Here it is, Tuesday night and I am now 4 days without a Passport. Yes, that is right, I lost my passport over the weekend. I believe I was jinxed by the local authorities. We had a meeting on Thursday last week with the local government immigration folks and they informed us one of the worse things that you can do is miss place or lose your passport. The last thing he said in the meeting was that you do not want to have to get a new passport while in china. Well, sure enough, I have had a passport for probably 30 years now and never lost my passport, until now that is. Now I have to figure out what I need to do to get a new one. I am not even sure where to start. I guess pleading for forgiveness with the local police would work. At least I hope so. You see, in China, once you land here you have 48 hours to register with the local police. They want to know where you are at all times. Well, come to find out, they also want to get an updated copy of your passport, visa, work permit and residence permit every month. And yes, you guessed it, they asked for that today. What are the odds. The first thing my apartment manager asked me was did I inform the local police that I had lost the passport. I said no but I was trying to figure out what my next steps were. She then said..."oh, good luck" I am not sure how to take that.
You see, there is only two places I could have lost it. I had to take it to a mega store and show them the passport in order to get a club membership. I handed it to the person at the front desk, she took my information and gave it back to me, I think. I could not be sure once I started thinking about it. I then got the card, went in the store and did some shopping. After that, I came out, put the goods in the car and the driver (not mine but the people I was with) took us back to the apartments. I sat in the front seat. Once we got home, I took my stuff up to my apartment and put it away. I called Kathy, ate a quick bite, changed my shorts to my workout clothes and left to play badminton. I never put the shorts I was wearing back on since. Well, I decided Monday morning to grab my passport and take it with me so I could register at the Intel health clinic. Needless to say I couldn't find it. I tore the apartment apart before I went to work. I am thinking the maid probably thought I had the apartment ransacked. I left for work. I have since been trying to locate the passport. The driver went back to the store for me on Monday and ask them if they had the passport. Neither he nor I could remember if they had actually given it back to me. He called me later to say they didn't have it.
I decided to stop by the store after work and see for myself. You know, there is a bit of a communications gap here for me. They informed myself and my driver that they did not have it. I said OK and I went back to my apartment to look again and hoped maybe the housekeeper found it while she cleaned the place up. Nope, it didn't happen.
I have a good driver that is looking out for me. He decided today to go back to the store and request to view the video recording of the front desk. He was told no and that only police are allowed to. He was persistent. He went to a higher level. Well, they eventually let him view the videos from Saturday. He told me when he picked me up tonight from work that I did in fact put the passport back in my pocket. The front right to be exact. He also informed me what I was wearing on Saturday. I have since found out that they have over 80,000 cameras around the city. They know where you are!!! Well, for the third time I tore my apartment apart. I have looked everywhere including the refrigerator, washing machine and clothes I didn't even wear yet since I have been here. No luck. There is one more place I am going to check again and that is in Brian's and Barb's drivers car. It could have fallen out of my front pocket and fell on the side of the seat or under the front seat. I will look in the morning again.
If I don't find it I believe it will be good reading for another entry on this blog. What else do I have to do? I mean, it is not like I am working all the time or worse yet, going out every night and having fun right? Anyway, I will keep you posted as to how long and what I have to do to get another one. I hope I can quick enough to be able to come home for a couple weeks in the end of November.
Wish me luck
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Wow, I think I know what your apt. manager meant when she said, "Good luck." How will you get the visas replaced? Good luck! And in defense of my late night Skype call - I have been in recovery now for over four weeks - four weeks of virtually NO activity. I temporarily went stir crazy where, in my world, the sun DID seem to rise in the west. Saw it with my own eyes.
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