I went to the Chinese consulate after getting back to Santa Monica. I needed to get my tourist visa for the first 30 days that I will be in China. There is a pretty basic form that you have to fill out….the problem being that it must be turned in with a passport in person to the consulate in downtown Los Angeles. I figured that it wouldn’t be too bad….after all, how many Americans need to get tourist visas for trips to China, and how long could it possibly take to process such a simple form. I was right on both counts. There weren’t many Americans and it didn’t take very long to submit the application and passport when it was my turn.

The problem was the sheer number of Chinese people there. When I got there, I picked a number from the machine–346–and looked up at the screen to see what number they were currently on. It was 134!!! And it did not go fast at all. Some of the people spent 10 minutes at the window when it was their turn. I don’t know why there were so many Chinese people there, but only about 5% of the people waiting were not Chinese.

It was very strange. My first real experience being surrounded by a TON of Chinese people speaking Chinese. It kind of worried me because I couldn’t even make out when one word stopped and another word started. I tried mimicking some of the sounds I heard in my head and was utterly lost. I think learning Chinese is going to be much more difficult than even I had thought….but I am more excited to try now that I have gotten a little taste.

After 2 hours, it was finally my turn at the window. The lady looked over my form for 2 seconds, looked at my visa for another 2 seconds, and gave me a claim check. 2 hours of waiting for a 4 second drill……what a good use of my time . I should be able to pick up my passport with the visa Tuesday.

The studying has been coming along decently. I bought 4 books from Amazon and have working my way through them. I got The Official Guide for the GMAT Review from ETS, Crash Course for the GMAT from the Princeton Review, GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible from Power Score, and Cracking the GMAT from the Princeton Review. I have done about half of the ETS book and almost all of the Crash Course.

My Grandma Alice, Aunt Terry, and Cousin Summer came to visit and see the baby on Saturday. I took a ton of pictures. It was very nice to see all of them again.

My dad and my brother:

Krista playing with Mikey:

My little brother:

Dad playing with a happy baby:

3 Generations of Davidson women…..Grandma Alice, Cousin Summer, and Aunt Terry:

Krista and Dad at the piano playing a piece for 4 hands:

Dad playing the piano:

Dad with a funny face:

Grandma Alice, Terry, Krista, Dad, Summer, and me:

Back row – Krista, Dad, and Summer. Front Row: Grandma Alice, Terry, and me: