Chinese Version10-19-2023， Thursday
This morning I tagged along with my son to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco as he is applying for a tourist visa. We had a mother-and-son half-day trip: talking, eating, playing, completing a task, exploring, sightseeing, and having fun together. After coming home, I described our half day trip to my daughter. She commented: “In order to have a good time, where you go is really not as important as who you are with.” She also suggested that I write it down as it was memorable and unique.
Applying for a Visa
Because someone drove into the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco ten days ago (October 9), there were three police officers guarding the front door of the consulate today. A policewoman stood outside the door to check the appointment sheet and/or visa application forms, after passing her review, she let us enter the hall where two policemen performed the security check. One officer who sat behind the table against the wall asked us to place our bags and small metal objects on his table; another officer who was standing formed a passage, between him and the table, into the waiting area. He held a stick-like instrument in one hand to scan my whole body from head to toe, include the underarms. There was no waiting at this security check because there were not many people here today. After we passed the security check, the police officer who was sitting gave my son a piece of paper with a number on it and told us to go in and wait for our number to be called for an interview. There are two types of people in the waiting area: about a dozen people without reservations standing in line waiting for their interviews; those with reservations sitting randomly waiting for their numbers to be called and most of them were ABC (American Born Chinese) children: being held in their parents’ arms, sitting in strollers, sitting on chairs drawing, reading comics, and playing games… Judging by their faces, I saw very few non-Chinese there. A brown-haired lady was also going through the security check, she first put her small bag and cell phone on the table as instructed, then turned to face the officer who were about to scan her body using the stick. When she heard “airplane mode” command from the officer, she immediately turned around, grabbed her cell phone from the table and said in a surprised tune: “Oh? Cell phone too?” She probably thought that entering the waiting area was like taking a flight which requires one to put cell phone in airplane mode to avoid interference with the airplane. The two police officers and I were laughing at her action and her question. Before she turned on her phone, the officer said again: “Raise your arms.” Upon hearing this, the lady started to laugh too and quickly put her phone back on the table, turned around and raised her arms to let the officer scan her body.
My son’s application materials were incomplete and he had to fill out an additional form on the spot. After accepting all the application materials from my son, the visa officer gave him a receipt and told him to come pick his passport up next Tuesday. Today’s process of applying for a Chinese tourist visa went smoothly, we spent less than an hour from entering the waiting area to leaving the consulate office. While walking back to our car, we saw a tent on the sidewalk, someone was lying in the tent, and household items were scattered outside the tent, which made this place appear to be a home for someone for a while now. We bypassed this sidewalk and walked on the main road. After getting in the car, my son said to me: “Mommy, thank you for coming with me today, otherwise I would have difficulty understanding how to fill the supplementary materials.” Actually, I didn’t think of coming with my son for his visa application; it was my daughter who suggested last week that I come.
This Monday, Alex reserved nannies to take care of Meimei, my granddaughter who is more than three months old, at home, because I am going to San Francisco with my son on Thursday. Alex used one of his company’s benefits: one employee can hire an in-house nanny, with an hourly fee of five dollars, fifteen times a year; he got confirmation from in-house nannies on Wednesday and Thursday, but Wednesday’s nanny cancelled her service due to a family emergency on early Wednesday, which made us all afraid that Thursday’s nanny would cancel her service at the last minute. Originally, my son and I planned to set off right after he picked me up at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, now we planned to wait until Alex came back from sending Ben, my 20 month old grandson, to daycare, in case the nanny didn’t show up. On Thursday, the nanny did show up on time but we still waited for Alex to come back, so Alex was in a hurry to get home. While making a sharp turn on the way sending Ben to the daycare, Ben was scared and started to cry because the carseat tilted too suddenly. Alex had to stop the car to calm Ben down then sent him off to the daycare. It was really more haste and less speed. After Alex returned home, we left. As Highway 101 was very smooth, it only took us about 70 minutes to reach the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco. My son parked his car on the roadside where a sign for free parking for two hours behind the consulate office street. We then made two left turns while walking to reach the consulate.
Eating
While waiting for the visa interview, my daughter suggested we go to the nearby Japantown for lunch and reminded me to treat her brother to a sweet drink.
My son drove from the consulate office to Japantown in a few minutes. He parked his car on a roadside with no signs nor parking meters, and he was worried about getting a ticket during lunch. After parking the car, he searched online and found a curry restaurant 30 minutes driving distance because he wanted to eat Japanese curry today. I told him that there were many Japanese restaurants in the shopping mall next to Webster Street, and they must have curry there. We crossed the street from where the car was parked and followed others into the shopping mall from a door on the roadside. When we passed the Matcha Cafe Maiko shop on the first floor, my son commented: “San Jose also has this shop.” Thinking of my daughter’s reminder, I said: “The restaurants are upstairs. We will buy drinks after lunch.”
There were not many tourists in the mall on Thursday. After 12 noon, we went upstairs to the dining area and saw the first shop with curry was On the Bridge, where the chairs inside were still upside down on the dining table. I saw a young guy was busy setting up advertisements outside. We said hello to him and he asked us to wait outside for a few minutes. I told my son: “There are many restaurants ahead. Let’s go check them out and come back if we don’t find any with curry.”
Looking left and right in the dining area, we saw many Sushi and Ramen restaurants. When we saw a restaurant that served curry with many empty tables, we went in. Our waitress was a girl with shoulder-length straight black hair, she led us to a table with window seats at the end of the restaurant. We bypassed tables on both sides, and the tables with window seats were all occupied, but the ones without window seats were all empty; it seemed the window seats were more popular. My son and I sat across from each other and we asked for free ice water, though he used to order a pink lemonade. He quickly chose the chicken curry rice. While looking at the photos of the lunch specials, the bentos, and the ramens on the menu, I had a good appetite for many and changed my mind a few times. Finally, out of curiosity, I ordered the Saba Bento (salt-grilled Mackerel bento) without a photo, because we don’t eat seafood often at home, plus I was satisfied with my son’s explanation: “Saba is a kind of fish, usually served grilled.”
Our order was served quickly and we enjoyed our food. The grilled Saba had a strong fish flavor and I experienced a new texture. While eating, we talked about his studies, his sister, and familiar things. I asked my son about his homework, and he said, “I’m very busy now because I will have exams next week and I need to set up the programming on a calculator in advance.” I asked if he liked the courses, and he said: “I like mathematics, and I also like solving math problems.” I laughed after hearing this and replied: “Your late grandpa also liked to do math exercises as a pastime.” I thought of my late father at our Fort Hill home doing Fan Yingchuan’s advanced mathematics exercises and how he tutored my brother who was going to participate in the middle school mathematics competition… I guess my father’s passion for mathematics was passed down. I told my son that his sister is very busy and tired; Ben, his twenty-month-old nephew, also begun to show his temper and sometimes knocked his head on the floor on purpose; but I emphasized: “Raising babies is tiring but rewarding.” I was very happy to hear him talking about his plans after getting his Chinese visa and I was excited for him too.
It is rare for me to eat with my son alone now. Today, while sitting in the restaurant eating and chatting, I suddenly recall something from more than thirty years ago. I asked a Taiwanese international student who was also part-time working at CUA nursing library: “Why do you often go to restaurants spending your half a day’s salary (in the 1990s, the part-time hourly wage for working in CUA’s library was five dollars)? She told me: “I like to be served in restaurants, as I don’t have to cook nor wash dishes, I just leave after eating.” Today I am satisfied in a youthful way with this petty bourgeoisie mood.
Two ladies who came to sit the table next to ours ordered bento boxes. After paying our bill, we got up and ready to leave, I saw their bill, just placed on their table, was similar to ours, less than $40. I couldn’t help but take a few more glances at them: with their bright colored clothes, slightly chubby figures, snow-white hair, fair skin, red lips, and amiable appearances, I guessed they were a pair of long-time girl friends having a good time together.
When we went downstairs and were passing the Matcha Cafe Maiko Shop, I reminded my son: “Go get a drink you like.” He said: “Thanks, I’m full.” I added: “Your sister wants me to treat you well, so go get a drink!” My son walked into the shop and looked up at the menu on the wall for a while before ordering a large drink. The cup handed over to my son by the waiter looked like the small size, so I couldn’t help but ask, “Is this the large size?” The waiter nodded. After we walked out of the mall, I asked my son what kind of drink he ordered, and he asked me to try it; I tried the drink and said: “I fell some familiarity but can’t name the flavor.” My son told me: “This is a black sesame flavor drink.” I thought of the familiar black sesame paste flavor and wondered why my son was interested in such non-sweet taste, and he continued: “Zelene and I had black sesame ice cream in San Jose once and we liked the flavor.” Oh, that’s it.
Playing
After walking out of the shopping mall, I said to my son: “Could you take a look to see if Golden Gate Park is on the way home? If so, we can go and play there first.”
My son immediately said: “There are many Pokemon Gyms in Golden Gate Park.” He checked the map on his cell phone and said: “Golden Gate Park is very close to here, only two miles. Let’s go there, we may have a chance to catch a shiny Guzzlord there.” While talking and walking, I saw a Gym nearby spawned the Guzzlord raid, we stopped on the road to raid and defeated the Guzzlord in Japantown. This monster looks round, but it is difficult to hit its center with a thrown ball, so it is not easy to catch it, but we all caught it this time.
I guessed that we would enter the Gym remotely to raid Guzzlord later, so I bought three remote passes in a hurry then sighed: “Remote passes are so expensive now, costing me more than 500 coins. In the past, I can buy three for 300 coins.” After hearing me complain, my son said: “You didn’t buy the deal package? Three remote passes, a lucky egg, and a star only cost 495 coins.” I said, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier.” He said: “I just saw it too.” If you have three remote passes, you can no longer buy any remote passes and I just bought three, so my son reminded me: “After using some of the remote passes later, remember to buy the deal package.”
The GPS on the car led us to the entrance of the Golden Gate Park on Fulton Street, but the road inside the entrance was blocked; if we wanted to enter the park, we had to park the car there and walk. I prefer to park the car in the park, so I set the familiar Stow Lake as the destination on my phone and guided my son to drive to Golden Gate Park in a few minutes. There happened to be two Gyms in the park with Guzzlord raids and with not much time left, so my son parked the car on the side of the road and we sat in the car and used remote passes to enter the raids in the Gym. We won both battles, my son also figured out how to throw a excellent ball to hit the center of Guzzlord now (Of course, throwing an excellent ball does not guarantee catching the monster, it only increases the chance of catching it), but I still threw the balls without hitting its center. So I asked my son to help me catch the Guzzlord with a high score. We had a lot of fun in Golden Gate Park and I also remember some good times in the past: as a driver to Fort Mason to watch my kids playing Pokémon Go in a cold day in San Francisco, later as a player playing Pokemon Go with my kids in Boston.
After we caught two Guzzlords in Golden Gate Park, we didn’t see any more Guzzlord raids. As we were worried about traffic jams on the southbound highway during rush hours, we drove home on Highway 280 following the GPS without staying long in the Golden Gate Park. Not long after taking on highway 280 from San Francisco, there are rolling dense green mountains on the right side, my son and I both liked this scenery very much. I bought a deal package that has three remote passes as suggested by my son in the car and felt a little sleepy, as I fighting Pokemon raids was very exciting which made me exhausted afterwords. Knowing that my son is a very good driver, I quickly fell asleep in the car. After being woken up by a strange noise, I asked: “What was that?” My son said: “We are in a traffic jam now, I don’t want to push the pedal for stopping and going, so I switched to the auto-drive mode, that sound was from the switch.” I quickly took out my phone and took a few pictures of the traffic jam scene on the southbound 280 highway, because I rarely drive in the rush hour now, so a traffic jam on the highway is also a rare sight for me.
A very happy half-day trip for a mother and her adult son, with a mission and a lot of fun.
Little Episodes
The sight of a traffic jam on the highway 280
Our lunch: my son’s chicken curry and my Saba bento
Pokemon Go, three remote raid passes in the Boo Bundle cost 495 coins, just three remade raid passes cost 525 coins. The three star Guzzlord my son caught for me. I raided five Guzzlord, but only caught four of them.
Ben, my grandson, was the first reader and listener of this story. As I read this story to his parents, he came up to me and started reading it carefully.
