On July 10th, I had my adventure to the French Consulate in Boston... and I say adventure for a reason. I started my long term visa process early so that the long process of getting a visa wouldn't make me an anxious mess trying to do it at the last minute. I applied to "campusFrance" which is what students have to do first before they can apply with the french consulate. It was a little bit of a process but whaaaatever. Taking the advise given to me, I immediately booked my appointment with the french consulate in Boston, as they fill up quickly. So, it’s the night before my meeting, the week after the 4th of July (chaos) and I am at my summer house gathering all my documents to bring to which was clearly spelled out in a list on the consulate website and I realize I don't have my passport. I had left it at home. Disaster. It was already 11pm and I could not drive home to get it, so I had to leave at 830 am to drive through rush hour traffic making my normal hour ride home twice as long. The traffic only making my anxiety worse, I make it to my house and back to the city. Originally, I hadn't planned to drive into Boston for the meeting cause I knew I would be anxious and that parking would be extremely hard to find. I used my iphone for directions, and I type in the address with out the zip code and it brings me to a rough part of the city. Now I get even more nervous that I'm going to be late. The consulates website is very intimidating and says that you should be a half hour early and if you're late they won't let you in. Finally figure out how to get to the address I was looking for and of course, its located in the middle of a maze of one way streets with people walking all around because its lunch time. Cutting it way to close for comfort after I drove around the city for 45 minutes looking for a parking spot and finally I parked in a huge parking garage in Copley square and then I got lost trying to walk of it! At this point I'm almost in tears because its 3 minutes of 12 and I'm running down the streets of downtown Boston trying to find the building. I finally get there at 12:05 and at the door there is a security guard and I'm crying because I thought I had missed my appointment after such a long morning because I couldn't find parking. He laughs at me and asks me why I'm crying and trying so hard to hold back the tears of frustration I say I couldn't find any parking and I've never driven in this part of the city before. He giggles some more and says he can let me in and that I didn't miss anything. It was probably one of the more anxiety ridden days of my life. So, lesson learn: Always have your passport with you. I'm glad I can laugh about it now, and it certainly was an adventure. As for pre trip thoughts, I’m honestly just anxious about packing and getting everything done in time! I don’t know how I am going to fit in saying goodbye to all my friends at school and at home and my family! Right now I’m most nervous about my flight and getting there on time with everything I need. Luckily, I’m the list queen so hopefully I wont forget anything! I’m really looking forward to getting the information about my host family. I don’t know any French, but I’m so excited to learn and struggle to interact with them. There’s so many things I’m looking forward to and so many things I feel like I’m leaving behind. Ha but not really cause I’ll come back eventually… maybe… that’s all for now!
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