On the far outskirts of town, I suited up along with several other foreigners. In our hospital gowns, we stood in a straight line. No one talked or broke a smile. We were each giving a chart and told to move from one room to the next. First stop – blood. As I sat in the hall, waiting my turn I observed the process. Come in, sit down, draw two vials of blood – next please. The only problem was the nurse only changed her gloves every fifth person. I needed a plan – I need fresh gloves. Should I switch seats and let a few people ahead of me or should I hope the nurse spoke some english. I was my turn. I was number 4. The english did not work but the hand gesturing did and without emotion she changed her gloves. I’m sure she thought I was crazy – maybe I was but I was happy to get my way.

Next, the dreaded chest X-ray. People that know me know that I am not keen on X-rays, who needs the radiation – well the technician did not see it my way and my negotiation skills were wasted on a non english speaking tech who could care less about my lofty disdain for the procedure. The eye exam, physical and ultra sound were uneventful and although listed on the chart as a required exam, I am happy to report no gender specific examinations were necessary.

I received my results about 3 weeks later – you will be all happy to know that I have no disease which is highly dangerous to public health. Step one – Health exam complete.

Step two – Marriage licence – The Chinese seem love stamps. Everything needs to be stamped and stamped again. Our attorney informed us we needed to take our original marriage certificate to the US embassy so that a sworn affidavit could be prepared and later translated to attest to the validity of our 25+ year marriage. Several lines, stamps and hours later we were done.

Last step – Spousal support statement. Yes, my better half was required to sign a document that he will take full financial responsibility for me. I’m not even going to comment on this one.

Passport photos, a few more trips to bureaucratic offices, more paper work and voila I’m in – Residency permit obtained allowing me to stay in China until December 2016.

It’s been 37 days and still no stuff.   Thirty seven long days of wearing the same black pants, black button down and black sweater.  Of course I’m being dramatic, I do have a few dresses, plenty of underpinnings and shoes but the rest of the wardrobe, well its hard to say where it is right now.  I recently asked for an update and this is what I heard -” It’s the holidays –  your shipment left late, was bumped somewhere,  and were looking into that right now”.  It did finally made it to China on Dec 31st.  We are now at the mercy of the Chinese custom officials.  We hope that they will be able to process it before the Chinese New Year that occurs at the end of the month.  I have been told that the entire country shuts down for a week.   Keep your fingers crossed.

If it takes much longer I may need to do a little shopping.

All is new in Shanghai.  In fact its hard to find things built before 1990.  It is the largest populated city in china and the largest city by population in the world with nearly 24 million people.  That’s a lot of people and a lot of buildings.  This is a model of the city.

All is new for us too.  Everything is so different here, the culture, the food, the water and air quality.  It’s going to take some time to get use to it all.   We are looking forward to the adventure and cant wait to share it with you.