visa success

Finally got my French visa! The picture is absolutely horrible, the woman asked me to look forward but the camera was to my right so I was utterly confused. I look clinically depressed, but whatever, they'll still let me back into the country after I travel around Europe now.

The trip to New York was awesome, but before - I went home on Friday to help mom out with the picnic stuff and pick up Anand from BDL. Then I drove back Saturday and worked at STT for 8 hours before driving myself back home around 1a. Sunday Kev, Serafina, Jess, Matt, and Shelby came over for the picnic. Got to see Tarun, which was nice after not seeing him ever and now I'm not going to see anyone for a year! Gave me some food for thought about where/how/with whom to celebrate my 21st.

Ended up taking a 6:30a train from New Haven to get to the consulate by 8:50. Waited for 3 hours to get a stamp on my passport in a waiting room that was trying to emulate Antarctic temperatures (the visa officials were pretty cold, too). Spent the day studying and shopping. Went to the NY Public Library near Bryant Park, then shopped for shoes on 5th. Met up with Kev, CJ, and Serafina at The TriBeCa Grille for NYC Restaurant Week! Prix fixe menu was pretty delicious and I "only" ended up spending $56...really need to start saving for Paris.

Just got an email from Isabelle! She sounds like an incredibly charismatic and enthusiastic woman - direct quote "les enfants se réjouissent déjà de ta venue et les chats t'attendent avec impatience!" Kids and cats - my two favorites.

Also need to figure out how to get a bike - I'm thinking it'd be cheaper to buy a crappy bicycle than use Velib. I'll find out when I get there...which is in less than a month!

class registration

Finally had my visa meeting! The people at the French consulate weren't nearly as horrible as they've been made out to be. I had thousands of copies of everything, ended up spending about an hour and a half in the waiting room with Algerians and Tunisians who all thought I was whatever they are (vague facial features and brown skin?) so they were really nice to me.

Worked for a new catering company last night at the Holiday Inn. Classiest wedding I've ever been too. Seriously. Never seen so much synthetic material in my life. Teal satiny tablecloths, bridesmaids dresses made out of the same material. Cornrows for the bridesmaids hair. Bride & groom post-nuptial tequila shots (over, and over). Carpeted floors. I would rather not get married. Duh.

STT wedding next week. So excited. Hopefully will have enough money to travel with when I get to France.

Chose all my classes, finally! I ended up having Saturday - Tuesday off, but then I checked Ophèlie's first ever email and it said her English Art History class was Wednesday 2 - 5, right in the middle of one of the classes I'd selected. So now I just have Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday off. One class on Monday...hope it never comes down to traveling for 4 days to visit friends and skipping class...It's a course magistral (lecture), so I probably could have a friend take notes. If there's attendance, that will make me so unhappy. Anyways, here's what the schedule looks like on the Sciences-Po espace étudiant

Monday at 5: Politics in the EU lecture
Wednesday at 10:15: Français, at 2: French Art History
Thursday at 5: Français, at 7:15: UN peacekeeping
Friday at 10:15: The Ethics of War, at 2:45, Strategic Intelligence, at 7:15, Politics in the EU discussion

I need to start making a list of places to go in the first few weeks and I need to start booking tickets to visit my friends staying in Barcelona, Parma, London, Glasgow, Dublin, Milan, Grenada, Maastricht/Leiden, and Strasbourg. Wow...gonna need to work a lot more. Too bad I HATE the phone center.

I'm working a 2 - 5 PM today. At least it'll still be sunny when I get out.

july 4th weekend

66 is a sauna. It's 90 degrees outside and probably hotter in our dorm room. Can't even take a nap because it's too hot and sticky to lie in one place. Heading into the city tonight for fireworks and the Boston Pops. Tomorrow I have to (1) get passport photos (2) make photocopies of the entire binder (3) print the plane itinerary (4) doublecheck that I have everything I need (5) figure out how to get to South Station (6) pack for NYC (7) print my tickets (8) buy groceries. I'm considering giving my 2 weeks notice at the BC Phone Center and telling ResLife that I won't be living in the dorm anymore. That way I can just stay with Jess on Tuesday - Thursday nights. Drive up on Tuesday and back to SWindsor on Friday morning or Thursday night. I can just stay up here for the Catering shifts at the end of the month. Work at Dzen's Friday - Monday?