Getting Out of the Bubble

My boyfriend and I just came back from holiday. It might not sound like much, but to him it was a pretty big deal. The way Chinese and Muslim (benefits of living in a Hui Muslim province) holidays fell this year meant that my boyfriend got an unprecedented two weeks off work, this was an opportunity that he was convinced not to waste. About two months ago we started making big plans, we were going to get my boyfriend out of China for the first time. We set our sights on Spain because, Spain is one of my favourite countries in the world, I love the food, the people, the culture…everything My boyfriend supports FC Barcelona and the thought of seeing Messi in the flesh makes him giddy as a school girl. We started research early and got all the required documents together for the long and tedious process that is getting a Chinese National a visa to Europe. Just over a month before our intended departure date we submitted all the relevant paperwork via an agency that we had been