I am so thrilled!
My employer has approved me to go again. 
))
So I am spending 30 days in China this summer and using only 7 days of my vacation time. (work related part is 3 weeks). The trip is partially subsidised. My salary is being paid without using my vacation time, course and housing for 3 weeks is provided, everything else (including flights) I'll have to pay.
This time DH will fly with me there! He'll have to come back to work after 2 weeks. But even 2 weeks with him there is nice (last time I went all by my lonesome).
We will fly into Hong Kong, spend 3-4 days there and fly to Shanghai for a day or to and off to Nanjing.
DH will stay with me for a week of my programme, than go home. I will eventually end up somewhere in Hunan province (probably in Changsha) and will make my way back home on my own.
I am really excited. Yes, I'll have to study and attend boring bureaucratic functions and the city is as hot as a brick oven that time of year.... but it still feels like a partial vacation. A definite change in routine. I am very excited!
I got approved to go to CHINA!
April 16th, 2009 at 04:46 pm
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All that involved was: getting a visa(1 day), getting a plance ticket, and filling out an application for the University. Tuition was $800 per semester, and my brand new studio apartment was $150 a month. I had a great time.
JoBeth, were you also there to study Mandarin? I visited Taiwan, but not yet Singapore.
Lizajane, it is not directly for work, just somewhat work-related. My department would not get any practical benefit out of this training as we are not dealing with China, so they view this as self development.
But they are letting me go because this was organized by another department within the organization and I really wanted to go.
So it is pretty generous of them to treat this as working for the purpose of salary and benefits and not require me taking my leave time. Plus, the classes are only 4 hours a day, so I don't feel they owe me to pay for my flight and give per-diem in this particular siutation. I look at it as them giving me 3 additional weeks of leave with full pay with the condition that I use it for self-improvement.