Okay, gotta say: San Francisco is absolutely amazing.
The hills, the flags everywhere, the cable cars, the waterfront...amazing! I heard so many different languages spoken there, I was amazed. People on the street would walk by you speaking Russian/German/French/Mandarin, and that wasn't at all weird. Boy, was I in a different world. I had fun teaching myself what all the flags were, because we were in a part of town that had a lot of embassies.
And speaking of embassies, the French one wasn't at all bad. Great location, I have to say: You could drop in, get a visa, walk over to Chinatown, and mosey back for dinner in a little French café right outside your hotel! Ah man, I loved San Francisco.
And you know how I was freaking out about getting my visa and making sure all my paperwork was in order? I think the hardest part of the whole thing was getting past the security guard (who wanted to search my bag, my purse, my folders, and wanted my appointment slip to boot, she only gave up when I told her it would take me a while to dig it back out of my folder.) Then I sat down in the most terrifying row of chairs in my life, next to three other people who looked just as worried and disorganized as I was, which was kind of a relief. At least I wasn't the only nervous one, you know?
But then I was called up (in San Francisco they don't even call you up in order of appointment: You just arrive sometime on your appointment day and wait in line until they get to you.) and I started talking to a nice French lady who took all my papers and started checking them off on the online list that we put my paperwork together based off of! It was so funny. Mom was like "Look, she's using the same list!" The only scary moments were when she called over her supervisor and started speaking very rapid French that I probably couldn't have understood even if there wasn't a big sheet of glass between us. Every time she did that, I nearly died, but it was fine. Finally she just took my papers and my passport and said "Do you want us to Fed-Ex you the visa or would you like to come and get it?" and I was like "I so totally did that!" :) It was great. Really fast, too.
Did you know they take your fingerprints? I didn't. The guy at the counter kept getting this angry look on his face because I wouldn't press my fingers down hard enough.
So now there's 25 days until I leave America. I've been talking with Alexia and Marjorie on IM systems, and I think Alexia and I already get along well. :) Twilight exists in France just like in America, and twelve-year-olds are the same everywhere, I guess. She speaks really good English, too. I think the only problem I'm going to have is going to be getting people to speak French to me! But I bet Téo can't speak English, so I'll get practice there, right?
It feels weird to be planning a goodbye party and counting down the days until I go. I don't think my brain is going to catch up to me actually leaving until I'm boarding a plane for Boston. It still feels...distant. It's such a hard feeling to describe. Like I know, but I don't know yet. But over this year it's been slowly sinking in, so I don't know. What I do know is that I can't wait.
~Josie Harris
Friday, July 30, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Visa Squeeze
So far, every step of the way, everyone has been conspiring against us to make sure getting my visa is as hard as humanly possible. At least, it seems like it sometimes. Among the list of infractions:
-CIEE sending my host family info the week before I left to get my visa
-No one willing to notarize forms in French (In WA state)
-All the forms are in French, but only some of them have English translations
-I didn't get my essential paperwork from CIEE until yesterday evening, and I'm leaving for my visa tomorrow
I'm not saying this to whine, as much as it may seem like it. Sure, I'm worried, and I'm stressed, but I'll get over it in less than a week. Then France will come along, and I'll be happy and cheerful.
Instead, I'm saying this to warn you. If anyone out there reading this blog is a future exchange student to France, I'm going to give you some tips I wish I had known about. In no way am I saying you shouldn't apply to either France or CIEE: They're both amazing and wonderful and each have their own excellent qualities. But as for French visas, oh man, listen up.
-Ask for paperwork early. If they say it's not possible, ask again politely. If they say it's still not possible, ask again politely. If they say it's still not possible, ask again politely. If they say it's still not possible, ask again politely. Rinse and repeat until you have all the essential papers in your hands.
-Find someone early on in your preparations who will do notarization of signatures for French paperwork. (When a signature is notarized, it means that someone certified to do notarization watched you, or in this case your parents, sign a legal document in front of them and can therefore confirm that they were in fact the people who signed. This is usually done at a bank.) Find someone who is both certified for notarization, and can speak French. It turns out that banks won't notarize anything that they themselves can't read or understand, even if you bring along an accurate English translation issued by the consulate themselves. Be safe, not sorry. If your French-speaking notary still won't sign it because the paperwork doesn't have the right verbiage for notary signature (which also happened to my parents) then call the consulate and ask them for an amended document.
-Start to schedule an appointment for the consulate at least two months before your departure date. At least for the consulate in San Francisco, appointments must be made a month in advance, and all visas must be applied for a month before your departure date. (So, for instance, if you leave on the 30th of August, you must have your appointment at the consulate by the 30th of July.) Important Rule: Visa procedure trumps exchange company policy. If your coordinator says you should wait until you have a host family to schedule an appointment, but the consulate website says you should be scheduling your appointment right now, you follow the consulate's rules. If worst comes to worst, you can cancel an appointment. You can not (unless you are very lucky) schedule an appointment on a day's notice.
-Use your resources. There is likely a French teacher at your local high school. If you are going to France, you have probably known them for several years. Take their help if they offer it, ask for their help if they don't. Most of the paperwork you will submit for your visa will be in French. It doesn't matter how well you think you know French: You will not understand paperwork French. Chances are, your French teacher will know what they are saying far better than you and your trusty online translator will. Ask for help. It is not demeaning, it is not awkward, it is not unnecessary. What it is is a brilliant idea and a potential life-saver if you've made a mistranslation. It doesn't take a home visit. Look up their school e-mail on your school's website, or call your school during summer school hours (which your school will most likely have) and ask for their phone number. Look them up in the phone book. Use your resources, and avoid looking like an idiot at the consulate when you realize you checked all the wrong boxes.
Make sure you don't make the same mistakes I did, is all I'm saying. I'm looking back at the last few months, and I'm realizing that a lot of what's been stressing me out (thought not all of it) could have been helped if I had known then what I know now.
France is an amazing country, with great people and great everything else, and CIEE is an amazing program, with great coordinators who put up with my mini tantrums and great programs that have inspired thousands of kids to go on exchange. Exchange is always going to be hard, but getting your visa should not be impossibly stressful. I wish I had someone to tell me all of this a long time ago.
~Josie Harris
-CIEE sending my host family info the week before I left to get my visa
-No one willing to notarize forms in French (In WA state)
-All the forms are in French, but only some of them have English translations
-I didn't get my essential paperwork from CIEE until yesterday evening, and I'm leaving for my visa tomorrow
I'm not saying this to whine, as much as it may seem like it. Sure, I'm worried, and I'm stressed, but I'll get over it in less than a week. Then France will come along, and I'll be happy and cheerful.
Instead, I'm saying this to warn you. If anyone out there reading this blog is a future exchange student to France, I'm going to give you some tips I wish I had known about. In no way am I saying you shouldn't apply to either France or CIEE: They're both amazing and wonderful and each have their own excellent qualities. But as for French visas, oh man, listen up.
-Ask for paperwork early. If they say it's not possible, ask again politely. If they say it's still not possible, ask again politely. If they say it's still not possible, ask again politely. If they say it's still not possible, ask again politely. Rinse and repeat until you have all the essential papers in your hands.
-Find someone early on in your preparations who will do notarization of signatures for French paperwork. (When a signature is notarized, it means that someone certified to do notarization watched you, or in this case your parents, sign a legal document in front of them and can therefore confirm that they were in fact the people who signed. This is usually done at a bank.) Find someone who is both certified for notarization, and can speak French. It turns out that banks won't notarize anything that they themselves can't read or understand, even if you bring along an accurate English translation issued by the consulate themselves. Be safe, not sorry. If your French-speaking notary still won't sign it because the paperwork doesn't have the right verbiage for notary signature (which also happened to my parents) then call the consulate and ask them for an amended document.
-Start to schedule an appointment for the consulate at least two months before your departure date. At least for the consulate in San Francisco, appointments must be made a month in advance, and all visas must be applied for a month before your departure date. (So, for instance, if you leave on the 30th of August, you must have your appointment at the consulate by the 30th of July.) Important Rule: Visa procedure trumps exchange company policy. If your coordinator says you should wait until you have a host family to schedule an appointment, but the consulate website says you should be scheduling your appointment right now, you follow the consulate's rules. If worst comes to worst, you can cancel an appointment. You can not (unless you are very lucky) schedule an appointment on a day's notice.
-Use your resources. There is likely a French teacher at your local high school. If you are going to France, you have probably known them for several years. Take their help if they offer it, ask for their help if they don't. Most of the paperwork you will submit for your visa will be in French. It doesn't matter how well you think you know French: You will not understand paperwork French. Chances are, your French teacher will know what they are saying far better than you and your trusty online translator will. Ask for help. It is not demeaning, it is not awkward, it is not unnecessary. What it is is a brilliant idea and a potential life-saver if you've made a mistranslation. It doesn't take a home visit. Look up their school e-mail on your school's website, or call your school during summer school hours (which your school will most likely have) and ask for their phone number. Look them up in the phone book. Use your resources, and avoid looking like an idiot at the consulate when you realize you checked all the wrong boxes.
Make sure you don't make the same mistakes I did, is all I'm saying. I'm looking back at the last few months, and I'm realizing that a lot of what's been stressing me out (thought not all of it) could have been helped if I had known then what I know now.
France is an amazing country, with great people and great everything else, and CIEE is an amazing program, with great coordinators who put up with my mini tantrums and great programs that have inspired thousands of kids to go on exchange. Exchange is always going to be hard, but getting your visa should not be impossibly stressful. I wish I had someone to tell me all of this a long time ago.
~Josie Harris
Monday, July 19, 2010
Host Family
I finally got my host family!
I'll be living with the Henriques family of Orange, France.
Orange (what a funny name, I love it!) is located in the southeast of France, down by Marseilles apparently, and I'm relatively sure it's part of Provence. I'm extremely pleased, I was really hoping to go to the southeast. I've heard stories about it being the most beautiful part of France.
The family, though, is even cooler. I'm going to go from my American three-person family, where I'm an only child, to having four siblings! I can't even begin to imagine what that's going to be like. There are three girls, Marjorie, 16, who I'll be sharing a room with, Sandrine, 14, and Alexia, 12. Then there's a boy, Théo (or possibly Téo, they've spelled it both ways) who's only three. The parents are Joël and Sylvie, and they've expressed in their application that they'd like me to help their daughters with English, which I guess I'm fine with.
So far I've only got two pictures of the family: one picture is of them in Venice, and it's pretty recent, but also very blurry. The other one seems far less recent, but it's very clear. From looking at the pictures, they all look very nice. (Not that you can really tell what kind of people they are from a picture, I guess, but whatever.) The parents look pretty young, actually, I think their application said they were 44 and 38, almost exactly ten years younger than my parents.
I'm so excited, I haven't been able to stop smiling! It's one thing to know that you're going abroad. It's another thing entirely to know where you're going and who you're going to live with. I can't wait to meet these people! There's already so much personality in the application I have from them. I know that Sandrine and Alexia like to do cheerleading, I know that Marjorie plays the violin (and I'm a little apprehensive about sharing a room with someone that plays the violin, it must be said), I know that M. Henriques has an absolutely lovely script type handwriting (and that it's impossible to read), I know that the family keeps not only a dog, but also a chicken and several rabbits, and that's only the beginning. I'm going to try and e-mail them soon, if they don't contact me first. I want to get to know them...
(Subject change, sorry.) On a different note, I'm leaving soon for San Fransisco to get my visa. Thanks to my host family's timely arrival, I will soon have all the paperwork I need to turn in. Seriously, it's a pain in the butt. My parents have to fill out about a million forms, but half of them are in French. I know, you're thinking "So what, Josie? They're in French, but you speak French! Just translate for your parents." And I'm here to tell you it's not that easy. These forms are in both very formal and very paperwork-y French, which was really not covered in French 3. They ask simple enough questions, like "How long are you going to stay in France?" but they ask them in the most roundabout way possible, like "In France, you plan to stay for how long?" until your head spins. So, I should be helping Mom get those done soon, and I'm not looking forward to it. But whatever, it's good practice.
Anyway, I'M SO SO HAPPY THAT I HAVE MY HOST FAMILY! It's so great, you don't even know. I'm going to be in a good mood all week, not even summer school is going to drag this down!
~Josie Harris
I'll be living with the Henriques family of Orange, France.
Orange (what a funny name, I love it!) is located in the southeast of France, down by Marseilles apparently, and I'm relatively sure it's part of Provence. I'm extremely pleased, I was really hoping to go to the southeast. I've heard stories about it being the most beautiful part of France.
The family, though, is even cooler. I'm going to go from my American three-person family, where I'm an only child, to having four siblings! I can't even begin to imagine what that's going to be like. There are three girls, Marjorie, 16, who I'll be sharing a room with, Sandrine, 14, and Alexia, 12. Then there's a boy, Théo (or possibly Téo, they've spelled it both ways) who's only three. The parents are Joël and Sylvie, and they've expressed in their application that they'd like me to help their daughters with English, which I guess I'm fine with.
So far I've only got two pictures of the family: one picture is of them in Venice, and it's pretty recent, but also very blurry. The other one seems far less recent, but it's very clear. From looking at the pictures, they all look very nice. (Not that you can really tell what kind of people they are from a picture, I guess, but whatever.) The parents look pretty young, actually, I think their application said they were 44 and 38, almost exactly ten years younger than my parents.
I'm so excited, I haven't been able to stop smiling! It's one thing to know that you're going abroad. It's another thing entirely to know where you're going and who you're going to live with. I can't wait to meet these people! There's already so much personality in the application I have from them. I know that Sandrine and Alexia like to do cheerleading, I know that Marjorie plays the violin (and I'm a little apprehensive about sharing a room with someone that plays the violin, it must be said), I know that M. Henriques has an absolutely lovely script type handwriting (and that it's impossible to read), I know that the family keeps not only a dog, but also a chicken and several rabbits, and that's only the beginning. I'm going to try and e-mail them soon, if they don't contact me first. I want to get to know them...
(Subject change, sorry.) On a different note, I'm leaving soon for San Fransisco to get my visa. Thanks to my host family's timely arrival, I will soon have all the paperwork I need to turn in. Seriously, it's a pain in the butt. My parents have to fill out about a million forms, but half of them are in French. I know, you're thinking "So what, Josie? They're in French, but you speak French! Just translate for your parents." And I'm here to tell you it's not that easy. These forms are in both very formal and very paperwork-y French, which was really not covered in French 3. They ask simple enough questions, like "How long are you going to stay in France?" but they ask them in the most roundabout way possible, like "In France, you plan to stay for how long?" until your head spins. So, I should be helping Mom get those done soon, and I'm not looking forward to it. But whatever, it's good practice.
Anyway, I'M SO SO HAPPY THAT I HAVE MY HOST FAMILY! It's so great, you don't even know. I'm going to be in a good mood all week, not even summer school is going to drag this down!
~Josie Harris
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Visas, Dates, and Flights: Oh My!
Ohhhhh. Wow.
So, today, Mom and I decided enough was enough, and it was already July, so we should have gotten my host family placement by now. So we called both of my coordinators at CIEE and left them voice-mail messages. A few hours later, my regional coordinator called back, and Mom had a chat with her about how much we're freaking out about the visa.
She told us that my host family placement will come in the next two weeks. Again. But this time, she had a reason for it: apparently France is very particular about having everything worked out before any exchange students get their placement. France wants to make sure that our schools are going to accept us, so that they won't have to change host families on us, and the week for the schools to mail back the acceptance is this week. Apparently, it's also the last week of school for French kids. Which is great and all, because now I at least know that they haven't missed me or anything, they've just been being extra careful. :)
The other part of the phone call was, obviously, dealing with visa stuff. I didn't hear much of what Mom was saying on the phone, but when she hung up she told me that we needed to schedule my visa appointment right now. And when she said right now, she meant right now. She hung up the phone and went over to her computer to schedule it. As it turns out, the consulate wants you to get a visa one month before you leave. Since I'm going to be in France on the 27th of August, this left us trying to get the appointment this month.
So, very luckily, the next available date for an appointment happened to be the 27th of July. At noon. So on the 26th, I'm going to be driving down to California with my parent(s) with a whole bunch of essential paperwork (some of which we don't actually have yet).
On another note, the day I'm leaving has been changed. I'm now leaving on the 24th of August, because my coordinator wants us all to arrive at noon on the 25th at Boston. Yeah. From Washington state, that's just not happening. So I'm leaving early on the 24th and getting there late the same day, then spending the night in the hotel booked for our orientation. I'll still be getting into France on the 27th, though.
It's overwhelming, sorry. I have no idea how I'm keeping all this straight. If it helps at all, absolutely nothing else about my life has changed. :)
So now when I say there won't be anymore posts until my host family info comes, I might actually mean it. Wouldn't that be a lovely change of pace.
Over and out.
~Josie Harris
So, today, Mom and I decided enough was enough, and it was already July, so we should have gotten my host family placement by now. So we called both of my coordinators at CIEE and left them voice-mail messages. A few hours later, my regional coordinator called back, and Mom had a chat with her about how much we're freaking out about the visa.
She told us that my host family placement will come in the next two weeks. Again. But this time, she had a reason for it: apparently France is very particular about having everything worked out before any exchange students get their placement. France wants to make sure that our schools are going to accept us, so that they won't have to change host families on us, and the week for the schools to mail back the acceptance is this week. Apparently, it's also the last week of school for French kids. Which is great and all, because now I at least know that they haven't missed me or anything, they've just been being extra careful. :)
The other part of the phone call was, obviously, dealing with visa stuff. I didn't hear much of what Mom was saying on the phone, but when she hung up she told me that we needed to schedule my visa appointment right now. And when she said right now, she meant right now. She hung up the phone and went over to her computer to schedule it. As it turns out, the consulate wants you to get a visa one month before you leave. Since I'm going to be in France on the 27th of August, this left us trying to get the appointment this month.
So, very luckily, the next available date for an appointment happened to be the 27th of July. At noon. So on the 26th, I'm going to be driving down to California with my parent(s) with a whole bunch of essential paperwork (some of which we don't actually have yet).
On another note, the day I'm leaving has been changed. I'm now leaving on the 24th of August, because my coordinator wants us all to arrive at noon on the 25th at Boston. Yeah. From Washington state, that's just not happening. So I'm leaving early on the 24th and getting there late the same day, then spending the night in the hotel booked for our orientation. I'll still be getting into France on the 27th, though.
It's overwhelming, sorry. I have no idea how I'm keeping all this straight. If it helps at all, absolutely nothing else about my life has changed. :)
So now when I say there won't be anymore posts until my host family info comes, I might actually mean it. Wouldn't that be a lovely change of pace.
Over and out.
~Josie Harris
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