Um, Seriously, Mr. Policeman?

For those of you in-country, you know that China’s a stickler for visas. I’m already running out of visa space on my new passport since I had to have an entry visa, a three-month visa to live in Chengdu, a one-year visa to live at my site, and now a second one-year visa to stay another year. Anywho, my old visa expires in about 6 days, so it’s getting pretty critical that I get it renewed. We were going to go today, but… visas schmisas! It’s more important that the station close so they can practice singing “that national songs” in honor of the PRC’s 60-year anniversary. And in case you didn’t get that the first time… yes, the police station (at least the part that deals with visas) is closed for three days so they can sing. But the madness isn’t only at the police station; classes at my university were also canceled Friday, Monday, and Tuesday so the students could practice their singing. It’s seriously confounding to me.

In other police news: I had my wallet stolen last week, and my waiban has been in contact with the police to see if it can be found (minus the cash, of course). I have a message for the man who said “thanks for supporting our work here at the police station”: no prob, Mr. Policeman, I’m glad I could get my wallet stolen so you’d have something to do today. Sorry to drag you away from the singing, though...