After being accepted as a Fogarty Clinical Research Scholar to go work in Shanghai, China, actually getting to China has been quite a process. To get my student visa, I originally sent my passport to a company in DC that apparently had never gotten a student visa for China before because they kept asking me for more information, signatures, and eventually... a health examination. I spoke to a previous Fogarty scholar that said I would need the health examination in China, but not before. And if I do it before, I'll almost for sure have to do it again in China anyways since I probably won't have completed everything correctly. So I got a refund from the first company and sent my visa to MyChinaVisa.com. If you need a visa for China, send it to them. They were incredible! Anytime I called they answered right away and knew the answer to my question without even having to put me on hold. It's quite apparent that they are very specialized and have an excellent, knowledgeable staff. Literally, I sent the passport to them, they brought it to the Chinese consulate and a few days later after processing, it was shipped to my house. I really celebrated when I finally got my visa since it took almost a MONTH (all due to the first bad company).
Then, after I got my visa, I got my flight to China. Everything seemed to be in order and some students from the Shanghai Cancer Institute (where I'll be working) were going to pick me up. But then, in the Detroit airport, my flight ended up being delayed for 7 hours!!!!! People boarded the plane TWICE and had to deplane due to a water leak in the plane. I was quite stressed since I didn't know if anyone would now be able to meet me in the airport in Shanghai and I didn't have the hotel name and address written in Chinese, so I didn't know if I could tell a cab driver where to go. I kept imagining myself sleeping in the airport waiting for the morning.
Luckily, I arrived in China around 12:40 am (6 hours after I was supposed to arrive). I went through customs and immigration and the students were there to meet me! I've never had someone waiting for me with my name written on a piece of paper and finally that moment came for me! We took a cab to my hotel, they helped me get my massive suitcases in the hotel and now I'm safe and sound. From what I saw of the city, it looks great! I can't wait to explore and find a place to live. I think I'm going to have a great 10 months here!
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This blog will document my experiences living and traveling in Asia during my 10 months in Shanghai, China as a Fogarty Clinical Research Scholar.
This blog will document my experiences living and traveling in Asia during my 10 months in Shanghai, China as a Fogarty Clinical Research Scholar.
4 comments:
This all sounds so fantastic! I hope you continue to write more!? I mean...I think you were the first person I know to ever have a travel blog, message board, etc.
Rock!
Felicidades Emily!! voy a estar muy pendiente de tus aventuras en China, estoy segura de que tu estancia va a ser inolvidable!! Abrazos!!!
I'm really glad that the cost of 4 years of a bachelors at MSU, 2 years of a MPH at UofM and all the incidentals incurred while living in Alabama could culminate into you having the experience of someone waiting for you at the airport with your name on a piece of paper, who says higher education isn't worth the cost? :-p Good luck in China Emily!
Emily! This is such a great idea to have a china blog. Now, hopefully they will not censor your wild writings, JK, had to throw out one commie joke though ;)This will be such a good way to keep up with all your adventures over the next 10 mos in China...can't wait to read about it all!
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