The required paperwork for someone entering the JET Program includes a physical exam by a licensed, practicing doctor and an FBI Identification Record, which proves I have have no criminal record. I also have to fill out an IRS form 8802 to claim US residency so I don't have to pay Japanese income tax. There is a foreign earned income exclusion on overseas income of less than $80,000, so I won't have to pay US federal income tax either. The strange thing with the IRS form is that I have to pay $35 for a one page letter from the US Dept. of Treasury that states I am a US resident for tax purposes. So I have to pay money for a tax form in order to not pay taxes.

A student helped me complete the physical exam at the nearby People's 533rd Army Hospital. I paid 25 yuan (about $3.23) for a physical, urinalysis, and chest X-ray. The doctor escorted me through the hospital, first giving me a tiny shot glass of a plastic cup and telling me to go to the hospital bathroom (which looks like any other public bathroom here). I had never been in a Chinese hospital. From first glance, there was not much privacy. In one room, people were sitting around with IV's stuck in their arms (which is a common treatment for colds/flu, but I think it's a little drastic). In the next room, a nurse took my blood pressure while doctors tended to a screaming infant. I had to take my tiny cup upstairs to the lab, ducking under the neon signboard. One old man in a Mao hat gave me a thumbs up. After we dropped off the cup, I went to the vision room. There they checked my sight. Instead of the Roman alphabet, the sign had the letter "E" rotated at different angles--I had to point whether it was facing up, down, left, or right. They checked me for color blindness. I read the numbers back in Chinese.

In the next room, they looked up my nose. That wasn't on the form. We passed an "AIDS room" which I assumed was for HIV testing. Some old needles were in the garbage can, but I did see a syringe on the floor. Most of the basic areas (blood pressure room, weight/height room) in the hospital resembled an American hospital from the 50s, plain white walls, older medical equipment, nurses in white hats. However, there were some places, like the X-ray room which looked as modern as any American hospital. The hospital was clean, just not flashy like Western hospitals (although there is a new hospital in Kunming run by Canadian doctors that costs just as much as American hospitals). The entire test took about an hour. I am grateful my student could walk me through and translate, as the doctor did not speak English.

I must send in my fingerprints for the FBI record. I tried doing this at the downtown police station, but I was told that they don't provide this service, so I must go downtown to the Immigration Control Center (出入管理中心). I met one nice woman there who spoke English, but informed me that the Chinese police only do fingerprinting records electronically these days, and they have no way of printing the form out. She suggested I try my neighborhood police station. So I tried that, and they sent me to the Panlong-qu district station. No one wants to put ink on my fingers and press it down on the form (which I have duly printed out on cardstock paper--I even provided the ink). I am beginning to think that it is a matter of face. Only criminals get fingerprinted in China, and for the police to fingerprint me would be a loss of face for me. That's the only thing I can think of. I emailed the Japanese consulate about this, hoping they will allow me to get fingerprinted once I return home to the US. And no, I don't have a criminal record!

Tomorrow is first day of Wu-Yi Holiday, which celebrates International Labor Day (May 1). We have the whole week off--it's one of China's three Golden Week holidays. I decided to go to Myanmar (Burma). I've been thinking about this for a long time, and now is my opportunity. Pyidaungzu Myanma Naingngandaw (The Union of Myanmar) has a consulate in Kunming, and I went down there to get my visa. It is in an old building and the elevator is often out of service. I had to walk up to the fifth floor (not so bad as there is often no fourth floor in China, similar to there occasionally being no 13th floor in the US). The consulate office was bare except for some old furniture, completely different from Vietnam's plush Kunming consulate. I didn't see any computers behind the counter, although there may have been one in the back room. Some young Myanma people were working and spoke fine English. Two Chinese people were dropping off a huge stack of Chinese passports.

I sat down at a ramshackle table covered in glue. I had to fill out three forms and provide three photos. The forms asked for my name, occupation, father's full name, etc. The woman kept using White-Out on my entries and I had to keep doing it over. First, for the occupation, I had to list where I worked. So I wrote it in Chinese (I thought it would be more comprehensible than writing Xinanlinxueyuan). She said, "No Chinese." So I wrote "Southwest Forestry University" and the address of the school. She said, "No address" and used white-out on the address. I marked that I was arriving by land, and she changed that to arriving by air. I signed my name beside the word "Signature." She used white-out there too and told me I need to sign *under* the signature line. She white-outted my Chinese address and told me to write my American address. By the time I got everything done, my application looked like it had been brushed over a couple times with white paint. She asked me when I wanted my visa, today or tomorrow, although I could see that in the meantime it had already been put into my passport. I said tomorrow as it the price was cheaper (I want as little as possible of my money going to the government of Myanmar). The people there were friendly though. Throughout the ordeal, the young woman was chatting in Burmese on her cellphone about TrustMart (local supermarket) and presumably other non-governmental business

Tomorrow I will teach two classes then take the night bus to Ruili, the "Vegas of China," the border town with Myanmar. My friends Lester and Will are going to Ruili, but will not cross into Myanmar. My friend Ðinh was going to go with me, but canceled at the last minute to go back to Vietnam for the break. From the border, I must hire a guide and acquire necessary permits to allow me to travel to Hsipaw in Shan State. From there, I hope to continue to Mandalay, although I don't have enough time to make it to Bagan (something amazing, like Angkor Wat in Cambodia, it's a pity I can't make it there). I heard that you can't reenter China through Ruili, so I will probably have to fly back to Kunming from Mandalay or Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Some people object to visiting Myanmar because of the repressive government. I understand this. However, I feel it's important to have grassroots contact with the Myanma people. Aung Sang Suu Kyi (the Nobel Laureate for Peace), although generally against traveling to Burma at the moment, said in 1995 that "Tourists can open up the world to the people of Burma just as the people of Burma can open up the eyes of tourists to the situation in their own country if they're interested in looking." A few people objected to my coming to China because of its human rights record. However, I feel my being here has made much more of a positive impact than negative. A few Chinese object to my going to Japan. However, I'm going to Burma (and Japan, and China, and the US). I have always been interested in Burma, and now's my chance to go.

I just need to make sure to tell everyone about what I saw.