there in San Francisco, above the blue & windy sea

Note: To the right is a circle of hell that Dante somehow missed, i.e. the consulat general. I'd stick it in between circles 6 and 7, where non-frenchies are forever bringing piles of paperwork up to a little window, and are summarily rejected for increasing implausible reasons.

So I am back from San Francisco and have succesfully obtained my visa! Sure I was missing a bunch of paperwork and stamps, but the only snag I encountered was having my ID photo's paper dismissed as too thin. How terribly...french? Had a interesting time trying to get replacements, visited three Walgreens before I found one that had a photo machine that wasn't broken (what are the odds?) and generally just more hassle and improbably bad luck that I'm coming to associate with the French beauracratic proccess, bad luck that lingers over your head like a raincloud as you leave the consulat and go back to your daily life, in short: I got my visa. The photo is probably my worst yet!

(To the left, I imitate my visa portrait in a dark Chinese resturant.)

Other than that San Francisco was great. I got to see Jenn, my roomate from Mississippi, and eat her parent's awesome home-grown vegetables fresh off the barbeque, and lounge in her hot tub and visit Pacific beaches. I think it'd be pretty hard to adjust to the California lifestyle. What with all the sun and the fog creeping across the bay, the awesome art-deco architecture, the free-wheeling hippie ways of San Francisco, it'd be impossible to enjoy living there. So if things don't work out in France, you know exactly where I wont be.


Actually it's a decided possibility. And I'll be sure to wear flowers in my hair.


One last thing: I've heard from France! I will be living in....... Amiens! The city itself. Also, there is housing reserved for me for the first 9 days and I will be teaching at l'école Jules Lefebvre, l'école St Maurice et l'école Jules Verne.

pretty sweet, huh? ahh OUI!