June 17, 2022
I2 - 1: 石家庄
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The first time I stayed at my friends' place was in 2008.
Back then, none of us knew anything about how easy or difficult it would be to temporarily register a foreigner at a private residence. As well (although the me of 2022 barely remembers her at this point) the husband's superior officer was someone who I'd been on good terms with and not attempting to register me meant not leaving a paper trail to indicate that she hadn't been invited out to dinner.
The second time I stayed with them was in 2012. This was still back before I had looked for the relevant rules and regulations beyond a firm certainty that things ought to work certain ways.
The third time was in 2018. By then, I knew that if I stayed in a private residence in a city, I was supposed to officially inform the police within 24 hours of my arrival. I also knew that the few times I had had a better reason than "supposed to" for bothering to do it, it had annoyed everyone involved (including the police).
Things are different this time. Not only because Covid but also because Ridge is currently working in Foreign Affairs and knows how simple the required paperwork is and how easy the process ought to be. Appropriately, it therefore took us three trips to the police station before it was actually done.
First time was after dinner the first night. While it's true we were at the station after hours and it's true that we'd had enough beer that maybe we weren't as clear as we could have been in telling the duty officer what to do, it's also true that he didn't do what we told him.
Second time was after lunch. This time the police called us. Of course, having relegated my jeans to the garbage bin and lacking pockets, I hadn't brought my passport with me when we'd gone out.
Third time we were only a little bit after hours but the person who wanted to get original photocopies of my passport rather than trust the images on my phone or my Form was findable. She grumped at us for coming late and Ridge grumped right back at her for unnecessarily complicating what ought to be a not so difficult process.
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