{"id":332,"date":"2019-08-13T15:52:48","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T19:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/?p=332"},"modified":"2019-08-13T15:52:48","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T19:52:48","slug":"was-i-lucky-i-got-back-to-the-united-states-without-a-valid-visa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/08\/13\/was-i-lucky-i-got-back-to-the-united-states-without-a-valid-visa\/","title":{"rendered":"Was I lucky! I got back to the United States without a valid visa!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In my last post, \u201cThank you, America!\u201d I told you my being admitted to\nthe University of Michigan with a teaching assistantship.  That was real luck!  But then, I almost blew it\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On my arrival in America the last week of August, 1962, I met up with a\ncollege friend, Leo Lee, in San Francisco. \nWe had each bought a \u2018See-USA-in-3-months\u2019 Greyhound bus ticket for $99\nbefore we left Hong Kong.  We had planned\non doing a little sight-seeing along the California Coast, before heading northeast\ntowards our respective final destinations, Leo to the University of Missouri\nand I to the University of Michigan. \nHere is what I have written in my books: \nMy memoir (The Life of a Pharmacognosist\u2026) and my combined book (Memoir\n+ my Newsletter) titled, \u201cMy Life & Rollercoaster Career\u2026\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following is from my memoir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chapter 4.  Adulthood\nin America <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

IGNORANCE IS\nBLISS!<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Diego was the last and southernmost\nCalifornia city Leo and I visited. While there, we decided to make a side trip\nacross the border to see a bullfight in Tijuana, Mexico. We must have seen ads\nor something during our trip and decided to see a bullfight. I don\u2019t remember\nwhether or not the Greyhound bus went to the border at that time and if not, I\nthink we might have ridden a taxi to the Customs & Immigrations checkpoint\nand walked across the border to Mexico. Once on the Mexican side, taxis were\neverywhere. We got on one taking us to the bull fight. We each had all our\nmoney and valuable belongings in our small bag. I had 200 dollars cash that was\nsupposed to be for my living expenses until my first paycheck from my teaching\nassistantship. Leo was from a better-off family and had more cash than I. Since\nwe had no idea where we were going or knew anything about Tijuana, what if the\ntaxi driver took us someplace and robbed us? For a while I panicked. I had\nwatched too many American cowboy movies with banditos in them! But then, we got\nto the bullfight arena soon enough. We paid the driver and got into the arena\nand watched the bullfight. It was not as spectacular as I had thought. Still,\nthe event that followed was so etched in my memory which made whatever happened\nafter the bull fight and the little tourist stroll in downtown Tijuana become\nnon-events. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How we got back to the border checkpoint\nis a blank. All I remember is we were immediately detained by U.S.\nImmigration\/Customs. An officer took us into a room and explained we didn\u2019t\nhave the proper documents to enter the United States, because our visas were\nfor a single entry only. We used that up when we landed at the airport or the\npier when we first arrived in the States. After maybe 30 or 45 minutes, or\nmaybe an hour, of questioning and reviewing our papers, including university\ncontacts such as correspondences and my teaching assistant appointment, among\nother papers, the officer was satisfied that we were legitimate students. He\nreleased us after giving us a stern lecture about immigration rules. He didn\u2019t\neven call our school contacts, as far as I know. I was 24 years old and Leo\nperhaps a year older, obviously both na\u00efve and innocent. Young people at this\nage now can be high-level executives in government or industry. And we were\njust starting graduate school and traveling like greenhorns. I shudder at the\nthought of this episode fast forwarded to now. What could have happened? <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was a teenager in Hong Kong,\nthere was a widely known case of a homeless European living on the Hong Kong –\nMacau ferry. I don\u2019t remember the details, but he somehow got himself onto one\nsuch ferry without immigration documents. Neither the Hong Kong nor the Macau\nimmigration let him land. For a long time he was living on that ferry as a\nhomeless person without a country. This was the same ferry line I used to take\nto visit Uncle Siu and Aunt Pauline in my high-school and college days. It\nusually took three hours. Now the Hong Kong – Macau hydrofoil takes only one\nhour. I have never found out how the story with the homeless European ended.\nRegardless, I am grateful for the compassion of that U.S. immigration officer\nto let us back in. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having been brought up in an environment encompassing some of the world\u2019s most profound religions and philosophies (Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Catholicism), I believe in fate and luck. I have been certainly lucky on more than one such occasion.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\npresent-day America, I wonder anyone dumb and na\u00efve enough as Leo and me to\nhave crossed into Mexico and got back in the States without a visa.  Was I lucky!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my last post, \u201cThank you, America!\u201d I told you my being admitted to the University of Michigan with a teaching assistantship.  That was real luck!  But then, I almost blew it\u2026 On my arrival in America the last week of August, 1962, I met up with a college friend, Leo Lee, in San Francisco.  … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Was I lucky! I got back to the United States without a valid visa!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}