La prefecture ou l'ambassade

The one thing that lasted past the end of the semester was the process of my spring 2015 student visa.

I'd been accepted to the GW Paris Sciences Po program, and since I jump at an opportunity to return to France every time it's offered to me, I accepted my offer of admission and then awkwardly explained to George Washington University's study abroad office that I couldn't go to the pre-departure orientation meetings because I was not in the country.  I also asked immediately for any and all paperwork that I needed, because I hadn't planned earlier for my spring semester and my fall visa expired on the first of January, 2015.

GW sent me my acceptance letter and told me to start the process for the visa extension as soon as possible.  So obviously, I put it off for about a month and a half.

I finally asked IES and was told to head over to the prefecture, and after a little searching, I found the prefecture and walked right in and said I was there to extend a student visa.  I was told that the visa office was closed and I would need to come back the next day, at either 8 in the morning or about 1pm, to wait for it to open again.

My next attempt at extending the visa came several days later when I walked back to the prefecture with the intention of getting a list of required materials.  Just a list, I told myself.  I just need that list of papers that I need.  I'd looked online for lists, and all of them involved OFII applications and copies of my birth certificate and official translations of said birth certificate.  I emailed my parents with the lists and asked them to send scans while I tried to organize the real list.

I arrived in the prefecture and was told to come back the next day because the office was closed.  I insisted that I just wanted a list of materials.  Just a list, nothing more.  The woman at the desk repeated that I would need to come back the next day.

When I arrived the next day, I had a plan in mind.  I walked into the prefecture, took a number, and waited.  After just a few minutes, my number was called and I explained that I wanted.

The woman very gently informed me that I was in the office for car registration.

As I left, I asked again what time the office opened.  The woman at the desk told me with a smirk that it was already open, but then when I clarified that I wanted to know what time it opened the next day, I was told 8am or 1:30pm.

"What time does the line start for the one thirty opening?"  I asked.

"About noon."

The next day, I got to the prefecture at 11:20am and navigated a police barricade before settling myself at the head of the line for the visa offices.  I sat there, with a freshly downloaded album from Noisetrade on repeat, and waited until the office door was opened at 1pm.  With the rest of the line, I rushed into the second waiting room before being allowed to draw a number at 1:30pm.

At 2pm, I finally reached the desk, operated by the nicest embassy/prefecture/DMV worker I've ever encountered.  He'd been around for the past hour, organizing the line and yelling at people who weren't letting a woman with her tiny baby through the line.

I explained to him that I needed to extend a student visa, and after examining my passport, he told me that it was impossible to extend the sort of visa that I'd been given.  He took a fresh piece of paper and started writing down lists and addresses--he told me that I had to apply in writing to an address in Rennes--probably the consulate--because my visa required that I return home before it expired.  I assured him that I was indeed going home, and with a relieved sigh, he tore his list in two and told me to just apply for a new visa in the embassy in the states.

"It's so much simpler," he told me three times, and I ran out of the prefecture and made it to my 2:30pm theatre class in time.

I had already done this deal before--going from being abroad with a ticket home to being abroad with a rearranged ticket to DC so I could get that visa appointment.  I booked my appointment and my parents and I started sending things and submitting money orders.  CampusFrance took time and I started to get nervous when they didn't send me confirmation emails, but otherwise it was straightforward--I'd already done it all before.

My flight was changed from Nantes-->Paris-->London-->Seattle to Nantes-->Paris-->Detroit-->DC and my mom sent all the necessary papers to the hotel.

On the 22nd, I found myself standing outside the French embassy at 8:30am, waiting for the embassy to open so I could get to my 8:45am appointment.  I was let in just a little late and then grabbed the first number, popped up to the window when I was called, and then handed my papers to the man at the window just as fast as he asked for them.  I remembered my first visa appointment, where processing took time and I had to wait for maybe two hours in between being called to the window, being given another number, and waiting again.

I was given a form to sign, one that said that I acknowledged my passport could take up to three months to be processed, especially for the long stay visa.

The man took all of my papers, handed back a few of them, and stapled my picture to the application form.

"All right, you're good to go," he said.

"That's all?"

"That's all."

He pressed a button and someone else was called to the window.  It was 9:15am.

I broke the embassy's door handle on the way out.

The day after Christmas, my passport arrived in the express envelope I'd provided at the embassy.  It had taken a mere two days.  (I assume no one was working on Christmas).

So I guess the whole message of this very long process (and very rambling blog post) is that you 1. shouldn't delay getting your visa, ever, and 2. shouldn't worry too much if you have all of your paperwork.

Le Meilleur du Meilleur

Best lemon-meringue tart:  Perfectly baked, sweet and sour, with glossy puffs of meringue perched on smooth lemon curd.  Found at Au Croissant d'Or bakery near the Copernic bus station.

Best "I hate myself" deal:  Four chocolate croissants for 2.40 euro.  La Grande Cafe, conveniently placed right as you leave the tram at the Commerce stop.

Best cafe: Tabl'o Gourmand forever and ever amen.  Go for the granola and the scrambled eggs for brunch, then the roasted duck with applesauce and goat cheese bagel for lunch, and then all of the baguette and crunchy nutella and spiced hot chocolate for a snack.

Best creperie: My host mom made the best savory crepes, hands down.  They were stuffed with sausage and goat cheese and egg and I loved them.  Second best, Grand-Mère Augustine in Bouffay with the creme-fraiche and smoked salmon special.

Rudest person I encountered: a man who told me how upset he was that I was a foreigner taking advantage of the French university system.  I would have been more insulted, but he was speaking French through the thickest British accent I've ever heard while he was telling me this.

Best class at university: I would say the Law of the European Union, but its only fault was being at 8:30am and lasting for three hours, so I choose the Latin American history course, which was the first time I took a class on that region, and I had the good fortune to have an incredibly articulate, funny professor who demanded order and respect in his classroom.

Best bookstore: Librairie Franklin, two stores over from the bakery with the perfect lemon tart, was the cutest--a tiny, crowded vintage bookstore with books stacked in piles in the middle of the room because the shelves were stuffed.  For actual navigation and selection of newer titles, Librairie Coiffard and its two stores across the street from each other takes the prize.

Best castle:  The castle at Blois, because its tiled floors were so insane and made me extremely dizzy.

Best dinner out: Curry chicken pizza at a pizzeria across from the castle.

Best dinner in: Dany made quiche and galettes and scrambled eggs and sauteed mushrooms and everything was always fantastic, but the galettes were the best. 

Best baguette: There was this one time that Jean-Luc brought a baguette from Trégastel, which is 3 hours to the north.  It was very good.  Also another time I followed a Carrefour employee who was carrying a crate of fresh baguettes into the store and I snagged one while it was still warm.

Best people-watching spot: The tram stop at the University/the steps outside the lecture hall at university.  Everyone's just standing around smoking so it's easy to make up fake backstories or take style tips.

Best wine:  Chinon Red 2013.  Bake it into fudge cakes.  Drink it.  Make your friends drink it.  Choose it over every other wine in a wine bar in Paris even though you know it already.  Save the labels from every bottle you buy.

Best baked creation: Those fantastic golden-brown puffed up choux pastries that I was making like crazy before I discovered the magic of pre-made puff pastry sheets.

Best tourist attraction: Natural History Museum.  Go in the middle of the day on a Friday for maximum "I'm alone in a museum full of dead things" factor.

Best Breakfast: Tabl'o Gourmand if we're talking in Nantes, but if we can extend to everywhere I went this semester, then the Swan at Shakespeare's Globe, because that's where I had my first full English, and I want another one.

Best Train: Most definitely the Orient Express, because it's the Orient Express with champagne and glossy compartments and welcoming, uniformed staff.  Second place is the TER commuter train, because I had a ton more legroom than on the TGV.

Bonus Round--Firsts:

• First train that I can actually remember (vague memories of trains in Virginia and stories of learning to walk on a train in New Zealand do not count)
• First hostel experience--but to be fair, we got a room for two people so we didn't really have the authentic experience.
• First time in the United Kingdom

Visite chez le médecin à la français

Everyone is sick.

Everyone in the IES program is ill in some fashion or another.  This past Monday, our theatre production included a Tinkerbell who was spending time between scenes sleeping off her fever, a clown who'd just recovered from walking pneumonia, an antiques dealer with a cough, and an assortment of other coughs and headaches and ailments.

I was the mechanical doll with the ear infection.

I woke up on Sunday unable to hear out of my left ear, much like I was on an airplane.  I tried yawning and standing on my head, to no effect, and went through Sunday and Monday feeling off-balanced.  On Tuesday, I sent a Facebook message to Jennifer, my favorite daughter-of-an-ear-and-throat-doctor.  However, my host mom insisted I go the doctor, and after stopping by IES on Wednesday, I booked an appointment for that afternoon.

The doctor I went to see met me in an office--an office like a business office.  The walls were decorated with architectural drawings of opera houses and paintings of the Egyptian goddess Isis.  The doctor himself wore a suit; no white coat here.  He spoke English to me, which absolutely helped, because a healthcare situation is one of the situations in which you want to hear your native tongue.

After the quickest examination ever, he informed me that I did indeed have a small ear infection and he then wrote me up a prescription and, after noticing my solemn expression, assured me that I was not going to die.

I walked a block to the pharmacy and presented the prescription to the woman behind the counter, and in five minutes I walked out with cough syrup, ibuprofen, and an antibiotic.  Of course, when I got home, I decided to do some internet sleuthing to see how the prices compared, because we make a big deal out of socialized medicine and healthcare and I just wanted to see how much I'd saved.  As it turns out, while a ten minute doctor's appointment for a small issue in the states costs $68, I got my twenty minute doctor's appointment for a small issue and all three of my medications for about $46.  I don't even live here permanently, but thanks France.  In the states I'm pretty sure I would have let it go unless I was legitimately going deaf.