My bad China days are normally the culmination of lots of little stuff that just adds up.  But it will normally start with either driving someplace, or constantly having to avoid moterbikes as I walk down a sidewalk.

I was walking to my teacher placement office.  I carried my laptop computer on one shoulder and my book satchel on the other.  Four young men on bicycles went by me in front of the unemployment office at high speed.  They each struck me on the hands with sticks.  My hands and arms were black and blue (brused) and swelled up.  Waiting for a bus, a Chinese man walked into me and said, "He has a Chinese job."  His wife said, "No, He is a teacher."  I had problems moving to a new teaching position from Hanzhou (cold city) to Beijing.

Okay, today has been a bad China day for me.  And it has barely started.  But here is a list of the tiny (and not-so-tiny) stuff that happened to piss me off.  And yes, I know most of the stuff is my own stupid fault.

This morning I needed to go to the main police station downtown to apply for a new visa.

I got my folder full of paperwork needed ready and started to head out the door.  Then I remembered that I needed to take in the laundry drying on the balcony.  So I put the paperwork down on the table and went to get the laundry.

While I was on the balcony, I paused to look at the main reason I bought this apartment.  I have a beautiful view of the last natural lychee grove in Guangdong from my balcony.  Lots of green trees, I absolutely love the view.

That is when I noticed that a developer had started to remove every last tree so they could turn my view from trees to apartment buildings.  Bastards.  I had that view for almost 5 years now.  Bastards.  All of them.  Bastards the lot.

But I managed to press down the anger from seeing this violation and picked up my pack of papers and started the 90 minute taxi ride to the visa office.

At the visa office I waited for another 90 minutes till my number was finally called.  I then handed the officer all of my paperwork and she said, "Passport please?"

That is when I realized what an idiot I was.  I had left my passport at home.  I had all the paperwork with me (marriage license, translation of marriage license, wife's ID & Hukou, copies of my passport pages, etc...) but no passport.  I am such a moron.

So then I had to make the 90 minute taxi ride back to my home.  When I arrived I found that I had left my laptop on and unplugged.  When I restarted it, the spreadsheet I had been working on for 8+ hours the night before was gone.  I had forgotten to save it.  8+ hours of financial forcasts gone.

What a day.  So pardon me while I open a beer and wait for a plane to crash into my home.

Everytime I have to renew my spousing visa is definitely a bad day....