Veni vidi visa?

Tomorrow's the big day - the day when I finally go to a Chinese consulate to apply for a visa. I'd hoped to have it in hand in New York last month, where I'm just a short subway ride from a consulate, but it's taken a long time for the most official of officials at my host institution in Shanghai to get the most official of invites to me (and then I waited a week, piggybacking a trip to the LA Consulate with dropping my visiting Australian family off at LAX this evening). Turns out that most official of official invites is not for the nine months mentioned in what had before that seemed the sufficiently official letter of invitation from the Chair of the Religious Studies Department, but for just three. (Apparently it's not too hard to extend.) We'll see what the consular official feels like giving me; I'm still applying for the longer stay. I plan to be the first in line tomorrow 9am, and have positioned myself at a nearby motel - in fact, in LA's pre-LED Chinatown. Hope that helps!