Virtually Home

I went to Houston Tuesday night, to prepare for my visa meeting on Wednesday morning. The flight was uneventful but very pleasant. We were at 9,500 on the way down there, among beautiful puffy white cumulus clouds. My favorite way to fly. We landed and took a cab to the hotel. We had dinner at a seafood place called Willie G's, which was tasty. The next morning we walked from the hotel to the consulate and I waited for my meeting while my parents went back to the hotel. The consulate was about an hour behind, and it was chaotic in that the other applicants didn't seem to have inquired about what documents they would need beforehand. There was a lot of having spouses fax information and calling of employers and running out to have passport photos taken, all of which was very disruptive, since whenever anyone would come back with an additional document the staff would interrupt their interaction with the person they were working with to talk to the person who had come unprepared....

Just a little over a month until my departure to Bordeaux to study abroad for the 2009 - 2010 school year. After a mix-up at the French office when they lost my paper application, I finally received an acceptance letter a little more than a week ago, leaving less time than I would have liked to complete the visa applications and make airplane arrangements. My flight leaves on the 27 of August, and today I was working on setting up an appointment at the French embassy in Houston. Hopefully everything will go smoothly. When July started, I think it became real. People are starting to make plans for the fall and I have to keep reminding myself that I won't be on campus next year. I'm beginning to get excited -- but also nervous. I need to review some French before I go. I need to do a lot of things. Hopefully I'll keep this blog updated, pre-departure and while I'm in France. I think it'll be good to have, when it's time for retrospection.