So my first Testing day and it was a 'test' just to get to the testing class

Scott(me),  Sam  and  Danny

Friday November 5, 2010


I have a tourist visa to visit here in China. Problem is I was only able to get a 30 day visa. The school had told me that they would help me extend this visa. So my visa expires no the 7th and I was told I had to go to get my visa renewed this morning so i can stay. Problem was today is grading. I even had a form i had to do with a partner and if i am not here HE can't test and level up so I felt really bad. I was told that If i didnt go renew the visa I would be kicked out of China or stuck in a chinese prison! (Were they kidding? I was not willing to find out) They said getting visas takes the whole day so I knew i would not make it back for grading.


My first visa was only good for 30 days. I got my new visa for 3 months then I renew it again.


Woke up at 7 had breakfast then went to get ready to go into town for the visa. My friends Kyle and Oruan was going with me to renew their Visas too. Jennifer, the lady who works in the office, went with us to do all the paper work.


We went to the bank first. Had to exchange american money and get 1000 yuan which is about 150 US dollars. The price of the new visa was 990 yuan.


Went to the police station I'm not sure why but we had to wait about 30 minutes while Jennifer did some paper work. When she finished we had to drive an hour to Yantai to do more visa paper work. I'm not sure how the process works I just went along for the ride. When we got in the taxi to head to Yantai Jennifer said we had to go back to academy because she had to send a message. I was so happy because if we go back to the academy I can make it back for grading!


We made it back to the academy before grading started. I ran up stairs changed into my kung fu outfit I bought at the tailors and went down to find my partner to tell him I am here. Gertle was glad I made it back so we could do our sparring form. Grading was very long. A lot of people were grading from the Shaolin group. Only four people were grading from my group. I was very nervous but i still went up in front of all the students and teachers. I graded and passed!!


After grading we had to go back to town to finish our visas. On the way to the visa place I brought my iphone and kyle and I played" angry birds" which is an game app on my phone. Helped killed time in the hour car ride into town. When we got to the visa place we were at there for over two hours. Then had to drive an hour back to the academy. It was very long.


Sam also graded and passed. When we got back I wanted to go celebrate grading. . So Sam, Danny, and I went to go get dinner in Yantai and stay at a 'bath house' in Muping for the night. We had much fun at dinner. There was a stage where the performers would sing and dance. I told Sam we got to get up on stage and dance. So when they played regular music, I dragged sam up there and he danced one platform and I danced on the other. All the chinese people looked at us like WOW FOREINGERS!


After that we went to the bath house. The place is huge. It is like a big spa. Had showers, pools, a massage room and a place to sleep. Danny had stayed in this bath house one night while I was in the hospital. While Danny and Sam went to sleep, I went to pools and got my body massaged. Then I went to sleep feeling fresh and relaxed. And No there were NO girls working at this bath house. It really was a bath house. The only worker I saw was a guy who had a big fire hose thing who would hose off guys taking showers if they wanted him to. I guess like a 'water massage'. In the morning we went shopping a bit and headed back to the academy on Saturday morning.


-Scott