A Government Summons

Getting back to work this week has been exhausting. All I want to do is go back to Paris and meander about like I did durring my vacation. But, alas, the show must go on.

My one slolace in this long trek before Easter break is the planning for it. My friend Robert and I will be exploring the south of France!!! How awesome is that?! Our ferries between Nice and Corsica, our hostels and hotels, and our flights have been resered already. Robert came over Monday night and we sat down to planning. It took about 3 hours, but it was awesome and well worth it and now i cannot wait until spring break!!!

Besides that, classes are... well... let's just say that they happen. There are midterms next week that we did not find out about until this week. They told us there would be some, but did not give us the date or time until yesterday. Giant pain in the butt. That aside, the good news is that these exams don't count for anything. They're a practice test to gage how you are doing, and if you need to miss the final in any class that an "examen blanc" has been taken in, you won't fail! It can only help you, which is good.

For the first time in my life, I find myself praying for scraping along the bottom. Usually, I excel at what I am doing and shoot for the top. But now, I'm not even shooting for the middle. I'm praying with the rest of my exchange student classmates that we don't fail. A 10/20 would be a good enough score for us. That way, the credits transfer. Don't get me wrong: this experience is phenomenal and I wouldn't change it for the world, but it has turned out more difficult than expected. You know what? I'm fine with that. I'm working hard and doing my best, and that is good enough... if I pass all my classes.

In other news: I know that I haven't written in a while. I am sorry. It's simply been overwhelming on this end. But a funny thing happened to me as soon as I got back from vacation. A letter came for me while i was away, summoning me to Nantes for a medical exam to finalize my "carte de séjour" process. With this magic piece of paper in my passport, I can travel anywhere outside of France I want, and they'll let me back in to continue my studies! The possibilites are now virtually endless. I can go visit friends in the UK, Marocco, Spain, Kenya... ANYWHERE!!! That's out of the way, but I had to go all the way to Nantes to get it done, and I missed two classes (one of which I was supposed to be giving a presentation in). But when the government tells you to be somewhere, you do it.

The train ride is only 35 minutes and it's super cheap. Nantes-- or what I briefly saw of it-- is lovely. The OFII office was impossible to find, but I made it there in time for my appointment. They took an x-ray of my chest, and I had to see a doctor. It was the usual: medical history, eyesight, weight, height... nothing overly embarassing. They just want to make sure I'm not about to have a medical catastrophe on their watch.

In the waiting room, I met a lovely older woman named Diana from Australia (note: when I say "older", I mean 69 years of age). We really hit it off, and got a bit to eat after our appointments and rode the train back together. She's a delight, and my half a day spent waiting and being examined ended up being a lot of fun and a wonderful way to pass the time.

Tomorrow, back to work even more hardcore than usual in an attempt to catch up and study for exams. But what can you do? When the French government summons you to an appointment to allow you to stay in their wonderful country, you do it.