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.