Make Your Summer Break Count

There may be a few things that China and North America have in common and one is Type-A workaholic people who slave at the office during summer holidays. Good for them, but I've about had it up to here with the nagging bullshit or other jealous comments from these ppl pointing out the fact that I'm on summer holidays and not working like they are. Even retired people have a hard time with this reality. My father is in this category and made a smart move by skedaddling out of the city for a break on a remote island.

For a similar reason I'm off to Thailand pronto where the culture works against workaholics and it is considered normal to enjoy a holiday there at any time of day or year.

Regretably I had little choice but to take of a bunch of tasks and do courses over the summer and also join the stupid rat race on both continents for a brief period of time. But now I've gotten everything done and will be on summer holiday mode at last.

For all teachers who may be reading this, pay no attention to the comments from the ignoramuses who may jab away at your well earned 2 months off. At the same time, it helps to schedule your break in a laid back situation where others are also on holiday. Going back home, ie to Vancouver etc. is not necessarily the best choice for summer even though most teachers do this. If you want extra work during summer, OK that's an option. If you want to travel I highly recommend it.

Keeping with this whole theme I will be taking a monthly blog break. See you all in September.

How Cell Phones and Gym Memberships Work

In China that is.

Following up on an earlier post where I discussed the frustrations involved in the nature of contracts and locked in agreements for these things in North America, let's now look at how the Chinese do it.

Put simply there are no contracts for both cell phones and gym memberships and everything operates on a pay-as-you-go system. The catch (if you can call it that) is you first pay the whole lump sum up front.

For example if you want a one year gym membership you pay the cash up front. In this way it doesn't matter if you "break the contract" because you've already put out the cash.

The North American system works on credit where you use first and pay later, on a monthly basis. The Chinese system is the antithesis of credit where you pay up front first then use the services.

No wonder the Chinese are used to the idea of buying everything in cash because that's how things work. The concept of consumer credit is something I'm rather opposed to. Even though I use a credit card, I pay back in full right away and it`s only for convenience and necessity for some things that I have it.

The western cultural CONCEPT of loans and credit and borrowing money is something I am opposed to viscerally.

You See Cheng Guan, You Run

Cheng guan is Chinese for urban management officer. These are the nemesis of any Shanghainese street vendor, of which there are many selling anything from food to DVDs to watches. Personally I can't stand the ruthless cheng guan and would side with the vendors any time. Cheng guan have a terrible reputation from the newspapers. Their sole job, it seems, is to shut the vendors down and confiscate their products.

The vendors have a system where they can pack up their stuff in a flash, run, and hide in a matter of SECONDS!

Here's how it works based on what I saw while buying DVDs from them. The lead seller has a point person or a watchman contact who sees the cheng guan coming from a distance and gives the signal. "Lai le" here they come.

The seller then folds the product in a portable suitcase, closes it, then ducks into a crowded store. The cheng guan walks by and sees nothing. 15 seconds has elapsed in the process.

While this happened I played right along, stashed my DVD in a laptop case, followed the seller inside the store, gave her the money, got some change, and was on my merry way.

Then I looked back a minute later and found it was back to business as usual.

It's Hot!

With a temperature of already 34 degrees at only 9:30 in the morning, I'm making the call that it's gonna top 40 degrees for the high today.  There's no question about that.  Actually I don't mind the heat here in Shangers, thanks to air conditioning.  This week has been rather relaxing and the best one of the summer.  Ironically I've been doing housework and maintaining the new house I've moved into on the south side of the city.

 

Actually I love this house and the neighorhood!!  It's far enough away from downtown so as to be cheaper and less crowded, yet it only takes 30 minutes tops to reach the downtown part of the city on a very convenient subway line.  That, or the motorcycle.  Within walking distance there is a Starbucks, McDs, many Chinese restaurants, and an air-conditioned shopping mall.  Around that, which is typical for Asia, you will find many other small shops and vendors, etc.   The apartment itself is in a cozy little compound with a garden and it feels homey, and the security guards are not arrogant like at my last place.

 

Given the fondness for the house and neighborhood I'm putting a lot of effort into maintaining it and keeping the place clean.  Unfortunately that means a ton of work, but the free time now allows me to do all the tasks at a reasonable pace.  The Blackberry is helping with the organization.  The latest thing has been to install ADSL (a delay on that, argh!!) and figure out how to work a Chinese washing machine with Chinese laundry detergent. 

 

It's easy enough to get the hang of, literally, as I hang my clothes outside like the locals do.  It's more efficient than using a dryer.  Frankly, who needs a dryer when it's 40 degrees out.

 

Meanwhile, there are a zillion more things to do with the unpacking and sorting out all the junk that was moved over on a motorcycle last month.

Steep Leisure

Frankly that's how I'd sum up Vancouver in two words.

In keeping with the theme here, it became apparent during a conversation with a friend while in Vancouver that the city may appear to be laid-back and entice visitors with its wonderful livability and natural scenery. But let me tell you something, the residents pay a price for their Vancouver leisure and it is extremely steep.

With all the work that goes into maintaining a lifestyle to have access to this leisure, the residents are really in a rat race and the city is actually quite frantic and stressful. In my opinion, for a working person it`s a terrible place to live and the comparison with Los Angeles is somewhat apt.

Nearly everyone I connected with over the past few weeks was working multiple jobs or otherwise busy as hell during the summer months. Mind you so was I in a bid to get as much done as possible before heading for the exits.

Actually the trip cost me an entire months salary in total, including course tuitions, now that I've finished my accounting. My boss is graciously going to reimburse $1000 for the AP Calculus workshop and he already reimbursed my return air tickets from Shangers so I shouldn't complain too much.

Nonetheless Thailand is still a go as I just found out my employer promised a completion bonus for last year`s contract which was finished successfully. This will in effect be a one month's salary and I'm obviously grateful.

But this all just makes me wonder that the ordinary working Joe who doesn't get these bonuses and reimbursements somehow manages to scrape by in Vancouver while doing his job at Tim Hortons serving coffee or working at some other menial service job. How the hell does he survive like that? I would honestly rather not care to know.

The Vancouver Trip Killed My Finances

Today's weather:  High = 35  Low = 28

Sunny

 

Maybe it's the world's most livable city for the rich, but Vancouver surely has to be one of the most expensive places in the world to live.  I honestly don't know how ordinary people can make it there.  If they are like me, they would head for the exits and join the brain drain.

 

Right now I'm doing some accounting of how much the recent Vancouver trip set me back financially and I'm having a hard time digesting my breakfast as a result of what I'm seeing.  To say this trip was expensive is an understatement.  Consequently, the proposed trip to Tibet that I had for the second half of the summer will have to be put on hold, and I may even have to cancel Thailand as well (which was the back up plan).  Hanging around in Shanghai for another month wouldn't be so bad, actually.

 

The shocking part was that I was doing everything I could to cut back on costs in Vancouver, knowing in advance that the trip would be expensive.  Thanks to the help of friends and family, I was able to crash at various peoples' houses and thus save on the biggest cost of all:  accomodation.  I didn't drive much at all, and mainly relied on bicycles and public transit to get around the whole 3 weeks.  But even with these measures, the trip still broke the bank.

 

Friends, family, and I had ample discussions during the trip about the high cost of living in Vancouver.  Everyone I talked to agreed that it was an expensive place to live.  But despite that, there was no indication in any of the conversations that people wanted to move out of Vancouver or seek a more affordable place to live. 

 

This attitude by residents of 'suck it up, we live in such a beautiful place, so we pay for it' is in direct contrast to what the newspapers are reporting about the brain drain.  That is to say, salaries cannot keep up with the cost of living, and so companies are losing talent, by their employees moving out of Vancouver to other locations that are more affordable.  In one example, a guy commutes to Calgary weekly for his job that pays moe salary with less taxes.  He then flies back to Vancouver on the weekend to live in a rental apartment where he has arranged a deal.

 

It is rather similar to the arrangement I had 3 years ago where I lived in Shanghai for the weekends and worked in a neighboring province. 

 

More to the point, it wouldn't be all that different from a guy who works in the USA and commutes back to the Vancouver area on a daily basis.  Or the guy who has a house on Bowen Island where it's cheaper and commutes into downtown Vancovuer on a water taxi that only takes 40 minutes and costs a good deal for the month.

 

So if guys like this are willing to come back to Vancouver for leisure (including the guy who flies back from Calgary every weekend and still saves money by doing this), then there must be something about the Vancouver lifestyle that he doesn't want to give up, despite the crazy costs.  Maybe it's the outdoor recreation, the coffee culture, the friends, the restaurants, the beautiful scenery, the bicycle lanes, Commerical Drive, or any other number of factors that make the city being #1 in terms of livability.

 

It's not all that different from me flying back every summer from Shanghai.

 

Blackberry to the Rescue

It looks like Blackberry holds the secret to living a more organized life. If only I had got a hold of this device earlier and used it as it`s very powerful. It combines the functions of the conventional personal organizers (paper-based calendar, daytimer, and to-do list) into a more flexible interface that goes along with you as you carry it.

Blackberry has many more features than just personal organizers but I want to focus on 3 features that I've been able to make use of.

First is the calendar and daybook combined. You can flip through the days and view highlights as you would a regular calendar. You can also schedule detailed appointments within a day, timed to the half-hour, and programmed with alarms that let you know when the appointment has arrived.

Next is the task or the to-do list. These are not time-specific like appointments but you can schedule a due date for the tasks if you want and it will warn you when the time is up. You can also "check off" or defer the tasks as you like.

The last part is the idea pad as mentioned earlier. This is basically a scratch pad using the memo feature on the Blackberry where I can write down some idea that comes to mind. Later I can see at a glance what has gone in there and decide what to do with it. For example that idea could turn into an appointment or task as above.

One thing I'm also looking into is how to do `quick lesson plans` on the Blackberry and make it function like a teacher`s daybook. That way if the boss ever asks to see my daybook it would be shown electronically.

With all this in mind, if I ever lost my Blackberry I'd be screwed. No wonder they nickname this thing the Crackberry.

Now This Is Grocery Shopping

The purpose of this post isn't to reveal my shopping habits to the internet but to show how good a deal it is to live in China.

I'm going to post everything in dollars so my Canadian and US readers can eat their hearts out. All the shopping was done at a major supermarket like Walmart (TESCO) and there is no ridiculous sales tax in China like the 12% HST harmonized sales tax that has cursed everyone back in Vancouver. What you see here is what you pay and that applies for all items.

5 pairs of underwear. $3 total
Colgate Toothpaste. 35 cents
2 large clothes racks. $2.80 total
Dust mop. $1.40
200 plastic cups. $2.20
100 paper cups. $1.80
Scouring pad. 30 cents
2 face cloths. $1.50
Toilet cleaner. $2.50
Cabinet cleaner. $2.50
2.8kg Tide powder detergent . $2.50
2L Liquid laundry detergent. $5

Total is approximately $25

Keeping an 'Idea Pad' Handy

With an overall intent to be more organized with tasks and such, conventional methods haven't worked very well for me. That is to say, things like personal organizers, daybooks, and calendars don't really work for me and I've managed without them.

But I remember once from a Toastmasters speech some time ago that keeping an idea pad handy is a useful thing to do. The brain hardly works in a linear way, well at least I know mine doesn't. So what often happens is I'm riding the bus or talking to someone and all of a sudden I think of something useful to do, or a website to check, etc.. One train of thought leads to another in a non-linear way and then I wish I had a dollar for every idea that comes to mind and I quickly forget because I didn't have to sense to write it down.

Well, no longer. I'm going to carry an 'idea notepad' which is really just my blackberry and I jot down the idea that comes right away during a moment of reflection, reading an email, or a conversation.

An example of how this might work is as follows. I'm sitting down at the computer for a long time, now its time for exercise as I feel stiff. Oh that reminds me I need to renew my gym membership but also would be nice to check out fitness classes and other things that Will's Gym (the main competitor) has to offer and compare prices.

The last thing in that train of thought is what gets written down and then implemented as a task. If I don't write it down then it never makes it as far as the action stage.

Sleep Patterns

Today's weather:  High = 38 Low = 28

Sunny

 

There hasn't been a lot of jet lag coming back to Shanghai this time round which is unusual, but great at the same time.  What's interesting is that I'm settling into a dual sleep pattern, which is similar to what I had last year during the school term – and it can be rather productive.

 

The idea is that I get about 6 hours of sleep from 11pm to 5am, and wake up as the sun rises.  Then I take a 2-hour nap in the afternoon from around 4pm to 6pm.  This could work out well for school as it's always an early start, I could beat the rush hour traffic, and most of the work takes place in the morning.  The school day ends around 2pm, then I hit the gym, go home and take a nap – and do lesson prep in the evenings.

 

The need for an afternoon nap may be a lingering effect from the Vancouver time zone, as those hours correspond to the dead of night over there.  At any rate, I find it a lot more productive to take advantage of the morning hours instead of sleeping in. 

 

The 6 hours or night sleep may not be the full 8 hours that the experts suggest you should be getting, but I've found the 6 hours are uninterrupted sleep.  If I attempt to get a full 8 hours continuously, it is a rare thing and the sleep is often interrupted.  So I wonder if the sleep experts would approve this plan, or what they have to say about it.  After all, I'm still getting my 8 hours over the course of a 24 hour period, and it feels more refreshing to do it this way.  

 

On a related note, the sunrise and sunset do not vary much throughout the year at this latitude.  It gets light anywhere from 4:30 to 6:30am, and it gets dark from 5pm to 7pm depending on the year.   The concept of long summer evenings does not apply in Shanghai as the sun goes down quickly after dinner, and there is no lingering twilight, regardless of the season.

 

In Shanghai, we rely on neon lights for the evenings.  The hot weather means that zillions of people are out when the sun goes down and it is more crowded and lively on the streets than you can possibly imagine.

Chinese Instructor: No Shoulder Che

How I'm shaking my head at the irony here. While the recent Pro Ride motorcycle course I took and associated road test in Vancouver emphasized shoulder checks to no avail, I just had a chat with a motorcycle riding instructor in Shanghai and he said NOT to do the shoulder checks. The reason? Safety. The instructor`s point was that with the time taken to do a shoulder check, some other vehicle or person would enter your field of vision and your head would be looking the other way. In that split second you would have an accident. So he tells his students to do what every Shanghainese does already on the roads: Just go ahead and look ahead.

Back in the Big Smoke

Today's weather  (Shanghai)   High = 36 Low = 28

Sunny and sweltering

 

I'm surprised at how quickly I got back here, and also how smoothly the flight went!  With a quick drive to the airport from where I was staying in Richmond, I sailed through check-in and security, enjoyed a coffee with friends and my father, and then got right onto the plane with an empty seat.  The plane left on time, and I managed to get a significant amount of sleep on it, due to the extra room.

 

Things were really quiet at the airport, and perhaps it was because that particular day was the best summer day that Vancouver had enjoyed all year.  Fittingly enough, I was out of there on the best weather, and moving right into sweltering heat and humidity on another continent.

 

I enjoyed a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean and Gulf Islands before the plane disappeared into the clouds and then I pulled down the window shades.  Air Canada is an excellent airline and they offer a choice of movies and TV programs to watch and while away the hours.  When I wasn't sleeping, I enjoyed a few good flicks, including the much-cliched movie about aliens invading Los Angeles and the almighty US Marines coming together to save the city.

 

Arriving in Shanghai, the flight was actually early.  Not only that, but I sailed through immigration in 15 minutes, making it the smoothest and most hassle-free flight I've experienced in years.  This was a big different from the year before in 2010, and the 2009 flight, both of which were nightmares.  I actually got into the city center by 3:30pm on Sunday which was ample time to catch a church service and then later go out for dinner with a bunch of friends.  There was enough energy to do that, and I then promptly crashed at my place around 8ish to sleep for 15 hours straight.

 

Keep in mind on previous nightmare flights I wouldn't get in until 10 or even 11pm at night, so this was way ahead of schedule and why not catch a party.

 

Due to all of this, I don't have any jet lag, which is a first. 

 

I was able to run a bunch of errands right off the bat and get set up with a new phone number, taking care of overdue bill payments, and set up the internet at my house.  Later on I worked out at the gym hardcore.  I'm in negotiations with Susan (she runs the place) to get a longer membership and renew for a better deal. 

 

The only difficulty now is the extreme heat, which I'm not used to after an ultra-chilly spout of weather for the past 3 weeks in Vancouver.  I was wearing a jacket nearly every day as the temperature barely broke 20 degrees.  Now it's the other extreme and I've quickly developed a rash.

 

Will keep chilling out here and then eventually head to Thailand.

Road Test and License Success, Off to Airport

Today's weather: High = 27 Low = 12
Sunny

Yesterday was, to put it simply, a miracle. The probability calculation as mentioned in the last post worked out in my favor. I got that standby road test slot at 12:30pm, right towards the middle-end of the appointments, and bang on with what the calculation predicted would be the optimal time!!

But the very nature of probability says there is never a guarantee, even if the calculation says that I should have a 'good chance' or it's 'very likely' towards the middle-end of when the appointments happen during the day. In other words, uncertainy is always involved, and hence the nerve-wracking wait experience.

In keeping with the calculated risk, I ensured I was the first guy there. So at 5:00am I arrived and began the waiting game. About 30 minutes later, two other people joined, and the line started to grow substantially by 6:30am.

Most of the people in the standby line were, however, waiting for CAR road tests. There was nobody else waiting in standby for a motorcycle test, and I could have just shown up at 8:00am and talked directly to the liason with Pro-Ride who was organizing the testing. If only I had known that!! But the guy I spoke with at driver services said, "Show up as early as possible with your bike" which was unnecessary as he was applying what he knew about CAR road tests to bikes, which were a totally different category.

Anyway, that guy sent me on a wild goose chase to rent a motorbike the day before and pay for a 24 hour rental -- that cost a fortune. This was in order to show up at 5am which was in fact not necessary. I could have just shown up at 8am and used the bikes provided by Pro Ride!!

However, the rental bike was a good call as I had already been used to it (small Kawasaki 250cc bike) with extensive practice in the road testing area. The previous practice was also a good call as it turned out the actual road test went exactly in the areas I had practiced my brains out!! Including the tricky 4-way stops, school zones, residential streets, highway merging, the whole nine yards.

While it was never-wracking to wait around in the morning and not be sure if I'd get a road test slot, there were also many benefits. I had a chance to talk to the organizer of the road test, talk to many of the bikers who were doing their test in the morning, and also listen to the feedback from what their test was about. The guys gave me super good tips about the test, including detailed stuff I never would have thought about. Turns out those tips came in majorly handy and I got a chance to use them!!

Not only that, but I snuck out during one of the earlier test runs and followed the ICBC testing van from a safe distance, to see what kind of routes they were using.

When it was my turn, which came up at 12:30, the examiner took me on a similar route, with a few differences. To make a long story short, I passed with flying colors!!!

The only hitch was that I forgot to shoulder check when doing a U-turn on a residential street, and that cost me 4 demerits. Other than that, it was flawless.

I am super happy about the result, and the timing was literally a miracle. Shortly afterward, I took a much needed nap back in Richmond, followed by a celebration dinner with lots of Chinese friends in the city. Turns out we went to an Ethiopean restaurant, how's that for a global experience.

Now I'm waiting at the airport, the next day, for a flight back to Shanghai. What a perfect way to end a rather stressful 3 weeks in Vancouver taking care of a bunch of necessary tasks.

At this point I can happily say I am 5 for 5, with 100% task rate success! Boarding has been called for my flight.

Probability of 'Going Standby'

Today's weather: High = 22 Low = 13
Mostly Cloudy

Going standby would apply to taking a road test (in my case), catching a flight, or a variety of situations where you are literally standing by and waiting for someone who is late for their appointment, cancels, or doesn't show up.

The math for calculating a success in 'standing by' is actually very simple and intuitive. It turns out that people who haven't studied math can easy figure this out by common sense anyway, but I'll throw in a calculation just for kicks.

Let 'x' be the percent chance that a person shows up for an appointment, and 'n' is the number of appointments in a given day.

For a total of 'n' appointments, then we have x^n (x to the power of n) chance that everyone shows up for their appointments.

For an arbitrary example, suppose x = 90%, which is something I pulled out of hat, but it seems reasonable. You always hear about how planes have a 10% no-show rate for booked tickets, so that's where I'm getting it from

The 'success' that we're really interested in is the negation of everyone showing up for the appointment. That is, simply put, 'at least one person doesn't show up' is success.

The function we can use to represent that is y = 1 - x^n which is a reverse exponential.

For a sufficiently large number of appointments in the day, then the chance of success approaches 100% in the limit. In other words, the 'y' value of the function approaches 1

Keep in mind this function is CUMULATIVE. So that just means that the longer you wait, the closer you are to 100% success, which will happen more likely towards the end of the appointments.

But in order for this to work, you have to start at the beginning, which means you MUST get their early and be the first or second guy in line. The calculation says you'll probably have to wait for a large number of 'n' to take place at first, but you have to stay put just in case your 'n' comes up early.

So it's a forced waiting game, but the longer you wait, the better your chances.

The calculation is more complex if there arepeople waiting ahead of you in line, but it works out exactly as the non-math people would say: your chances get very slim.

That's why you have to bust your butt out there and be the first one in line no matter what. The Chinese would be the first to tell you that anyway, as they live by that motto.

Last Ditch Plan

Unfortunately, my summer break in Vancouver this year has been the least enjoyable I can remember.  However, it wasn't expected to be a cakewalk or a beach sipping pina colada experience.  For those who get jealous that teachers have summers off and just chill out, I hope this blog is education enough that not everyone lounges on the beach during summer if they aren't working.
 
In other words, I knew from the start I'd be working my ass off to achieve and get things from my home country that I'd end up taking back to Asia, and it wasn't going to be easy. 
 
As of now I'm 4 for 5 on the achievements, so this is really better than expected.  Even if the drivers license goes belly up, I can at least say I was 80% successful this summer with getting things done and there is always next year to try again with the license.
 
Also, the motorcycle skills training has been very beneficial in helping me become a better and safer rider.  With or without a new license here, the skills will be modified to fit the Shanghai context and I can improve big time.  It turns out that safety is actually a #1 priority in my motorcycle riding, as is it for most people on the streets in Shanghai.  The interpretation and application of safety on Shanghai's roads is fundamentally different than it would be in western cities, but rest assured, people are definitely thinking of SAFETY when they get on a bike.  It may not appear like it on Asian roads, but SAFETY FIRST is everyone's concern.
 
That all being said, I'm going on a gamble, as it were, to show up as early as possible at the drivers center and apply for a standby road test.  This was suggested and confirmed by several people.
 
The gameplan is already in action.  I've rented a motorcycle from BC Cycle for the 3rd time (total it was set me back is $300+ but it's the only shot I have here).  I'll take it down to the drivers center as soon as the sun comes up and aim to be first in line at 5:30am.  They start picking people in line on a first-come-first-serve basis for standby road tests at 7:00am, and the tests begin at 8:00am
 
If necessary, I'll stay there waiting for 8 hours or however long it takes.
 
If this was China, people would be lining up outside the office the night before.  That's how seriously the Chinese take these sorts of things, and frankly, why should it be any different with me.
I'll play two angles to maximize the odds of success.  One is to wait in a standby line for the general public (hence the 5:30am arrival) and try to get a slot that way.  The other angle is to wait until the motorcycle company comes in with their bikes and then explain what I'm doing to the go-between contact who handles bookings between the company and the ICBC drivers training.
 
In order to play the first angle, I'll need my own motorcycle and gear, hence the rental.
 
At this point, it's only luck or a miracle, whichever way you want to look at it.

 

Major Setback Regarding Road Test

No, I didn't fail, but what happened was a lot worse. The test hasn't happened yet and I discovered my name has been canceled from the booking list.

I went into this whole thing knowing it was a little risky, given the limited times to get everything done, and hinging all this time and money on a 'one-shot deal' with passing a road test then heading to the airport the next day.

If I fail the test, I can accept that, and at least I know it's a clear reason. But for an administrative error to happen as it did, this is really unfair. Here is what happened:

1. I contacted my instructor to book a road test this Friday, which he did, and this was confirmed by email.

2. After the initial training, I wrote him another email to inquire about renting a bike with the company and for more practice time.

3. He may have interpreted that as a request for me to cancel the road test booking

4. The booking was indeed canceled by him, but there was no confirmation

5. I found out all this by attending the mock road test tonight, talking to other riders, and then discovering that the instructor I had booked the test with did indeed cancel my official road test.

At this point there is little I can do except go in person and present my case to the company, and see how they can help. I will also show up on Friday on 'standby' in the event that someone doesn't show up for their appointment, is late, or there is some other opportunity to slot me in at the very last minute.

One way or the other, I'm counting on a miracle here because my flight back to Shanghai is already booked and there is no changing it this time round.

What I'm going to do is post the sequence of emails with all names deleted and you can judge for yourself whether what happened was fair or not.

-----------------
July 11
Me: Hi [instructor], things went well with the skills test yesterday and I passed it. The drills we did on Sat and Sun were really appreciated. I'd like to book a road test on Friday July 22 and a mock test on the 20th if that can be arranged. Also, I'm interested in doing an extra practice session on Thursday (21st) with that VIP service as I saw in the classroom. Does that include a bike as well?

July 11
Instructor: Hi Steve, I've booked your road test for Fri July 22. Mock test Wed July 20. Both are at [location]. I am currently booked for private lesson until the end of August.

July 12
Me: That's excellent thanks a lot.

July 13
Me again: Hi [instructor] I had a chat with [another instructor] yesterday and we figured that I'd be better off with more road practice time. With that in mind, can [the company] arrange a 24 hour rental with a GS500 bike, say from Monday - Tuesday next week? I heard someone saying that the rentals can only be on a weekend, but wanted to check with you first

July 13
Instructor: Hi Steve, no problem to cancel. We are only able to rent on Saturday and Sunday's.

July 14
Me: Turns out I'm still good with the July 22 road test date, was looking for VIP lessons with (other instructors) but they suggested I'd be better off doing a bike rental and practice time. Will see you later tonight, and chat about rentals, etc.
--------------------

For the record, I had met with and chatted with this instructor for two times after the July 14 email was sent out, and there was no confirmation that he had indeed canceled the test.

By process of deduction, the cancelation paperwork must have taken place on either July 13 or 14th, and all this was discovered on July 20 (tonight)

Obviously I am pissed off, but I have to accept the mistake I made in adding that stupid additional email on July 13th which caused the miscommunication, nor did I act quickly enough on my suspicions at the time that he may have canceled and get any kind of confirmation.

Even so, this was all discovered *tonight*. Let's suppose I didn't have the conversations which I did tonight, and I ended up showing up 2:30pm on Friday only to find out I didn't exist. That could easily have been a very plausible scenario. At least now there is somehow a small window of opportunity to do SOMETHING at the total last minute.

If I can't get a license in Vancouver due to THIS kind of thing happening, then I'm going to throw the towel completely and go for Plan B, which will be to apply for a motorcycle endorsement through the Shanghai vehicle bureau. That way I can get a Chinese motorcycle license directly, but it won't be valid for back home.

Then again, that's probably better, as I don't exactly sing the praises of my home country.

Motorcycle Road Test Practice #2

Today's weather:  High = 23  Low = 14
Partly cloudy
 
Got a whole day of self-practice in this time, and it went a lot better than the last one.  It basically just takes a lot of repetition and pattern recognition to get the hang of how the bike works and how the traffic flows.  The 4-way stop procedure is still a bit rusty, but I'm making good improvements on it. 
 
A lot of the road test area has school zones and other potential restrictions where you're not sure if you need to slow down or not.  The examiners would love to put people through that.  You would fail the test for speeding if there is a 30 km/h restriction in place, but would only get demerits if you slowed down if wasn't necessary.  Based on that, I'll err on the side of caution and go slow for all the zones, and take a few demerit points as a hit.
 
Another general comment is that there is no average speed advantage or time savings for riding a motorcycle in the Vancouver area.  That is to say, the motorcycle is treated equally as a car in traffic.  If there is a traffic jam or a long set of lights, then the motorcycle also waits and arrives at the same time a car would.  The concept of beating lights, running around traffic jams, lane splitting, driving on sidewalks, and the other typical things you'd do in Shanghai to get ahead of the traffic can't apply here.  
 
Also, the motorcycle only has a short advantage in the summer riding season, whereas a car operates year-round.  It probably makes more sense to drive a car in Vancouver then. 
 
Tomorrow is the official mock practice test.  Will get some feedback from an instructor.

Motorcycle Road Test Practice #1

Today's weather:  High = 24 Low = 12
Partly cloudy

 

While the company I do motorcycle training with does offer a service of bike rentals for road test self-practice, they only offer this on the weekend.  Since my weekend was booked off, that was not an option.  However, they recommended another company in Vancouver which I'll in turn recommend.

 

Cycle BC
http://cyclebc.ca/
 
Obviously they are expensive, but they offer a good selection of bikes and yes, they will rent out to people who are still on their motorcycle learners license.

The best thing to do is go for the all-day rentals which cost around $120 and you can ride from 9am to 7pm straight.  That's certainly what I'll be doing tomorrow with those guys, and it's not much more than a 3-hour rental which I did today.

 

I went for a Kawasaki 250cc, a small bike, but great for acceleration, cornering, and above all:  road test practice. 

 

The gameplan was to head directly to the road testing site, which is a combination of streets and freeways in a pre-determined radius.  That I did, and the practice was extremely beneficial despite the high costs of rental.

 

For those living in Vancouver and thinking of doing the road test, the epicenter is the corner of Boundary & Lougheed, and they take you on a series of roads between the McGill and Sprott exits of the main freeway. 

 

The basic idea was at first to cruise the freeway a few times back and forth and get familiar with merging, as they will certainly be testing that.  It wasn't as difficult as I thought, but the acceleration and matching speeds were vital to get the hang of.  So was remembering to cancel the damn signal.  Forgetting to cancel is a terrible habit picked up from Shanghai that I still haven't gotten rid of, but it's getting better and better these days.

 

It is vital to cancel the signal as not doing so is an automatic fail on the test.

 

There is a ton of construction happening on the freeway now, and in surrounding areas.  It actually benefits the test as the traffic congestion keeps the vehicle speeds down and makes it easier to merge with a smaller capacity bike.  I'll be doing the test at 2:30pm on a Friday which will certainly be a congested time, and I'm actually glad for that variable.

 

It also helps to memorize which exits are closed due to the construction and other details that may come in handy for the test.

 

Once the freeway practice was done with, I then headed for the steep hills of North Burnaby and practiced hill starts and turns at various intersections.  Hill starts will be tested also, and it's a bit of an art form.  One thing to watch out for is don't stop too close to cars as they roll back a lot more when they are doing hill starts.

 

Next was 4-way stop practice.  I soon discovered two nasty streets with oblique 4-way stops with tons of traffic.  I can guarantee they will be using that for the test as it's the most challenging kind of situation.  If there is any way they can make people fail, that is a good place to do it.  So that was the most valuable practice and I must have done at least 50 renditions of various 4-way stop procedure.

 

This is vital because in Shanghai, nobody does a 4-way stop and it's hard to remember all the rules for how to do this in Vancouver.   All intersections in Shanghai have traffic lights, simply because a 4-way stop would be chaos over there with everybody jamming in first and not lining up.  Here, there are a zillion rules for the 4-way stop procedure and I had to practice my ass off to get the hang of it, lest I fail the test.

 

Once that was done, I then did U-turns in residential streets and parking lot practice.  There were a few streets that had school zones and it wasn't clear if you should slow down or not during summer, so I'll have to keep brushing up on this one.  Speeding in a school zone would be another fail for the test.

 

The idea is to keep doing more of this self-practice tomorrow, then do an official mock road test on Wednesday with a different bike provided by the training center, valuable feedback from an instructor, and simulations where I sit in a car and watch somebody else do the test.

High Costs Make Me Sick

That goes without saying ... oh well, I'll be on a flight within a week. It is amazing how a 12 hour flight can make me either rich or poor depending on which way the flight is going.

The next thing that's going to break the bank is motorcycle rentals. Stay tuned for that.

Weekend Commune Living

Today's weather: High = 19 Low = 11
Cloudy and showers

At the invitation of a friend, the weekend was spent experiencing what life would be like in a commune. Of course, it wasn't put to me like, "Come and check out a commune" but that's how it turned out. My expectation was this would be like a typical Christian retreat, but this was not the case as I quickly found out.

The organization that runs this is called L'Abri

http://www.labri.org/

It is really hard to describe L'Abri in a short blog, but you'd do well to check out the website which I did not do beforehand.

The L'Abri community, or commune, is a group of short-term and long-term students who come and study for periods of time. It also consists of leaders and helpers, but frankly it's hard to know who's who. The organization is all rather loose and things are flexible, yet there are also strict rules to follow -- even for a weekend. The idea of following these rules is that everybody does their part to sacrifice their individual selves for the good of the community.

For example, water is very scarce and so showers are also scarce. Meals are mandatory and held at fixed times. During the meals, tasks are delegated for who's cleaning up, etc. Sleeping is in dorm-style beds. Everyone must work for 3 hours on Saturday afternoon. I sanded up stair railings. There is personal study time, and optional prayer time for those interested. There is also counseling time, which I took advantage of.

By the way, internet is strictly regulated.

Getting to the location is an art in itself. It is isolated at the top of a hill on Bowen Island. However, thanks to the help of my friend, I discovered a water taxi that runs from downtown Vancouver to Bowen Island directly and only takes 30 minutes. The price is reasonable at around $15 a trip each way.

I got the impression that personal privacy is not exactly in vogue here, but that is to be expected for living in a commune. A good example is when some girl known as 'Allison' was making a cell phone call and she got hounded by a bunch of guys playing loud music and guitars to disturb her phone call to the outside world.

That being said, however, the people there are all awesome and this community is a really good example of how people *can* live together and counter the influences of a hyper-individualistic society. People being people, we've all got our flaws and issues and so there is bound to be difficulties, just like siblings in a family don't always get along. But if they take the view that we sacrifice for the community, then it can work.

We also had lectures and discussions, much about the Christian faith. While I learned a lot, I also had a hard time processing everything because it was too intellectual. The topics were about intellectualism vs. emotionalism in church and also about how different cultures interpret the face of Jesus. It was rather theological and deep for me. My counseling session was in a similar line, given an intense discussion on differences in Christian denominations and how to relate to people who share different views.

I came out of this retreat with more questions and confusion about God than I came in with. That in itself didn't sit very well and raised a few alarm bells. To make a long story short, that crisis took me back 12 years all the way to the beginning when I first became 'born-again' and had me re-evaluating a lot about what I believed.

People in evangelical circles would call this sort of an experience a 'crisis of faith'. It was resolved about an hour after the retreat and taking a water taxi back downtown, attending a church downtown, and listening to a sermon that addressed the question of the nature of who God is. The sermon was very well presented and clear, and made a good case for understanding how God exists in three persons as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The focus on the basics of the Christian faith is important to me as I happen to be a small group leader in Shanghai, and I end up teaching this stuff to new believers. When things become too intellectual and sophisticated there is a huge problem because the faith is supposed to be a simple message for ordinary people to understand. Sadly, nowadays, you put a bunch of evangelicals together in a room and they can't even agree on the basics such as what is salvation, and who is Jesus.

The weekend retreat also took me back 12 years around the same time I became interested in social awareness and political issues. I started reading tons of books on issues of simple living (Your Money or Your Life) and anti-capitalism (Opposing the System) around that time. I was doing some research and on track to start living in a commune around the time of university graduation, but it never quite happened.

After a few years of living in the west and brushing up on the basics of the Christian faith, I then moved to China and have been there ever since. Now I find a need to go back to the basics again. It is clearly apparent from this weekend that without a firm grasp on the basics, it is easy to get sidetracked down a myriad of theological rabbit holes

For that reason, I've started a new blog that has been in the making for quite some time. The blog goes into basics of the Christian faith, in the context of what it means to live in this particular day and age. One of the characteristics of the times in which we live is for mass confusion on what this 'Christian faith' is all about, and for disagreements to happen left, right, and center between people who all profess to believe the same stuff. Of course, this has been going on for years, but it is intensifying now we have access to the internet and media, etc.

Not that I claim have the inside track on these issues, but I do want to emphasize a 'back-to-basics' approach and to rely more on what the Bible says for understanding of what the Christian faith is about, rather than what people think in their heads intellectually.

At the same time, I tend to shy away from discussing these particular issues in the 'Shanghai' blog. This particular blog is more for secular topics and for secular readers and I want to keep it that way. While I believe that the 'faith' and the 'secular' aspects of life are supposed to be integrated, it is convenient to write two separate blogs in order to focus on different audiences. So that's what I'm doing.

The address for my other blog, then is here:

http://last-days-living.blogspot.com/

Enjoying Vancouver

Having spent the last few days relaxing and recovering from the double-whammy of recent courses, I must admit the city of Vancouver and it's immediate surrounding areas are starting to grow on me again.  There is much to be enjoyed here, now that I can get into summer break mode, and I think I'll backpeddle on my earlier stance of wanting to abandon the city altogether.

 

Given any set of circumstances that would force me to 'repatriate' for whatever reason, I could certainly move back to the Vancouver area as opposed to somewhere else in Canada.  But the condition is that it would have to be in one of the following areas, in order of preference:

 

-- Downtown
-- East side of the city, i.e. the Commercial Drive area
-- Central part of Richmond

 

Other areas could be managable, but they would have to be in either the city of Vancouver itself, or Burnaby, New West, or Richmond.  Areas that are definitely out of the question would involve, in order of bad to worse:

 

-- North & West Vancouver
-- Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, etc.
-- Delta, Surrey, Langely, etc.
-- Abbotsford, etc.

 

Vancouver and Richmond are well connected with the transit, and as recently discovered, they have done a great job with the bicycle lanes.  Much to my surprise, a lot has changed for the better in recent years and it's incredibly easy to get around the city on a bike now.  There is also a good mix of diversity, lots of social life, people to meet, restaurants, etc. in the city with an ease of getting around.

 

The last set of areas is definitely a problem in the sense that they are the classic 'suburbs', meaning poor transit, low-density houses, and not a lot of ethnic diversity.  North & West Van are separated by the bridges which makes for inconvenience.  While it's possible to manage them with transit and bikes, it wouldn't be my first choice. 

 

Areas further south such as Delta and Surrey are even worse given that they are separated by the tunnel and the Port Mann Bridge which are no-goes for bikes.  This effectively renders those areas useless for people who prefer transit, with a few exceptions such as in North Surrey.

 

I don't hope to have to repatriate any time soon, but in the event of it being necessary, it does help to have some sort of a plan in place of where I'd like to live and where not to.

While visiting friends and family who live in the areas that may not be so convenient, a motorcycle is the way to solve the problem.

Skytrain Honor System Coming to End

Today's weather: High = 18 Low = 13
Jackets and rain

The Vancouver 'skytrain' is basically an elevated light rail track that crisscrosses the city. The Chinese equivalent is 'qing gui' (light rail) or 'di tie' (subway) which can be found all over the place in mainland cities. Many other Asian cities have some variation of a light rail, subway, metro, etc. For example, there is the Bangkok BTS, Hong Kong MTR, Singapore MRT, and so forth.

What distinguishes the skyrain from the mass transit in Asia is that the skytrain operates on an honor system. That is to say, there are no gates or turnstiles where you process your tickets as you enter and exit skytrain stations. Fares are enforced by random sweeps of police or skytrain attendants, with low probabilities of that happening. For those inclined to evade fares, it's not very difficult to get away with it, yet it also costs Translink 5% of its revenue

Recently, Translink has decided to get rid of the honor system by installing fare gates, similar to the design of what already exists in Asia. Swipe your card in the entry gate, then swipe it out the exit gate. The fare gate system should be operational by 2013.

To this I say kudos, but more should be done. In addition to fare gates, Translink could learn a lot from the mass transit system in the cities mentioned above, and completely do away with the concept of zone boundaries.

Currently, there are 3 zones within the transit system. Vancouver is considered Zone 1, and the surrounding suburbs are Zone 2 and Zone 3 depending on how far away you are from downtown.

The fare structure for these zones is unfair for a variety of reasons. The main reason is that you're not paying on a per-distance rate. For example, if you live in Richmond and cross the river to Oakridge Mall in Vancouver, that costs a 2-zone fare but the distance is hardly 5km. On the other hand, you could criss-cross the entire city of Vancouver for a lot more than 5km and still pay one zone.

Let's learn from Asian mass transit systems and charge a fare based on DISTANCE for crying out loud. That is to say, program the fare gates so that (for example)

$1.00 gives you up to 3 skytrain stations
$1.50 gives you up to 5 stations
$2.00 gives you up to 10 stations

Someone might say it's cheap, and yes it is. The trade-off would be that the skytrain / subway systems are separated from the bus systems and that the single journey tickets can't be transferable to the buses.

Meanwhile, the buses could operate on a similar distance-based model, like the Hong Kong buses. The electronic fare would start at, say $2 at the beginning of the bus line and then decrease incrementally as the buses went along.

Another model would be a flat flare for a single bus line, but the fares would be determined by the bus line, not the zones.

In either of these model, the bus tickets would not be transferable.

Someone would then cry foul and say it's not fair to abolish the transfer system, where you can currently ride anywhere for a set time period (think it is 90 minutes).

But this could easily be resolved by the introduction of a pre-paid transit card with discounts and trasfers built into the card. Let's learn from the Shanghai metro system which already does this, and take an example

1. You enter a subway station, swipe your card at the turnstile
2. You exit the station, swipe your card at the gate
3. You transfer to a bus or a different mass transit line, within a time period of 30 minutes
4. You swipe your card to enter the other system, i.e. bus
5. You swipe your card when you get off the bus
6. Based on the time signatures of all this, the computer is able to calculate that you effectively transfered lines and then charge a fare to you card that includes the transfer

The computer could also program in discounts, etc.

When the card is nearly out of money, you then refill it up.

If you didn't have the card and relied on single journey bus or skytrain tickets (i.e. cash fares), you would end up paying more. Tourists could apply for a day pass to make things more convenient, and it would work on the same model as the card above.

It seems like they want to implement such a card system based on what I'm reading with the Translink fare gates, and with a bit of intelligent programming, the whole outdated zone system could be revamped.

Cell Phones and Gym Memberships

At the risk of this becoming a rant, I'll try to keep it short and informative.

Cell phones and gym memberships fall into the category of locked-in contracts, where you would sign up for, say, a year and pay a fixed fee and monthly fee. Certainly, a contract is involved where you need to sign off, with your name, etc.

It probably comes as no surprise that this is a North American concept. As for why it's like this, it remains a mystery. When you consider the technology involved in cell phones, it can't be figured out why you would pay 10 times more for the rates than most Asian countries (at least in Canada, not sure about the US). Not only that, but there are all these complications like wireless plans, evenings and weekends, minutes, etc. etc.

Of course, you still need to pay yearly fees for gym memberships in Asian countries but most of the time the deal is negotiated verbally, through word of mouth, and there is little of this bothersome paperwork to deal with the damn contracts. If you wanted to just drop in for a visit every now and then, I'm sure a deal could be arranged for that.

As for cell phones in Asia, well as mentioned earlier, the rates are much cheaper. You can get pay as you go plans with small activations fees, and of course, there are no contracts to sign.

Heck, you could purchase a SIM card on the sidewalk if you wanted go. Go to Bangkok and you'll see that soon enough.

AP Course Reimbursed

The school I'm working with in Shanghai has been remarkably helpful, and this only continues. After a tiny bit of a persuasion argument on my part, they agreed to refund the training for the AP Calculus workshop I recently completed. Even without the reimbursement I would have still done the workshop as the benefits are rather substantial.

For other AP teachers out there who may be reading this, I highly recommend you take the AP summer workshops before attempting to teach the courses. The information and resources you get out of those workshops is second to none.

Course Finished, Road Test Confirmed

Looking like the busiest part of my summer is winding down, it's now time to start getting into a break. The motorcycle road test has now been confirmed for Friday July 22nd at 2:30, followed by a flight the next day to Shanghai. As they say, no pressure. Haha, yeah right.

Nonetheless, before practicing my brains out, I'm going to take a much needed retreat and disappear on the weekend to an undisclosed location somewhere near Vancouver.

Living life at the pace I've been doing for the last couple months hasn't been very good, and even a short retreat is better than none. So with that in mind, I'll be off the grid.

Actually I'm already off the grid as it's so darn difficult to get access to a cell phone here. Whatever happened to the concept of buying a temporary SIM card at the airport or convenience store with a pay-as-you-go plan built into it? Every Asian country I know of has been doing this for years. The North American concept of locked-in contracts, plans, activation fees, etc. is all foreign and strange. Maybe it's time for North America to get with the future and just do what the Asian countries do.

Anyways, last night was a roaring success (literally) with our second and final road ride of the motorcycle course. I showed up 45 minutes early, on purpose, so I could claim the prize bike of the lot. Suzuki GS500. This is mainly because in all the years of my motorcycle riding career so far, I've never ridden anything more than 250cc. I was chomping at the bit to get on a 500cc bike to feel the power, and oh my goodness, what a power trip it was.

The bike roars out of first gear with authority, and out-accelerates any other vehicles at the light. It makes that unmistakably loud sound of a sports bike, which can be head for miles.

Anyone know how much horse power a 500cc bike has? What about a 650cc? Some of the students brough their own like that. The shocking thing is these are MID RANGE bikes for crying out loud, and you can get a lot more powerful than that. In China, the maximum capacity for registration you can find is a 250cc which explains the above. Somehow people can get 500+ cc bikes on the road in China, as I have seen them on rare occasions. But how they do so is a mystery

I hardly touched 5th gear on that bike, and was already at 60km/h in 3rd gear only. In fact, we climbed up the top of Mt Seymour, and it was easily done in 3rd gear. Lots of fun cornering, hill starts, and freeway riding to end things off. The scariest part was rocketing down the "cut" at 100+ km/h, i.e. the long steep downhill on the Upper Levels Highway as you're coming towards Vancouver before the 2nd Narows Bridge.

It is hard to believe my motorcycle riding career has come to this, when it all started with humble scooters out of necessity while working at a school in the boonies of Shanghai.

Nonetheless, I'm going to rent out the GS500 for 24 hours and practice my brains out for the upcoming road test. That is in addition to a mock road test, followed by the real thing a week Friday.

If all goes well, there will be a celebration dinner on Friday night (July 22nd) the night before I catch the flight back to Shanghai.

Another Benefit for Motorcycle License

The main goal of why I'm working so hard on this motorcycle license is that I can pass the ICBC road test and then acquire a Class 5/6 combined vehicle license for both cars and motorcycles.

That document can then go with me to Shanghai where it can then be translated into Chinese at a notary office downtown and taken to the 'che guan suo' (traffic vehicle office). Once there, I will then need to take another 100-question multiple choice theory test on motorcycle riding. It's in English, and requires a 90% pass rate, similar to the one I took fo the car license. Once that theory test is passed, I can then add the motorcycle endorsement to my current Chinese car driving license.

In the event that there's a problem in the bureaucracy of doing that, then having a certified copy of the translation document plus my BC motorcycle/car license plus my Chinese car license would be enough to satisfy the Chines police in the rare event of being pulled over.

After that is done, my suburban house address in Shanghai plus license would then allow me to purchase a larger capacity bike and register it with a 'HU C' suburban plate, which only costs around 10,000 RMB as opposed to 50,000 RMB for the 'HU A' plate.

In the event of a repatriation, however, or for an extended summer visit back to Canada, then there's another obvious advantage of getting a motorcycle license here.

The advantage is simple: I would be able to easily purchase and register a large capacity motorcycle in Vancouver, or some other city, and get around the city easily and quickly, and saving copious amounts of cash. The bike could be used for long distance trips as well. Heck, I could even go to Seattle with it.

It just occured to me on yesterday's road ride that having a motorcycle in Vancouver would open up the place so much during the summer season when I'd most likely be here anyway!

Related to my other posts on the transit trauma from suburb-to-suburb, and all the time wasted in biking / walking, then a motorcycle would solve all these problems in one stroke. If the motorcycle already saves tons of cash in Shanghai, then just imagine how much more freedom and cost savings it would open up for Vancouver which is even more expensive for getting around.

With all that in mind, it really amazes me why anyone would want a larger vehicle like a car or van, aka a 'cage' in motorycle lingo. The car is useful for some things, I'll admit, and the winter season for sure, but it eats up your cash like you wouldn't believe. With gas prices the way they are these days, forget it.

Bring on the bikes!

Actually, it's no small wonder why motorcycle sales are soaring, and why demand is sky high to get into a training course like Pro Ride.

Motorcycle Road Ride 1

Today's weather: High = 23 Low = 15
Cloudy

At first I was merely impressed with Pro Ride Motorcycle Training, but now I give them a solid recommendation and totally encourage anyone interested to sign up for a week long course. The price is steep at $850 for the course, but I must say it is WELL WORTH THE CASH. Just save money ruthlessly on other stuff and make sacrifices so you can put down this large payment, as it will be worth it.

Due to how good this company is and the popularity of the courses, you should also book at least a month in advance. They limit class sizes to 10 students each.

http://www.proride.net

Having built up our slow-speed skills over the weekend, the next phase of the training was road riding.

Our instructor took us on a very technical run on back roads for the first 30 minutes in order to review our clutch/throttle work, emergency braking, curves, hill starts, U-turns, stop signs, shoulder checks, remembering to cancel the turn signals (ARGH!!!!!) and other consolidation skills, thus leading into road riding. He recommended we do this every time in trying out a new bike or at the beginning of the riding season, in order to get warmed up.

Once on the major part of the road ride, we practice motorcycle formation riding with 6 in a group. It is too complicated to explain how this works in a blog, you really have to take the course and try it for yourself.

The road ride itself was super easy compared to what I'm used to in Shanghai. Maybe it was because we were riding on Monday evening with light traffic around the North Vancouver area, but I kept wondering where all the cars and pedestrians were to avoid. We did a run to Deep Cove on a beautiful forested road by the ocean, then back the other way to Horseshoe Bay area to practice our cornering skills.

Even though the ride was easy, the technicality factor was 10 times more involved than anyting I'm used to in Shanghai. That is to say, we had to remember to do so many things at the same time: keep the proper distance between bikes, keep the proper lane formation, obey speed limits and stop for pedestrians, always cancel the turn signals midway through the turn, keep the head and eyes up, and master the art of U-turns and parking.

While we were doing the Deep Cove run it reminded me of the freedom of riding around Koh Chang in Thailand without any consideration for these technicalities. In Asia, you just get on the bike and ride. Here, you simply cannot do that, given that passing the road test is the ultimate goal where technicalities and following rules of the road matter to the extreme. So because of that, unfortunately, I couldnt' enjoy the ride too much.

I'm taking this to the extreme because I am brainwashing myself to get rid of all the bad habits learned in Asia over years of illegal riding. These bad habits could cost me the ICBC road test, and so it's crucial I unlearn them in a hurry.

The self-brainwashing technique basically relies on repetition. I am focusing on the top 3 things to reprogram my brain in a hurry: shoulder checks, cancel the turn signals, and keep the head and eyes up. By constantly repeating this to myself during the training, I can effectively reprogram the bad habits and I am already seeing some results.

There are other things as well. Stopping for pedestrians is a major challenge for me because in China nobody does that. Pedestrians are at the bottom of the traffic totem pole over there and moving vehicles have the right of way. The laws of physics dictate traffic behavior in China, not the laws of traffic courtesy.

So if there's a crosswalk and someone standing there, my first instinct is to blow right by, thinking that the person is just one of another 1.3 billion and he is nobody special.

In Vancouver, on the other hand, I'll have to get used to slowing down and stopping for pedestrians.

It goes without saying that my riding in Asia consisted of not shoulder checking, having turn signals going after the turn, and looking down at the bike repeatedly. Some of these habits denote an automatic fail on the ICBC road test so you can see how impotant it is to unlean them.

The long-term effect of this reprogramming is unknown. For now, I will have to rely on short-term effects given the timing of the road test. In all likelihood, I'm going to fall back on the bad habits again once returning to Asia but there are some skills that I would definitely want to keep and modify for Shanghai

1. Head and eyes up is crucial, maybe not looking so far ahead in Shanghai, but the principle itself is good

2. Emergency braking in a straight line or a curve is totally worth applying there.

Besides that, the existing habits of survival riding in Shanghai can be retained, especially the tactic of slowing down at intersections. Even so, I need to work on increasing the acceleration at intersections off a green light, as my starts have been too slow for Vancouver.

It goes without saying this, but the traffic lights are to be obeyed over here. Frankly it's no big deal because the red lights are very short, and the traffic control is efficient.

People run red lights in Shanghai all the time, and I admit to doing it. The reason is that when the light stays red for 2-3 minutes at a time, then so much time is wasted, and the people get impatient.

Vancouver Is Nice, But I Prefer Shanghai

That should be self-evident from this blog, which is titled 'Based in Shanghai' and how I'm keeping it going continuously over the summer even while I'm not there at the moment.

I don't want to get into a big long essay comparing and contrasting the life in two different cities, as it would take multiple pages and would bore the readers to death. However, there are pros and cons to each city, and a lot of nice things to say about Vancouver but I really feel I belong more in Shanghai than I ever did here.

That being said, with things all queued up for a significant stretch of time to spend abroad now, a thought that occurs in the back of my mind is what on earth I'd do if 'recalled' back to Canada for whatever reason. That is to say, what's the emergency plan if the adventure abroad were to suddenly end for whatever reason?

I've given this issue some though and the first thing would be to move onwards to a 3rd country if living/working in China was no longer feasible for whatever reason. There are numerous alternatives in this case, almost all of them being Asian countries or city states like Hong Kong and Singapore. The '3rd country' alternative would also work nicely if I married a Chinese local who wanted to leave China but I wasn't exactly keen on returning to Canada.

However, given a situation where repatriation to Canada was inevitable, I've also thought about where I'd end up. After much considering, I'd likely choose the Toronto area. This city is certainly more happening and busier than Vancouver and the prices are not nearly so expensive. Toronto ain't cheap, but it's a margin better than other cities.

For the world's most livable city, Vancouver is a killer when it comes to the cost of living, and I honestly don't know how the high prices can be justified.

Bookings and Changes

Today's weather: High = 25 Low = 14
Cloudy

One of these days I'll be able to enjoy my summer break, and actually do nothing. Unfortunately I've been going 100 miles an hour with various tasks and courses, and that has carried over from June.

The good part is that things will slowly ease into a more relaxing holiday, as the motorcycle course is winding down and I've taken care of most of the tasks that have to be done back here in Vancouver. There are always more things to do of course, but it looks like I can finally enjoy a holiday now.

Most importantly, I was able to change my flight back to Shanghai leaving July 23, which is one day after I book a road test and hopefully pass on July 22. Regretably there were no other options until August as the flights were all jam packed, and full, full, full. So that's just the way it'll have to be.

Actually, I'm taking a significant risk by booking a flight right after a road test, in case of a failed road test when there won't be any time for a repeat. Because of this, I'm shelling out big bucks for an extra private VIP motorcycle training session, not to mention 24 hours of motorcycle rental for self-practice. The pracitce will consist of riding every possible scenario of routes in the range of streets and highways where they've told us the test will take place.

To put it simply, I'm going to practice my brains out and do whatever I can to maximize the odds of a pass, because so much is riding on getting that motorcycle license.

This is in addition to the group road riding this week and mock road test we'll be doing as a group, which is included in my actual motorcycle course.

If all goes well, I'll be heading to airport fully stocked up and things taken care of on this end, which could easily make the next round abroad last for 3+ years continuously. I'll most likely come back for another visit before then, but it would certainly be stress-free, I will see to that. And if I wanted to skip the whole thing with jet lag, etc. and stay for an extra long time the next round, that option is also possible.

One of the things that really pisses me off is the misconception from others that we teachers sit on our butts all summer (and winter break) and enjoy pina coladas at the beach. I get this kind of talk all the time from people on both continents, whether here in Vancouver or in Shanghai. They always go on about how it's so unfair, the teachers get all this time off, blah, blah, blah.

Yes, sure we get the summer off but it's not exacty 7 weeks of sitting around and lounging on the beach. If last week has been any indication, I've been working my ass off with coursework and upgrages, and some rather convoluted transport mess on top of it.

Then again, it has all been optional, in the sense that nobody is putting a gun to my head and saying I must take educational Pro-D upgrade courses, or apply to motorcycle skills training in order to earn a legal drivers license. It has been voluntary, to be sure, but I work on my own schedule.

Heck, maybe just to piss off the people who are pissing me off with this 'teachers have it so good talk, I'll go down to Club Med beach and sip my drinks just to prove that I can do that.

I resent the idea of working to a fixed schedule and taking severely limited holidays per year, which is the norm in both China or North America. I would rather be productive, that is work really hard in spurts, and then get relaxing time thrown in between, all the while being flexible and creative which is where it really counts.

Besides, with all this fixed office 9-5 corporate time, what really happens is people get on their computers and waste the hours on facebook and MSN. The corporate life is hardly productive, and I think teachers are more productive in the overall sense due to the flexible hours.

Motorcycle Skills Day 2

Today's weather:  High = 24 Low = 14

Partly Cloudy

 

Well the good news is I passed the low-speed skills test for motorcycles in the parking lot.

 

The actual test was a lot easier than the drills that Pro-Ride set out for us to practice on.  This was a smart teaching tactic, and one I often use in my own classes.  That is, make the practice drills harder than the real test.

 

The test involved doing a U-turn, then slalom through cones.  The next was a U-turn, acceleration, followed by an emergency braking maneuver.  Each maneuver had to be done twice.

 

To get us pscyhed up for that, we did things like figure-8 maneuvers through cone boxes, tight turn boxes, and the most interesting and challenging of all:  emergency braking in a curve.  The way to do this is never to brake while the bike is leaning in the curve, but to first straighten out the bike, then go for the front brakes.  This technique basically involves picking a secant line to the curve, ideally one that makes you 'land' away from the direction that cars would likely be going on the curve.

 

As an aside, a secant line is one that cuts from point to point within a curve, whereas a tangent line goes off the curve at some fixed point.  The tangent line would occur from losing control of the bike within the turn.  Who says calculus isn't useful in real life??!

 

It was a great day of skills, and now the next phase of my training comes in:  real road riding!!

 

At this point I'm absolutely exhausted and dizzy from all those skills maneuvers and riding in circles in the parking lot.  Take that Shanghai police, I'm doing things legally now.

 

 

Motorcycle Skills Day 1

If the Chinese police could see me now, they would laughing with me all the way to the parking lot.  They would be saying something like, after all these years of illegal street motorcycle riding in Shanghai, this laowai (foreigner) has gone back to his home country and has now reverted to doing motorcycle skills training in the parking lot.

 

It is exactly like what the Chinese would do for their own driver training courses in the suburban parking lots with the pylons, cones, etc..  The only difference is I'm doing it with clear blue air and green trees as a backdrop, and with instructors who speak English.

 

Actually, as mentioned before, it's more to do with unlearning and relearning.  The initial 5 hour practice session today has been phenomenal in terms of getting the basic skills done right.  The skills have been so useful that I'd want to retain the new habits and apply them to the streets of Shanghai when I return there soon enough.

 

The instructors set us up on a half-dozen basic slow-speed drills

 

1.  Feathering the clutch and finding the 'friction zone'

2.  Clutch and throttle maneuvers

3.  Shifting 

4.  Gradual low speed braking

5.  Emegency low-speed braking

6.  Pylon slalom

 

Two of the things they repeatedly emphasize are shoulder checks whenever you start moving the bike, and an 'eyes up' posture.  That is to say, they always want you to be looking straight ahead with the eyes and head up, and not distracted by the pylons, the people waving, etc.  This has been my biggest challenge for sure as I'm always gravitating to what the people are doing, especially if the instructors are walking around and giving instructions.  It's also incredibly easy to look down at the bike controls or the cones.  But they tell us to keep focusing straight ahead.

 

In the Chinese context, this is the toughest one to unlearn because there are multiple things happening at the same time.  Survival on the bike in China depends on watching the precise movements of the other people and vehicles and reacting accordingly.  The notion of looking straight ahead for great distances would get you killed on Shanghai's roads, yet for here in Vancouver, it's something I have to learn to do.

 

Another thing is that I need to improve is my emergency braking.  The tactic of using front brakes for most of the stopping power is very good, and I need to learn to use fingertips and gradually increase the pressure on the front brake.  A bad habit to unlearn has been the one of stomping on the rear brakes and skidding.

 

When you coordinate this 'eyes straight' with clutch, throttle, and brake controls it can be very demanding as you have to do multiple things at the same time.  For example, I would work on the front brakes, but end up looking down.  It just takes a ton of practice to get it right, which we eventually did.

 

 

Motorcycle Course: Unlearn then Relearn

Today's weather:  High = 20 Low = 10
Partly cloudy
 
With one intense course out of the way, here comes another.  I'm relying on the excellent services of Pro-Ride to learn how to ride motorcycles and pass a road test coming up in a couple weeks time
 
<a href="http://www.proride.org"></a>
 
It's rather ironic that with nearly 3 years of motorcycle riding experience in China, I'm now learning how to ride a motorcycle.  Actually the way I learned to ride was to just by the bike in a remote area of Chongqing, hop on the bike, and figure things out on the fly.  My first bike was a Yamaha YBR-125 which I still have by the way.  It came after 2 years of scooter riding.
 
While I consider myself to be rather skilled on the bike, the major problem here is that all my riding experience (nearly 3 years worth) has been illegal, without having had a proper motorcycle drivers license in China.
 
Trying to get a legal license has been the bane of my existence, and it has been incredibly convoluted and difficult from within China.  I don't believe a word of what the veteran folks on My China Moto write about how this process is supposedly easy and convenient from within China, because it is most certainly not.
 
<a href="http://www.mychinamoto.com"></a>
At any rate, the inevitable had to happen at one point, which was to go back to my home country and apply for a motorcycle license going through all the proper channels.  This means taking the learners license, doing the professional training, and passing the final road test.
 
It is a humbling experience to say the least, because nearly everything I learned about riding in China will have to be unlearned and relearned in order to succeed on the course here. 
 
Granted, some of the skills from China will come in handy, such as slowing down at intersections and evasive tactics to avoid accidents.  The survival mentality, absolutely necessary for China, is most definitely going to help me out, as the company I'm with relies on the idea of create 'survival riders'
 
On the other hand, we are talking about a fundamentally different approach to riding and traffic regulations when it comes to the streets in Shanghai as opposed to Vancouver. 
To put it simply, the rules and safety matter big time over here, whereas it's a free-for-all on the streets of China.  I'm going to have to quickly adapt to the safety reality over here, and do everything properly and carefully, to the point of excess -- or else fail the road test. 
 
There is much more coming on this blog in detail about some of the fundamental differences in driving culture.  The main goal at this point will be to pass the road test and get the proper licenses, then I can transfer it to China.
 
I don't anticipate or desire much motorcycle riding experience in my home country for a multitude of reasons, but the test is crucial to pass.  Another thing is that I want to learn as many tips and skills as possible from the course here that could help me out back in China
 
But I think we all know that I'll soon be returning to the free-for-all culture of no rules on the road in China, running red lights, and bad driving habits that I picked up in the first place.
 
For now, however, I will have to brainwash myself that those habits don't exist for the next two weeks, and I will need to forgot everything there was about riding motorcycles in China.

AP Workshop Turned My Brain to Mush

Today's weather:  High = 19  Low = 12
Partly cloudy and cool
 
The one-week AP Summer workshop for teacher is over, and the time flew by -- as expected.  It's a cram session, and a very useful one at that.  But the AP Calculus session was a brain overload.
 
Will update a lot more of this in detail once I get more time on my hands, which should hopefully be next week.
 
Things got so intense during the workshop that a bunch of us were solving a calculus problem during the coffee break.  My train of thought, verbalized to my colleague about how to solve the problem went something like, "Don't we need to minus off this part and then take the integral?"
 
Some socials or language teacher butted in on the conversation and said, "Is 'minus' even a verb?"
 
I should have said, "I don't know and I don't care."
 
What a dolt for her to butt in and ask something like that, and it totally threw my train of thought off the tracks.  I just stood there stunned, trying to recover the solution process to this calculus problem that had been dogging us for the past 30 minutes before the coffee break.
 
My colleague then pulled the rest of us to the side with a not-so-subtle cue of, "Let's move over here" and then we managed to solve the problem.

The Traumas of Transit in the Suburbs

For the sake of peace of mind, this will be a short post.  This topic could easily turn into a 50 page rant so please don't get me started!  Well, too late.
 
It took nearly 2 hours to reach my AP Calculus training course this morning, thanks to 3 buses and none of them taking a direct route from suburb-to-suburb.  Reminded me of living in the boonies of Shanghai and going downtown on the 'chicken bus' all over again, but who would have thought that such transit convolution could occur in Vancouver also.  Actually, I'm hardly surprised.  The freeway takes a direct route yet no buses run on it. 
 
It's really a sad fact of life in the West that cars and cell phones are luxuries which have become dependencies.  I'm no environmentalist or socialist by any means, yet I would still go off on a scathing rant against this reality just like they would.  It's primarily because we have made choices become that which we don't have any choice over, and have also made choices to become captive to our own freedom. 
 
 

AP Calculus Summer Workshop

Today's weather:  High = 28  Low = 15
Sunny.   This is a heatwave?  Sorry, it's not even close.
 
We're doing teacher Pro-D these days, and yes, my employer is paying for it.  The training involves a 4-day summer workshop for how to teach AP Calculus.  I've done a bit of my own training already with a 4-student trial tutorial group after school in the latter stages of the semester.  The students were all the best and the brightest, and they took my informal class as well as a stab at the AP Calculus Test in May
 
It became evident during this experience that I really needed to brush up on my shit.  Certain calculus topics were fine, but others presented problems, especially when the top kids would ask me questions they were struggling with, and I realized this was stuff I needed to get clearer on.
 
Thanks to the focus of what we're doing in this workshop, those issues are nicely being addressed!  The instructor is a top-notch math teacher who has just retired and has had nearly 25 years of AP Calculus experience, as well as 7 years grading the AP Exams.  He is running the workshop with a focus on content, and not so much on pedagogy.  This is *exactly* the focus I was looking for, and with very little of that educational fluff (actually crap) that I went through during my actual teaching practicum and courses.
 
This isn't to say that pedagogy and course organization is ignored in our training, but we can pick it up implicitly.  For example the instructor runs our workshops like he would run his own classes with a mix of lectures, group work, solved examples on the board, and other activities.  Yet the focus remains on calculus content and hard-core examples that stretch my brain and others like you wouldn't believe. 
 
It really is the ideal workshop as far as I'm concerned, and what I've learned already will help enormously when our school in Shanghai ramps up the AP program which I'm going to be help starting next Sept with the first AP Calculus course taught there.  Thanks to this workshop, I feel much more prepared.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Getting Over Jet Lag

Today's weather:  High = 27  Low = 14
Sunny

 

The jet lag is slowing going away.  Things are improving.  Having done this multiple times now, for sure the next time I will insist on a 1 week 'quarantine' before getting involved in any activities.  This applies for eastbound flights, i.e. those going back to North America.

 

Doing anything complex or intense during the jet lag period is like doing something under the influence of alcohol.  I am not kidding.  Jet lag is a seriously hindering state of mind that you had better take a rest and recover from, or else you're gonna make some serious mistakes and errors of judgment!  I already regret a few things I did over the weekend in this state of mind. 

 

On a related note, scientific studies (such as Mythbusters) have shown that doing things while sleep-deprived is even worse than drinking alcohol.  For example driving a car.  Jet lag is essentially a form of sleep deprivation, and I would highly caution anyone against hitting the ground running after getting off the plane.

 

Do yourself a favor and take a week of doing absolutely nothing first.  One of these summer visits I'll figure out a way to do just that. 

 

On a more general note, I always find myself seriously dogged with the cultural 're-entry' issue, even for a short-term summer visit back to my home country and city.  A long-term visit or a permanent move 'back home' would frighten the crap out of me, and it only gets worse the longer I've stayed abroad. 

 

In all respects there are some wonderful things about Vancouver and many positive stories to share about the friendly people, great scenery, non-polluted air, mountains, and so forth.

 

Yet I think the fundamental issue here is a social / relational one.  That is, I lived on the fringes of my own society from the get-go and experienced some minor forms of rejection and marginalization.  This was ages before doing any trips abroad, yet it happened early enough to form some lasting negative impressions of my home culture. 

 

The flipside was experiencing a far more positive existence and fitting into Shanghai more than I would have considered.  While I still live on the fringes of the society over there, it's a happy fringe-like existence because the city has had a history of tolerance and accepting outsiders.

 

Combine all this together and re-entry into Vancouver society really packs a  whallop, even if the scenery is beautiful and the quality of life is excellent, etc.

Accelerating The Speed of Tasks

Todays weather: High=24 Low=15
Sunny

What should have been a relaxing summer vacation 'back home' is now turning into a stress-filled disaster. At this point now, unfortunately, I have little choice but to accelerate what needs to be done here and change my flight to get back to Shanghai at an earlier time. That is, if it's possible. Will find out more information this week on how to accelerate tasks as fast as I can, and change my flight at the earliest opportunity.

This also means I'm going to cancel a planned bike trip in my home province as part of the summer break. The way things have been going this far, frankly, why even bother.

A good rule of thumb, speaking for myself, is to avoid any stressful activities or getting into intense discussions while under the influence of jet lag. It should be a case of rest first, wait a week to recover, and then start getting into action

Regretably, I fouled this one up big time and made some really stupid mistakes by getting into a heated conversation. Part of the problem is that the people I'm talking to are all the type-A sort who have no idea what jet lag is about, the extent of my experiences abroad, and the necessity of taking a breather. These are the kind of people who plan things to the hilt, expect others to be organized, etc. etc. The concept of flexibility, or figuring things out as you go along is unknown to the type-A personality sort. There are no shortage of these kind of people in my home country.

Nonetheless, it is foolish to hit the ground running instantly and on a summer vacation at that. But when everyone expects you to function ”normally” (in the sense of being a workaholic) right after getting off the plane and as if your experiences overseas never happened, then it makes for a severe case of unnecessary stress and re-entry shock. Once that starts kicking in, I then ignore my own advice and plunge into tasks too quickly, and then also say things in conversations that I wish could be deleted.

That's more or less why I've consistently advocated the idea of a gradual flight process 'back home' over multiple stops, as opposed to doing the whole thing in one slog. Failing the opportunity to break up the journey, then there should be at least a one week self-imposed `quarantine` period of rest and relaxation on arrival in order to get over the jet lag first.

It sounds silly to even mention this but there are more people than you might realize who have no idea of these concept, and who would expect an overseas returnee to just get off the plane and swing back into a "normal" life, vacation be damned.

Nonetheless the damage has already been done, as it were, and I'm now looking to change my flight earlier. But there are some drivers license and other tasks that are important and now it looks like, due to my mistakes, I will need to accelerate those tasks and get them done ASAP. Once back in Shanghai, I will then continue the vacation with the extra time over there.

Meanwhile, I have also learned more than I wanted to about the details of non-residency and taxation issues as they would apply to an expat. This was the source of the heated conversation as mentioned above, and has now got me interested in doing research on just how the taxation issues apply to people living abroad. You can expect a lot more posts on this, in detail, after the next several months once I become more familiar with how the process works.

Immigration Irony

Today's weather (Vancouver) High = 20 Low = 10
Sunny

Just got off the flight yesterday. The jet lag strategy has helped somewhat. Oversleeping prior to getting on the flight was able to ease the symptoms of jet lag, but it couldn't solve the fundamental problem of getting the body adapted to a new time zone. For that, the only solution is time, and it usually takes me a week.

Unfortunately I had a real negative experience with Canada immigration while coming back to my 'home country'. Basically I got pulled out of the main line once I had picked up my bags at the airport, and then taken into a side room for intense searching and questioning.

The irony here is that I've mainly had pleasant experiences with the immigration in the People's Republic of China, which is primarily a communist country. For the most part they are swift, efficient, and courteous. The common routine is to have them scan the passport while you wait for a short while and they stamp you in or out. Usually there are no questions asked. Afterwards, you are offered to evaluate their service level from 'satisfied' to 'not satisfied' and so forth.

It's likely that the whole 'customer service' setup at China immigration is just a big show to get positive face, and the ratings don't really accomplish much. But if we take an objective point of view based on multiple experiences, I've always found them to do a good job and have consistently been treated courteously and with respect.

It is with sadness to say that the complete opposite happens with immigration in my home country. For starters, there are no offers to evaluate service. Secondly, they really seem to have it in for returnees from Asia and this is based on multiple stories from friends and other Shanghai expats.

They don't tell you this anywhere on the form, but from experience you will certainly discover that you must enter your Shanghai address and enter the visitors lineup for Canada if you are planning to come back for the summer, and so forth. If you make a mistake on either of these points, then you'll get treated like an idiot. That is to say, if you're an expat, then do not enter the Canada residents line and do not enter any Canada addresses on the immigration form.

I was clear to follow this protocol, but the nutcases behind the desk still gave me the third degree in terms of their line of questioning. I had every single item in my bag searched. Including the files on my computers. Who knows, maybe they were looking for porn, or some other items that would fit the profile from a single male traveler returning from Asia.

It is also worth mentioning that bringing in DVDs from Asia is most definitely a bad idea. I didn't have a single DVD in my luggage, nor were there any problems with my computer. My answers to their questions lined up with what was in the bags, and that was that.

If you have large quantities of DVDs from Asia then I would suggest

a. Leave them over there and enjoy them in Asia
b. If you are leaving permanently, then either sell them off to other expats and/or
c. upload and store the movies on an external hard drive, your smart phone, a USB, etc. etc. Even better, use encryption technology so that if you do get searched at immigration and they plug the hard drive into a computer or something, it won't look like movies.

At any rate, there's not much point in elaborating or trying to lodge a formal complaint about this. A conflict with immigration is inevitable and they'd most certainly go after Asia expats to begin with, as I / we are effectively enjoying a much better life over there with teaching credentials and other documents that were obtained from my home country. In other words, they are punishing me for being a brain drain, along with multiple other Canadians.

At best it's just an invasion of privacy that has to be endured and it only happens once every year or two. Thank goodness there are no exit customs. Meanwhile, this is motivating to double check that I have indeed declared non-residency and to make sure that I'm not paying any tax. Heaven forbid my tax dollars would support an incompetent government department like immigration that acts worse than a communist country when it comes to treating its own citizens.