My Room!

Here are some pics of my room. Also a little update: It looks like I wont be blogging instantly. Which means that I will type my blog update and then load it when I get a chance. So I will try to time and date everything in the text. So dont believe what the date and time says below the update, its not true. So, I hope all is well with you, where ever you might be!

Oh La La! Beacoup d'information!

Update! It is about 9:25 over here in Paris and about 3:25 your time back in les Etats-Unis. So, today was a VERY long day. I only slept for about an hour on the plane ride over. However, I did make a friend, Becca! She is totally awesome, and has been looking out for me a lot. I didn’t get to share, but there are about 40 of us here at the hostile together. But only 5 of us are on the Gap Year program, the rest are college study abroad students. It is a little bit challenging because they all have a lot more knowledge of the French language then I do. The other thing that I didn’t realize was that the advisors and monitors (student advisors) will only speak French. Again, a bit challenging, well actually EXTREMLY challenging because I don’t often know what they are saying and I am afraid that I am missing important information.
However all is well despite the little bumps in the road! We landed today and got picked up at the airport, and had about a half hour drive into the city to the Hotel Fauconnier. It is the most beautiful youth hostiles that I have every seen. Madame, you might now this beautiful building. It is set in the very old area of the city and is just down the road from Notre Dame. It is amazing! In the afternoon we kind of just hung out and relaxed, I gave my parents a call to let them know that I had made it here ok. And after waiting for a pay phone, a man came out and began speaking to us in French, he told us that his ex-wife had decided to come back to him. He was SO excited. We congratulated him, and he told us that the world needed young people like us. After that little excitement a few of us went to diner and I got to taste my first French wine! It was very yummy, but I don’t think I will be making a habit of it. We took a little walk after diner just around the Latin Quarter, which is one of the oldest parts of the city.
Today we Gap Year students learned a little more about how everything is going to work. We will take the one intense class at the University for a month and then the focus will shift to teaching at a local school. (So yes, Eddie we will be connecting both of our classes!)
Everything is beautiful, everything reminds me of you, Madame. Every time I walk past one of the spots that you would talk about in class I think of you. Everything is perfect, and I just have to remember to take one step at a time. Lets hope that I can dream in French soon!

Plane Ride!

So here I sit on the plane somewhere over the Atlantic at about 12:53 our time and about 7:53 France time. I had a little trouble getting through security in Portland only because my carry on bag was packed so well. My first flight was fine, a little delayed which made me nervous, but as soon as I got off the plane I booked it as fast as I possibly could to my next gate. I instantly met 3 other people who were traveling to France on study Abroad programs. Not nessicarily MY study abroad program. But many were also going through CIEE (which is who I am going through). When I got on the plane I sat next to one of the people who I had met inside, and soon found out that the girl on the other side of the aisle was going on to the same city as me, the only difference was that she is a college student. I’m sure she and I will become friends, we have already agreed to stick together for the frist couple of days, at least until we get our feet underneath us. I just hope that my luggage made it to Paris OK. My worst nightmare would be that it wouldn’t make it here and it would be lost. Lets just keep our fingers crossed that it made it in time.

It has arrived!

YAY! Here is the update on the visa! My mother and I got in the car at about 5:15 Wednesday morning knowing that the Consulate opened at 9. We drove down and had no problems what so ever, until……. Well let’s just say we ended up on the WRONG St. James Street. The trusty old GPS sent us to St. James Ave. in Roxbury. But with some quick problem solving we made our way to the correct place and found the building that the Consulate is in.

Fast forward about 20 minutes, we had given them all of our information, and they told us that my visa would be ready by Friday at 3pm. Which was very good, but we couldn’t get back to Boston on Friday. So we gave them an overnight envelope with our address on it, and they said that they would mail it at 3pm on Friday.

We comfortable with our decision for about 20 minutes (its about 10:30 by now) and then started to get nervous about the US Mail Service, and what if they didn’t put it in the mail on time. So on the way back home we decided not to leave it up to fate (too risky), so we called the Union postmaster, the Rockland postmaster, and anyone who could help. When I got home I had to leave within the next hour to get on a plane to head out to Matinicus for 2 days to visit a teacher (thank you BB, Ali and I had a blast!). So my mother, being the amazing woman that she is, is on the phone with a senators office, a woman she knew who worked in the office building across the street from the consulate building, and anyone who could help. My father was constantly checking the postal service website to track the envelope.

Friday morning comes around and my father gets a call at 7:38 AM, it is the Union postmaster letting us know that the envelope has arrived in Union! My dad calls my mother and then me. Lets just say I sat upright in bed when my teacher told me. I was, and still am, beyond pumped. It was the best news ever.

So I would like to thank EVERYONE who sent good thoughts my way, who talked to my mother and I on the phone, and anyone who helped out in anyway what so ever. It was a great help and we really appreciated it. Because of you, I’m going to FRANCE!

Visa!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I just received the go-ahead from CampusFrance so that I can begin my visa process. Basically that means that I will be traveling down to the French Consulate in Boston tomorrow so that I can attempt to get my visa! With any luck they will give it to me tomorrow and all will be right with the world. But, again, we will just have to wait and see!

PACKING UPDATE:

My suitcase is up to 74lbs and counting. It is a miracle what I can fit in that bag!

Its Time!

I know it has been a long time since my last entry (here you go Mollie), but nothing has really happened since a month ago. But it is now time, I will be leaving in 8 days. That is if everything comes through. I have had a little difficulty with the payment for my visa, which will possibly delay my departure date (not a big deal, it happens all the time). But with any luck it will come through within a week, and I wont have any problems.

I bought my luggage, and I have been thinking a lot about what I need to take and what can stay behind. It is a little frightening to think that I have to pack  4 months of my life into a VERY small piece of luggage. If you know me at all, you know that I like my clothes........ and I like A LOT of them. We will see how that process goes.

So, in my last week here in the states I find myself looking forward and trying my best to keep my composure. Everything seems to be ending, but at the same time, my life is beginning. I finished my last day at work, I am packing, planning, studying, taking pictures, and taking in my last days as a resident of Union, Maine. 

My life will never be the same after this moment. 

And in the words of Martha Stewart:

Its a good thing.