One Missed Call

I hate to make this a blog about how much I hate API and the study abroad program at my school, but so far frustration has been a big part of my study abroad experience. And frankly if you're going to share this experience with me, you need to share in my frustrations. You are living vicariously through me. So let's journey together.

Today I check my voicemail, and I have a call from API. The message is that they have not yet received my paperwork, and were wondering if I was still planning on going on the trip. Then the woman goes on to say that they need the paperwork...today.

This is not the first time that they have given me a ridiculous deadline. I received a letter in the mail stating that I owe them several thousands of dollars by ...two days prior to receiving the letter.

I'm not totally sure where it's okay for a company to not mention any deadlines until the day of. Luckily I sent out my paperwork a few days ago, but what if I hadn't. The call was at 3:18 pm. How would I get that paperwork to them today? Short of driving to Texas, I'm not sure it's possible. I will truly be thankful if I get to Paris and have somewhere to live and have successfully registered in some (ANY) classes.

In other news, I got my visa today. Less than a week after my adventure to the French consulate. So everyone who told me it would take 90 days can suck it.

Adventures at the French Consulate

So this morning my lovely father woke me up bright and early so that we could venture in to Boston and apply for a student visa. This process has been kind of a daunting task, and everytime I mention the word visa at school, somebody gives me a big sob story about how it take 4 months or 90 days or 15 years and your first born to get a visa. Even the woman at CVS was warning me that I need to start applying for stuff now if I think I'm going to go to Paris in July. I was going to go get my visa once before, but I hadn't read the information very carefully and didn't have a lot of the documents I needed. The list of necessary documents found on the consulate website was almost as intimidating as the horror stories about processing time. But finally I got all of my belongings together and made the journey to Boston.

I would just like to say that everyone who offered me any advice about getting my visa prior to today is a liar. Getting my visa was probably one of the easiest parts of the preparation process. Having all of the necessary documents in order helped, but the wait wasn't long, it was a pretty organized process, and I'm going back on Tuesday to pick up my visa. Yes, this coming Tuesday. 4 days from now, not 90.

The visa process was a huge relief from the stress and disorganization of the process so far. I'm hoping this becomes a theme for the rest of my trip!