1 day 23 hours to go and still not packed

yup, you guessed it. as the title of this blog states, i have less than 48 hours til i board the plane and nothing has yet been packed. a list has been made, but things like unlocking a cell phone, finding a place to live, packing... you know, "useful" things have not yet been done.

what has been done, is a visa to get into the country and a camera with charger. i thought those were most important, don't you think?

so i promised a few days ago that i'd write about the adventure it was to get the this point, so let me tell you about it.

it began in my first academic semester at mcmaster university when we were all encouraged to attend the "BizX" info session. having always wanted to go on exchange but never letting myself do it for academic reason, i decided that now, of all times, was time for me to go. so, after having mentally decided that this was what i wanted to do, i of course, forgot to do anything about it...

2 semesters later and i attend the mandatory pre-departure meeting, which was, FYI, the most unproductive 3 hours ever. they tell you things like, be careful when traveling, use the "self love" method so as not to contract STIs while away, oh, and keep in contact with the school. what would have been productive, would have been things like how to get a french visa or how to find a place to live when both your home and host school leave you out to dry. to their credit, they did mention that duedates where coming up fast... great, thanks... i didn't notice.

getting a french visa took about 4 months in total (including time to search the consulate, figure out which visa you need - 2B by the way -, get special sized photos taken -by my little sister in our laundry room and printed by the nice lady at the loblaws -, and all the other million documents - doesn't help when your host university sends you your papers almost too late to get the visa based on the timelines given on the website which are then turned upside down when you finally reach someone at the consulate that tells you that it really only takes 3 days... gah) necessary to get the large sticker placed in your passport ). thank goodness i was working in a flexible downtown office that let me work around the random 9-12 by appointment only visa times for the french consulate! anyway, the day of getting my visa was a proud one and i'm glad i got it done before the family arrived.


that being said, my other part of the 4 months has been spent trying to find a place to live. from having a place to loosing contact with the person giving it to me, i've now geared myself up to find a place asap.

now that all of the family (well almost all of the family) has left from the grand family reunion, my focus has turned back to getting things back in order and ready to do. it's getting late and i'm still not done, so "bisous et a la prochaine!"


- victoria