I have my visa! Joie!

Anyone, and everyone, who has ever had to apply for a travel visa knows what a total pain in the neh-nen this could be. Having had pretty rough experiences in the past at the American, Canadian, and Italian embassies, I had mentally prepared myself to deal with long lines, hours upon hours of waiting, screaming, condescending visa officials, and security procedures so tight that you are made to feel that your cell phone and iPod have suddenly become potential weapons of mass destruction.

So you can imagine my shock when I breezed in an out of the French embassy in twenty minutes, my stress level not having been raised even once while inside. The visa officer was pleasant, professional, and did not once make me feel like a criminal for wanting to spend time in her country. And while a part of me now feels like breaking in to a ten paragraph rant about all the injustices and humiliations that I, or people I know, have suffered while trying to obtain travel visas in the past, I will try to exercise some restraint, because you know what? I am in a great mood now! I have my visa! Next step, Paris!

Zee countdown has begun

Time continues to fly and my departure for France looms closer and closer. Six weeks. Well, forty days to be exact, excluding the entire day set aside for traveling from Trinidad to France, and even though I haven’t really had a lot of free time to think about my upcoming adventure, there have been a few minor happenings recently that have made it all seem a little more real. First of all, I finally received my arrêté de nomination, which is basically a job letter from the French administration which would allow me to get my visa – it’s my ‘golden ticket’ if you will and it’s one of the most important documents that I will need to survive in Franceland . Secondly, I reserved my flight. Date of departure - September 22, 2009. Proposed route – A 23 hour haul on British Airways from Port of Spain, Trinidad, to Paris, France, with lengthy layovers in St. Lucia and London. Tentative date of return to the island – Saturday May 15, 2010. Whether I will in fact come back home on this day, or whether I will change my flight and extend my European adventure, I can not say. As we like to say in my country, we go see nah!

So there you have it, I have my flight booked, my arreté in hand, and my visa appointment set up. All that is left to do now is wait, make some money, and enjoy the time I have left in Trini. I could also afford to start working on my tan. Indoor office life ent doing much for my complexion.