I went to the Immigration Office today to apply for my non- immigrant visa. What a place! Imagine your local Registry of Motor Vehicles and multiply it by ten. 7 floors of madness. Language barriers all over the place. Overheard frustrations like - "No one ever told me I needed that document! How much more do I have to pay? I can't wait two weeks! I can't find where I need to go next."

I was so lucky that a representative from ECC went with me. He has been doing this for 7 years. He knew most of the people there. He told me beforehand what I needed to bring and I brought those things and he told me to sit in a chair and wait. After about 15 minutes he came back out of the office and said, "We're done."

The next step is waiting for my work visa. He will process all that information and then I am all set.

And O.K. - I confess - I had McDonald's today.