Life With Chopsticks

Ellyn Writing!!! Surprise! I'm still alive!

Maybe been about 5 months since I wrote last....so sorry! But here goes try to get as much out before I have to get to school.

Here in Vietnam I have been given the nickname of Wrong Way Ellyn. This name has come from the fact that I sometimes show up later than people that leave at the same time as I have. Or I am gone for a half day when I just planned to stop by the corner store, or people think that I get "lost"...now I have been quite opposed to this name, and have fought it hard, but I think this has only strengthened the name. I always say just because it was the long way doesn't make it the wrong way. I hope some of you out there will agree with me...I just like to take the road less traveled, I like to explore....I'm something like a Conquistador :). So my latest development which has been a 3 month adventure, is my passport, visa issue. Many of you have already heard of this but for those who haven't, this is quite an interesting story and even though it's still not entirely resolved, sometimes I am able to laugh about it.
The story begins 3 months ago, on January 25, my parents and I left Vietnam to visit Cambodia during TET holiday. We left this day on a flight from Ho Chi Mihn City to Siem Reap. On our way out we received a nice red stamp that said hey we are leaving the country. This was a beautiful stamp, I don't know if we have ever mentioned red stamps in this country but the Vietnamese worship these things. Without a red stamp you are in trouble. In fact, I believe I will have to get a red stamp tattoo to always remember this country, one that will cover my whole face, it shall be beautiful. So, we received our stamps on the way out. Then we decided it would be nice to take the bus the rest of the way. We took a bus from Siem Reap to Pnom Phenn. Stayed there for a day and headed back home in the hopes of taking a motorbike trip up the coast from my home. We didn't get to do that trip, however, as many things went wrong. Crossing the border, from Cambodia back to Vietnam, there were loads of people crammed into a building. There was a stack of twenty-some passports all for the people from our bus that were taken away to some random back-room where they were analyzed and stamped. They called people out one by one and then they were rushed back to the bus. I was last to be called and the bus driver grabbed my stuff to hurry me along (not that I am slow, I learn to move fast from my dad). Because we were moving so fast I accidentally left some hats back behind, I hope some people enjoy those hats! :) When I got onto the bus I sunk into my seat breathing hard and sweating profusely. I located all of my important items, passport, wallet, phone and put them in my jacket pocket, all the while think maybe this isn't the best place for these things. Somehow I still left my passport there thinking I would be fine. Big mistake! As we got back into Ho Chi Mihn City we had the most difficult time finding a way back to Vung Tau because of the holiday. We went from place to place from taxi to taxi in order to get a bus or a boat back to Vung Tau. In this process, trying to drag along all of our bags and countless souvenirs, I misplaced my jacket...or had it it stolen....so there goes my passport! So this created countless problems for my trip with my parents, which I may write about later but I need to finish this story first.
After I lost my passport I had to get a red stamp from the police that said that I lost my passport...the police aren't the greatest people to deal with in Vietnam, especially when you don't speak Vietnamese. When I went to a police department in Ho Chi MIhn City on my own for example they asked "where did you lose it?" since I didn't really know I gave him a street name that I knew and he says "well you need to go to the police on that street"...simply because he didn't want to deal with me. This conversation all took about 45 min because they don't know much English and my Vietnamese is extremely limited. So I went to the other street, about 2 blocks away and they said that I needed to come back with a hotel manager. I had to go back to Vung Tau to work that day so I said fine and left. Back in Vung Tau I have made a friend who has friends in high places so he got the stamp after about a week, RED STAMP #1.
This stamp allowed me to go to the consulate and get a new passport which I got 2 weeks later with a letter from the consulate stating I lost my passport and I will be needing a new visa....with.....you guessed it....a RED STAMP...#2. With two stamps and a new passport I should be set! I sent these in through ILA to get a new visa around March 1. So when I still didn't have a visa about 2 weeks later, I started getting worried. I bothered my manager about it virtually every day. She continued to reassure me that there was no problem. Then around the 3rd week point they said they was no record of me entering the country and that this was a problem. BUT we could fix this with a red stamp, so I signed a paper which gave information on when I left and entered the country. READ STAMP #3. Around this time, mid-March I decided it was time for me to move on jobs and cities, so I gave my notice around March 24 and asked for more information on my visa and for my documents (degree, background check, CELTA certificate) back. From then on I continued to ask about the visa with continued reassurance that there was no problem. Then 2 weeks from my last day April 15th I received an email which stated that I needed to come to office immediately because there was a problem with my passport/visa. In the office, my manager said that it wasn't going to be as bad as she had thought. She was told that they were going to send me home (back to the United States) because I was so illegal, but that she had negotiated with them (not quite sure who them is) that I would be able to get a visa that would allow me to leave the country, and then I could apply for a new visa and re-enter the country. So this was the new plan make a visa run; I would have to be out of the country by April 29th. I made plans over the next week, I would go into Malaysia where my sister had a friend and try to get a visa there. While this was happening, I needed another stamp from the Vung Tau police that stated that I had been living in Vung Tau all this time, however, they didn't want to give me this because I had been unable to register with the police because I had not had a passport, bit of a cyclical nightmare, so finally the police gave me a stamp because I moved into a hotel for a few days and registered with them RED STAMP #4. All of this has now been sent to the immigration office in the hopes of a visa that will allow me to leave the country and eventually maybe come back in? Now I have been talking to an employer up in Hanoi who have offered me a job. The lady I have been talking to told me that this whole situation is completely out of the ordinary and that when this happens they don't usually allow people back into the country. Then she asked me if I had gotten in trouble with the police, I, of course, said I have done nothing. So at the moment I am supposedly getting a visa on May 12 that will allow me to leave the country, and then I am working with Language Link a company in Hanoi to get me a visa to get back in. Oh, and remember those documents that i asked for over a month ago, because I need them to get a new job, they have recently been sent to America to be notarized (this is normal for the work permit process), because they weren't told to stop the process when I told them I was leaving. :) Convenient right?
Life with Chopsticks. When I first came to Vietnam I didn't know how to use chopsticks very well, nor did most of my friends in the CELTA course. Eating was so much more difficult, maybe that's why I first lost weight. When others gave up and used the forks and spoons they looked at me like a crazy fool. They asked me "why don't you just use a fork" I always said "you know, I'm not so sure, I just want to use chopsticks, I'm not going to give in" I now look back and compare this to my life, I can never go the easy route, somehow I always end up struggling through this path where no one has been. Perhaps people think its the "wrong way" but usually it just less traveled. Sometimes I wish I had chosen a different route, but by the time I have recognized this...its much to late and I am being deported from a country! :)