P is for Patience

When I was young, my parents did their best to teach me how to be patient.  ‘Wait your turn”, they pleaded when I was anxious to jump ahead in a line; “We’re almost there” I heard when I tried to figure out just how long it really took to drive from New York to North Carolina; “Stop fidgeting” my mom urged when the church sermon seemed to go on and on.  Once I became an adult, and entered the business world, a healthy dissatisfaction for things taking too long was actually an advantage. As a result, my patience got shorter as I got older.

Since we’ve moved to China, I’m trying my best to recall the lessons my parents were trying to instill.

Our Wednesday went something like this:  We decided to go to the local bank to deposit our remaining US Dollars (USD) into our local bank account, and convert these dollars to the Chinese currency (RMB), so we could continue pay for items in local currency.  We were estimating a 20 minute visit to the bank, tops, and even told the kids this wouldn’t take long (bad move).

We got to the bank and deposited our US Dollars into our local bank accounts, no problem,  Step 1 complete!  Unfortunately, what we didn’t realize, is that to actually convert the money that was sitting in our account from USD to RMB, we needed our passports.  If you don’t exchange the dollars, the money just sits in your account as USD and is not usable.  The rest of the process went something like this (imagine we are communicating in broken Mandarin, the teller in broken English and using lots of pointing)

• Teller:  We need your passport to make the currency exchange.
• Us:  We don’t have our original passports. The Chinese government has our passports to complete the immigration process. Can you take our paper copies of our passports?
• Teller:  I’m not sure, I have to check

<<< 2-3 minutes elapses>>

• Teller:  No, I’m sorry, no paper copies, the money is deposited but will remain as USD
• Us:  Wait, I have my passport card, can you take that?
• Teller:  Not sure, I have to check

<<< 2-3 minutes elapses>>

• Teller:  No, I’m sorry, I can’t take the passport card, the money deposited will have to remain as USD (Side Note:  The Passport Card has proven no value to me here:))
• Us:  Well how can we convert the dollars?
• Teller:  You need your passport
• Us:  We don’t have our passports, the Chinese government has them…(Return to Exchange 1)

…You get the point. After about 1 hour, 2 computer malfunctions and 3 tellers, we were finally able to convert the deposited USD to RMB using our online banking accounts.

A similar scenario played out later in the week  when we tried to check-in to a local hotel for a little family getaway.  We finally checked into the hotel, only 1.5 hours after we’d initially arrived and after a return visit home to obtain an obscure copy of a temporary Chinese residence permit.  I guess that’s progress!

These experiences have already made me much more empathetic to immigrants living in the US. I have no idea what red tape they have to go through to get through their daily tasks.

One thing I do know,  I am a temporary resident of a foreign country, and I’ve got the patience to prove it.