Cultural differences and no Flemish

After having spent an hour or so at work I jumped into my car to get a new visa at the Chinese consulate. This time I pretty much knew what to expect and did not entertain world war refugee scenarios

After 30 minutes of being annoyed with the average idiot on Brussels' streets, I arrived and was pleasantly surprised that there were only a few applicants before me. There were two counters for visas. One was occupied by a man whose looks were not really befitting the job he was doing: not shaved, shabby suit and really looking tired...

I know this style. Have used it often enough myself.
But in a consulate... ?

Anyway, he was busy with a young couple, so I turned to the other counter. There I could watch a Chinese lady comb her hair for a painstakingly long time with no real effect. I watched for a while and patiently waited until she was eventually ready to consider my application. I remembered her from last time and I knew that she did not speak not much English. And just as last time, she did not spend any second at all with the invitation letter I had with me and went only briefly through the application form. This time, she didn't even want to see my Belgian residence card, though.

She scribbled some numbers on a piece of paper which would become my receipt and said...

Visa lady: fhskdfhsdkjfsdkf

What?!

Visa lady: sdjfgjkjhsgkdhfgk

I had no idea what she was trying to tell me, just as last time, but thankfully one of her other colleagues who mastered English came to the rescue.

Visa lady 2: This is for multiple entries?
Leo: That's right.
Visa lady 2: You have to come back tomorrow...

Tomorrow?
Gee! I had ticked the box for extremely urgent processing, which normally should be finished in, say, half an hour. But my understanding of "normally" was based on the one-off experience I had from my previous visa application, where I only went for a single entry visa. I wondered whether I had missed something on the embassy's website and whether a multiple entry visa required more time by default.
And I did not want to come back for the same thing! Cutting 2 hours out of your working day once is bad enough. Doing this twice is not really an option. Already wondering about a quick fix, I was about to ask whether it would be faster if I went for a double entry visa instead. But the lady was faster:

Visa lady 2: ... otherwise you'll need to pay a fee.

Ah?!
Well, that was what I had obviously asked for on my application form. After re-confirming verbally that I was more than happy to take the extra cost to accelerate the process (and save precious hours of my life while causing some weird looks from the two ladies) they asked my to take a seat and wait.

It did not even take 10 minutes, giving me hardly a chance to study some Flemish, and I had a new, pretty visa pciture in my passport.

China can come (not so sure about my exam)...