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So, I slept in this morning, and not 30 minutes after rolling out of bed, someone rings my apartment. Now, we were expecting a few deliveries, but not this early in the week, so I was skeptical, but a quick peek at our building's stalker cam in the lobby assured me that my guest was, in fact, the postman. A few minutes later, he comes up and hands me an envelope with my self-addressed label on it. It couldn't be my visa so soon; I was concerned that I had forgotten a form or filled my application out incorrectly. Instead, to my delight, I opened the envelope to find copies of the forms I'd submitted, my passport, and a visa inside said passport. Yes! So so good. After this, I have not a care in the world until packing, pretty much.
Then I had a lovely Skype date -- a notable event. (Also, aside from this blog, Skype will be a really good way to keep up while I am away.) And after that, I ventured up to Best Buy to purchase a digital camera, clearly a necessity for international travel...also for the summer. God bless Father's day (and only having to worry about buying gifts for myself)! Thanks to the sale, I am now the proud owner of a Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS Digital Elph. This lovely thing, to the right. I wanted to post one of the photos I took (srsly, it's a career-maker), but my internet doesn't seem to want to comply. I'll work on that. In the meantime, you can just stare at the camera for a while. That's what I've been doing.
So, I dropped over $100 at the post office yesterday (between shipping and the application fee paid by money order), but the visa application is complete and probably at the consulate right now! Thank goodness. Everytime I thought I was done, I realized there was something extra to do, so it's nice to be done for real now. IT'S A JUNGLE OUT THERE.
Next hurdle: booking my flights and finding affordable tickets. (Not in that order.)
ALSO, as promised, an awkward visa photo (but is it worthy of http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/?):
Surprisingly, I haven't been too tempted to procrastinate, recently. Finals are coming up and I've had a spurt of gumption, but it's time for a study break since I officially initiated my visa application this weekend.
Applying for a visa to study in France has...a lot of steps. First you have to submit an online form, then you have to mail in a money order, and THEN you can make arrangements for an appointment at your consulate to see if it will be possible for you to get a visa. Additionally, the online form was written in Franglais, and none too easy to decipher at all times...and then the fee via money order really just adds insult to injury, although I guess I see why they'd want their payment to come guaranteed. On the other hand, they charged me an extra $1.05...why should it cost extra when I'm just buying money?
And so it begins...now I just have to figure out how to arrange my consulate visit and make sure I'm not forgetting any important forms. Woooo!!
