This morning we went to the prefecture to apply for Amy’s carte de sejour. Essentially she has to have a residency permit and a work permit before the university can pay her. Daniel had written her a letter stating that we were living with him and gave us some bills proving he lived where the letter said he did. This was wonderful except that he lives in a suburb of Strasbourg and the Strasbourg people said we had to go to the suburb folks to get the permit. They also added we needed some more paperwork. French life is all about paperwork. One of the documents she needs is a letter from the university inviting her to work. Now she has a contract stating she is working there, but this won’t do she needs to be invited to work first. I don’t know how the French do anything but fill out paperwork.

This evening one of Daniel and Tammy’s friends came by for supper. He was visiting here from Detroit on business. It was an odd setting for Amy and I since we do not know him, yet felt it appropriate to spend the evening with him as well since we are staying here with Daniel and Tammy. So the visit was a little long to me because a lot of it was catching up between the two parties.

My French lessons begin tomorrow. I am a little nervous because I don’t believe I will be much of a student anymore. It has been so long since I learned in any normal classroom setting that I don’t know how well I will do. One thing I have learned about French culture is they do not admit any weakness or ignorance. I am very self deprecating and I wonder what the instructor will think of me if I continue to put myself down while trying to learn. In this new culture I am very timid about everything not wanting to be out of place or considered rude. Today, though, we spend a lot of time with one of the students here and he did a number of things against French culture. Like he barged into a store and asked for directions, a definite no no in France, especially with poor French language skills. But his attitude was of indifference because he felt it was better to get the directions and be sneered at than wander around for an hour. I think I like that attitude.

We made it to France finally. It was about 13 hours of travel in total over 3 plane rides. The over-the-ocean flight was not as bad as I expected. They had little TVs in each seat with several options for movies, television, and games to go through. I watched The Stepford Wives, some French film, and about half of Duplex, with an episode of Frazier thrown in for good measure.

We nearly missed our flight in Paris. After getting off the plane we had to take a shuttle bus to our connecting terminal. Our terminal was “C”. Well, we take one bus to get to another. The second bus went from terminal A to B to D to E to F, but not C. Then we realized that you had to get off of B and walk to C. So we had to take the bus around for a loop, all while the clock is ticking and our plane is ready to leave. We finally got off and sprinted through the airport and just barely made it before they left us.

We are staying with the missionary and his wife and two children. They are very nice and extremely helpful. It is interesting because he is the head missionary here and has command over several AIMers (Americans In Missions, I think) who are all 18-20 years of age. So he is used to taking charge of them and telling them exactly what to do. So I see him doing that a little with Amy and me, but catching himself a little realizing that we are not here as missionaries and that we are not so young. But he has definitely helped to cut through the French red tape.

From what I am learning the French have a lot of red tape. Even to get a bank account, you have to see the right person at the bank and if they don’t feel like seeing you they won’t. Unlike Americans, where everyone does everything to help a customer, the French have their little systems and they may not help you at all if they don’t feel like it.

Yesterday two of the AIM girls took us around town and allowed Amy to meet with her University fellows. Then later that evening we went out with several people in the department. They were very nice for the most part. It is interesting because we are in France, but this was the English department and some of the lectures (like Amy) were British. So there was an interesting mix of French, American, and British conversation going on.

Today Daniel helped us get a bank account. Later we will contact the girl who is going to sublease her apartment. Apparently, this is also an ordeal. You have to have all these papers for the landlord to look at before he will let you have the place. We will see how it goes.

I’ll first get into the Visa story since I left it hanging last time. Amy got hers without a problem. They have to send mine to France proper and it could take 4 months to process! They did give me my passport back so I will use it to get into the country, and then just country jump until I can either make it back to the States or we go home.

We’re spending the weekend in Oklahoma with my folks. Had a big shindig tonight with everyone. It’s funny because everyone asks all the same questions and I give the same answers. This process can get a little dull, but I know everyone means well and it’s nice to get the attention.

One week from today we leave. I am getting most nervous. I try to break it down into little pieces. We will get everything packed properly. If one bag weighs too much we will either pay the extra cost or lose some things. Customs will let us through easily, or they will hassle us and we may have to get another flight a little later, but we will get there. France will be difficult for a little while but each day will pass. Actually, this is how I have gotten through a lot of life. I like to break things down into little chunks until they seem manageable and they pass.

It still seems funny to write this stuff and have no one read it. If I do let anyone read it then this will be a weird beginning since its all in the past. My plan is to eventually let everyone in so they can see exactly what we are up to. I have no idea if that will come to pass. I guess if it does then you will be reading this…

I’m sitting in a Comfort Inn in downtown Chicago. Tomorrow morning we will visit the Consulate and try to get our Visas.

The saga of the Visas so far:

The website for the Consulate gave us a small list of documents needed to apply for the Visa. Amy, being a wise wife, decided to e-mail them and make sure we had what we needed. They gave her a new list of documents we need (well they were mainly for me since I am the one going without purpose). We spent a week gathering all of those documents and overnighted them to the Consulate. They were kind enough to overnight them right back to us with a brand-new list of items needed. It was almost like they didn’t notice that we had already set up an application with them and considered us two separate people. The new information needed was again for me. It’s almost like they think I am a single man wanting to stay long-term in France and am asking for a no-work Visa. I applied for the nonworking Visa because supposedly it is easier to obtain, and I had no real plans of working. A few of the new documents are a police report showing I’m not a criminal, a letter from the bank showing I have some money, a letter from my work saying I have worked before and how much I made, a letter from me (notarized) stating I will not seek employment nor aid from the French government, plus a letter from someone in France inviting me to come. What a pain in the neck.

So we decided to come in person hoping a little personal touch will go a long way. Now I have been told that you can go to France without a Visa and just use your passport. You can only stay on a passport for 90 days, however, after the 90 days you can visit another country and their stamp will buy you some more time. My fear now is that they will take my passport tomorrow to process the visa and I won’t get it back for another 4 months. They tell me it can take that long to process because they have to send it to Paris. We’re hoping to wing it a little and find out how long it will take to actually process it and if it takes too long say never mind and walk out with all our documents.

We’ll see.

Well we moved out of our house last weekend. Amy is currently living with her parents in Palmyra, IN. I am still in Bloomington living with some friends. It has been a tough week. The first day I moved in my roommate’s family was in town so I felt very out of place. Here I am a 28 year old man living with a married couple with a new born child. That morning I wandered around town for a couple of hours until work.

Being apart from Amy is tough. We’ve been apart before when she has gone visiting family while I had to work. This time feels different though. I guess because we have moved to different places versus her visiting somewhere. She came up for a couple of days this week though so that was very nice.

We finally got all our paperwork to the visa people. Hopefully they will accept and we can go pick up the visa in Chicago. It is such a stressful ordeal getting everything together to go to France. Eric has a nice world map hanging in my bedroom. I had never actually sat down and noticed where Strasbourg was located in France. So I have spent the last couple of nights mapping out places I want to go. I think Italy is a definite stop. And the Swiss Alps aren’t too far from us.