Happy Run

New Asia College hosted the Happy Run to fundraise for its scholarships. Dr. Man, the secretary of New Asia and a totally awesome guy, really, really wanted us to run. So Una and I signed up and Kelly, one of the Yale-China teachers in Guangzhou, ran in Rachel's stead. I saw several of my students in the pre-run registration and they seemed quite surprised that I was running. Everyone started off at a dead sprint, even though the route was 7.5k and only the first part was downhill. So I passed my students walking about 5 minutes into the run. I'm not sure what the proper student-teacher ettiquete is in that situation.
Kelly and I ran the whole 7.5k together in the mid-day heat and managed to finish in good time. Dr. Man finished just behind us--he's tough like that. Since Kelly and I registered as staff, I came in 4th and she came in 5th in the staff category. So we won prizes at the awards ceremony. The whole event was hot and tiring, but pretty funny. And I got a free t-shirt. I'm just a sucker for college gear, I guess. I wore my Saybrook shirt:

Visa

I finally got my 6-month, multiple entry visa to China today. Since the United States decided to use the PATRIOT Act to deny or delay visas to Chinese graduate students, China has retaliated by making it much more difficult for Americans to get visas to China. It is more expensive than it used to be and the coveted 6-month, multiple entry visa is harder to get. I tried to go through several travel agents, but they kept telling me that English teachers could not get multiple entry visas, only double-entry tourist visas. I waited at the visa office once for 2 hours, but when it became clear that my number would not be called before closing time, I left. I managed to find a time when I only had to wait for an hour last week, so today I was able to pick up my passport. Success is sweet and I plan to celebrate my triumph over bureaucracy by going to Shenzhen this weekend.