The Empire State of Things

Ah!

Yes, that's how I chose to greet you all.  :D  It's how I've been reacting a lot lately.  Whenever someone asks me how I'm feeling, I go, "ah!" It's officially mid-August.  I officially move out of home on the last day of this month. So, there's about 2 weeks before I bid adieu to the United States. Ah!

On Friday, I went to New York City.   I love the city, it's where I was born.  I was raised in an urban city, across the Hudson River from NYC.   Naturally, I'll take any reason to just go and spend a day there.  That being why I decided to pick up my visa at the French consulate rather than having it mailed.  The whole experience at the consulate was......an experience....to put it nicely.  I ranted about it to a number of people, but I won't include it here to save time and space.  Feel free to ask about it, if anyone really wants to know how it went.

With my visa, I have a full green-light to travel now.  The picture came out horrible, as always.  There's one thing that does greatly concern me, though.   It's valid only until July 2nd.  I stay a week longer than that.  The lady at the consulate told me I'd have to try to extend it at a prefecture in France as there was nothing they could have done, apparently.   Her use of "try" and the fact that I believe I'm the only AFSer whose visa expires earlier than the stay worries me...  As of now, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

After the consulate, I went exploring NYC, at one point taking a nice promenade through Central Park.  Wherever I went to in New York, I'd hunt down anyone who spoke French and either eavesdrop or start a conversation with them (for practise, and because whenever I mention my exchange, the French usually end up being more excited about it than me!)  There was this one family who I sat next to on a bench.  They noticed my iPad and were pretty fascinated by it.  The woman asked me a few questions in her rough English.  I responded in French.  Her next few questions were still in English, until she understood I wouldn't give up responding in French.  So she continued with her questions, and I responded to them, whilst demonstrating the features of an iPad, all in French.  Eventually, we just then decided to talk to one another.  I told her that I was born in the city and live across the river from it.  She related that her family and herself were in NYC as tourists, on holidays from France as their first visit to the U.S.  I asked her from which part of France she lives.  She replied it was by Lille in the North.  Instantly, I jumped at the response and told her how I was going to live close to there.  Right away, she became excited and asked more questions, to which I gladly responded.  By the end of the whole conversation, she had provided me with her name, email, phone number, address, and work info to contact her during my stay in France.  She and her husband invited me to their place and even offered me to take me to Belgium to a city they said is amazing.  In all honesty, I thought the whole ordeal was pure luck and kind of surreal.  Not only did I get to practise my French, I had gotten invited to do things!  I had to process it all after they left.  Hopefully, I do get the chance to run into them when I'm in France.

Switching scenes, remember how I mentioned in previous posts how I found great potential in the French-bound-only AFSer Facebook group?  Also how I was looking forward for the friendships to be made between exchange students as a result of said interaction?   It's happening!  Thanks to Katie, I met 1/3 of all other France-bound AFSers from all around the world.  Some time ago, Gabe and I thought it'd be a great idea for the France-bound AFSers to have a group-video chat so we'd get to know each other before we meet in-person.  After the France country call, Jackson organised the group-video chatting using Google+'s Hangout feature, that allows 10 people to video-conference simultaneously.  Truth be told, it was a hit and we've had several more since then.  So far, the people I've "hungout" with besides Gabe and Jackson have been: Elise, Kevin, Allyssa, Nathaniel, and Kenny.  It's great because with how we are, one would think we've known each other for some time.  Even outside the hangouts, I learnt that Elise and I actually share a lot of the same views.  Getting to know each other before the gateway orientation in NYC on the 31st where we meet for the first time in-person will definitely make everything less awkward and just more fun and better in general!

The checklist.   AFS really should provide one for future AFSers.  There's quite a lot to remember and juggle that it's hard to keep track of it all.  I'm more than sure that on the week of the 31st, I'll be messaging a number of people to try and compare and assure I haven't forgotten anything.


Hoping that all works out as I have no clue when my next post's going to be.

-Gello

Search the Woman

My friend Florence would immediately recall one of the many expressions my French 2 teacher would constantly insert here and there as a little tidbit of extra information that's outside, yet still correlates, to the curriculum.  In this instance, my teacher would tell us how the French would, whenever something bad/mysterious happens, "chercher la femme" (search the woman.)  Take that as you will, it does relate to one of the points in this blog post.

With my previous post, I mentioned how my host mother told me there'd be quite a number of exchange students attending my French high school next year.  She was able to give me a round number of about 12 total exchange students worldwide that shall be attending Lycée Robespierre for the 2011-2012 school year, a record.  Out of those twelve, besides myself, she also reported something she thought would be relevant to me.  Her boss will also host an exchange student next year.  She is to be an American, like myself, and be in the same class as me.  (I'm dubbing her Mystery American Girl, with a possibility of garnering a nickname of Maggie seeing as MAG would be odd...) Hence, I'll be searching for her as it'd be nice to have a fellow American exchange student to France in very similar conditions as myself.

The countdown is nearing its end.  With less than one month left, August is going to be an extremely busy month for me as I'm frantically making final preparations.  I have my visa appointment this Friday which has got me stressing out as I, an AP (in my case, advanced procrastinator) student, have left everything to the last minute.  I'm hoping it goes smoothly as it will be the final major hurdle to cross before I have the final green light to travel.  Speaking of hurdles, the ChipIn widget's gone!  Significance?  Gello has managed to pay his tuition in full!  The deadline was August 1st, and I sent in my final payment with just a few days to spare.

Going back to this month, I feel the need to assemble a giant checklist of all preparations before departure.  However, with my horrible memory, I doubt such a checklist will have much on it as I tend to recall things in an impulse and forget them in a matter of minutes.  From what I can remember right now, I have to...

• Scan the final health form addendum and email back that to AFS. 
• Buy things I'll need in Europe, such as an electrical converter, special clothing for the climate, etc.
• Purchase Host Family Gifts
• Figure out a method of how I'll support myself financially whilst abroad (think, pocket money and how I'll be able to access my finances in the U.S.)
• Figure out how I'll be able to use my iPhone and iPad in France with talk/text/data "sans engagement" (without a commitment)
• Hang out with friends for a final time until I return.
• Try to find out the deal with this going-away party that I heard was in the works.
• Locate those luggage tags AFS sent me a while back.
• Formulate and get answers to a bunch of questions I have for my host family (I always forget them because of my memory.)
• Start Packing!

I'm sure the list is a lot longer than that, but that's all I was able to recall at the time of this writing.  To be honest, the nerves are starting to get to me.  Since midnight of July 31st / August 1st, I have had a lot of trouble sleeping at night because of thoughts that race throughout my mind.  Fortunately, I know I'm not the only one and it's great that AFSers from around the country, and world, have come together by a common interest and formed a support group for one another.  So far, I know 2 others that will be in the same region as me in France.  Thus, we're probably going to be seeing each other often and travel by train together.  Even corresponding to the same consulate resulted in communication between a fellow AFSer and me.  In short, I'm appreciative of the support system we all have for each other hopefully those great long-lasting/close friendships between exchange students that the returnees frequently mention will form between us all as well!  

I also found out through the group who will be chaperoning the Americans headed towards France on the flights. There's a total of 55 of us with a single chaperone!  The total travel time is around 14 hours, including a 4.5 hour layover in Switzerland.  Sounds like fun!

Another sleepless night ahead,

-Gello