Le visa: Le Premier Pas (The Visa: The First Step)

Hello! Welcome to my blog, which I have not written in since last summer, and am remodeling to use for my trip to France.  What do you think?

One of my bad habits is that I have a tendency to start many things and follow through to the end with very few of them.  That frequently applies to writing.  But hopefully, by having a central theme to write about (my trip to France), and that central theme being something which will occupy my every waking hour for the next five months, I will have a lot to say.  And I have decided to get started as soon as possible.

The French Consulate

On Monday, I made my first big step towards leaving for France.  I flew down to Houston to do a little interview to get my visa approved.  In order to do so, I had to collect a very hefts folder full of documents, including various forms filled out in English and French, my acceptance letter from L'Université de Blaise Pascal, proof of my enrollment at OU, and a letter from my parents saying they promise to give me loads of money while I'm in France (yay!).  I spent lots of time collecting and stressing over these documents.  Then, I flew all the way to Houston (my first solo trip by air, but certainly not my last) and took a shuttle to the French consulate where they collected my documents and got my finger prints and my picture, and that was that.  All in all, it took about 10 minutes once I got there.  It was rather anticlimactic.

Then I spent the rest of the morning waiting for my cousin to finish his dentist appointment (his dentist was running behind, for shame), and in the mean time I ate a late breakfast at McD's down the street and read from Sophie's World.  Sophie's World is a very interesting novel about philosophy.  I haven't read more than a few chapters, so I can't tell you much, but it is a very fascinating read for anyone who enjoys pondering the meaning of life, such as myself.

Then, when my cousin's dentist appointment was finished, he, his sister, and dad came and picked my up and we had late lunch/early dinner at the Galleria Mall.  All in all, it was a lovely afternoon, despite how tired I was from getting up so early for my flight!  We visited several very fancy stores, including the Chanel store, where we encountered some dresses that were almost $5000, and many other things that were in glass cases.  It felt somewhat like a museum.  Then we went to Saks-Fifth Avenue, a much larger but not less expensive clothing store.  We came across some dresses that were really quite strange, and still quite expensive, and some that were quite lovely and definitely not in our price range.  We also came across a space alien.  You might actually be surprised how many wealthy extraterrestrials enjoy doing their shopping at the Galleria in Houston.  She was a lovely alien; mostly humanoid, quite tall, with skin the lovely shade of avocado peel, and her eyes were amber colored.  She was admiring a very interestingly-designed dress on a mannequin, a long, flowing dress covered in silver sequins.  Honestly, it would have looked quite nice on her, except I'm sure she would have had to get it altered to be long enough.  We merely exchanged pleasantries; none of us really had any idea what to say to a space alien.
After spending lots of time in Saks-Fifth Avenue, it was time to head back to the airport.  Since I didn't have any luggage to check, I printed out my boarding pass at the little computer, and went through security.  The flight back home was rather pleasant; I sat next to a man with his red-haired daughter, who was perhaps 10.  Across the aisle from me was a man who played Tetris on his i-phone, and he was very good; so good, in fact, that he kept playing the same game almost the entire flight from Houston to Tulsa.  It was mesmerizing.

And now, on Thursday the sixth, my passport has arrived in the mail, with a visa for France stamped on page 2.  It was faster than I expected, but that's a good thing.