobody else had ketchup, so she must've heard me say that, like a little condiment angel.

After dinner we just went home and I went straight to bed, exhausted and exhilarated about my future life in Brazil!

Pre-train mussels