Visas and Being Sick

The focus of my blog today should be pretty obvious from the title. I've finally fell ill (dag nab it) and I've got some very good information about getting visas.

Sunday I woke up with a slight sore throat. The weather here is changing, last week it was lovely this week is cold and dreary. Spring is on it's way but with that comes colds. During the night on Sunday I woke up thanks to one of our neighbor's windows that kept banging shut. My sore throat had gotten worse and it took me a while to go back to sleep. Monday I felt ehhh, but figured I'd just take some of my cold meds and I'd be fine. Wrong. By Tuesday morning I felt like crap. I had a major headache, terrible sore throat, and just felt icky. I tried to go by a pharmacy to pick up some cough drops before my 9am class, but apparently NO ONE is open before 9am. I ended up at McDonald's so I could get some orange juice. So far I haven't been able to find any fresh OJ in the supermarkets.

I barely made it through my 9am. After class my friend and I took the bus back to Macao and she took me to a pharmacy and showed me what she'd gotten when she had a sore throat. It was traditional chinese medicine, and I couldn't take it then, so I decided to wait and pick it up later. Bad move. Went to my next class, which was Cantonese for foreigners, and felt so bad by the end of it I was actually putting my head down in class. And my friend informed me to "Go Home. You look terrible." Gots to love friends.

So I skipped my last class, picked up my chinese meds, and went back to crash. The medicine I got is called YI HONG TONG PEI PA KOA. You take 1 tablespoon three times daily, and it's as thick as mollases. It didn't seem to help much at first, but when I woke up today I felt so much better. I've taken it twice so far today and I can tell it's helping a lot. In a strange way, I also really like taking something that is traditionally Chinese. The ingredients listed on the side show that it contains: Snake Bile, Birds Nest and Sea Coconut just to name a few ingredients.

That along with some Sudafed and some ibuprohen (only when my headache was really bad) had seemed to work. I don't feel 100% better today, but I think by tomorrow I should be back to normal!

Lessons learned:

1. Watch out for when the seasons change.
2. Try traditional medicine. It works and it's cheaper.
3. Sleep!
4. Ask at the pharmacy for suggestions. They may not understand english, but pantomiming should work. : )
5. Don't freak out about being sick in another country. Everyone gets sick.
6. Hot tea is your friend.
7. And last but not least, don't expect any store to be open before 10am.

Visas!

I'm very lucky in the fact that I have a Visa to visit Mainland China. And my advice to any student planning to study abroad to Macao is to get your visa before you leave the US. Ask your study abroad advisor, mine was Sarah Langston, for information on a company called G3 Visas. It costs around $190 for a 12 month Tourist Visa. With this Visa you'll be able to enter Mainland as many times as you want for that specified 12 months. I got mine in January 2010, so mine is January 2010-January 2011.

If that sounds expensive, and you still want to wait till you arrive in China listen to me: DON'T!

When you arrive in Macau you'll have to apply for a Macau resident Visa. You will not be able to obtain a Visa for Mainland China until you have the Macau Visa. The problem for US citizens is that for some reason the paperwork is different, and we have to wait to receive ours. While most of the other exchange students received their visas that day, Jatana (the other USC exchange student), I and the Taiwanese students have to wait until April 4th to get ours. This means that Jatana, can't even applyfor her visa for Mainland until April 4th, which means she has to put off making travel plans for times like Easter Break.

Once she does receive her visa, she still has to Get a testimonial from her parents saying she can go to Mainland. This is required by IFT, and all exchange students, even the ones who are 26 YEARS OLD, have to get it! I don't understand why in the world we need this. Once her parents send that, the school will approve it and issue a testimonial, which costs 50MOP, and then she can go apply for the Visa. Once she has applied it takes from 4-5 working days to complete. With the crazy hours the embassy has just say it takes a week.

Hopefully this will be helpful to all students planning on coming to Macau. Macau is a great place, just remember GET YOUR VISA BEFORE YOU LEAVE! It will save you so much time and effort.

Signing off for today! Time to go grocery shopping!