My travel plans will bring me to Aix a little less than one week before classes begin. This means I’ll get to adjust to the town a bit. I seriously love exploring and I’m used to walking everywhere – pas de problème. Hopefully, during my first days in Aix, I’ll find a great café to chill at. Now wait just a second, I know it sounds cliché! But this girl is one serious coffee lover. You find me a latte and book and I’m set for the day.
I don’t know much about the town of
Aix. Is it small? Is it big? (Obviously not as large as Marseille.) I do wish
we were slightly closer to the beach. Is there a river in Aix? Where are the parks?
These are the questions I hope to answer for myself within a few days of my
arrival.
What’s that you say? I should
Google it or pick up a Lonely Planet guide? To that I say: Did they have Google
in Cézanne’s day? Did Hemmingway read Frommer’s?
I didn’t think so.
I’m a “just wing it!” kind of
person. Travelling is one of my greatest pleasures. Coffee is another. I’ve
been studying French since I was 11 years old, in the sixth grade.
So, personally, it’s not the
language or the travelling that’s got me most freaked out. It’s this idea of
starting at a new school again. I went to the same school almost my whole life.
Being “the new kid” is not something I’m very accustomed to. My friends would
tell you that, once I’m comfortable around people, you’d be hard pressed to get
me to shut my trap. But getting to that level of comfort takes a while. The
fact that I’ll be living with people I’ve never met before and navigating a
city I’ve never been to before will only add to the time it will take for me to
get comfortable.
All right, pep talk time:
realistically, you only get to study abroad once. That means you better make
the most of it. As Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, “Do one thing every day
that scares you.”
Motto for the fall? Heck yeah it
is.
No really, we’re getting t-shirts.
In other super-exciting news, my
visa is good to go! Before I went, I was ridiculously (some might have said
irrationally) nervous that the Consulate would deny my request for a visa.
Thankfully, that didn’t happen and the visa process went smoothly for me. Being
from New York, I got to go two whole
times to the Consulate. As we say
in New York, “Oy vey!”
The first time was a painstakingly
long two hours of muffled loudspeaker announcements where you weren’t really
sure if they were speaking French or English until you heard your name –
“Stephanie, window two please” – and thumb-twiddling. One thing they should add
to that helpful little checklist on the Consulate website is “Bring a book or
large amount of paperwork as you will have no cell phone or Internet access.”
On the plus side, I had a great
conversation with two other college juniors who are going abroad in France! One
had just flown in from her internship in San Francisco (she’s from NY
originally and therefore fell under our jurisdiction) and was going back for
her third trip to France in four years. She had so much to say about the
tiniest towns! The other was – get ready – another IAU student! We both
discovered we’re going to be in Aix this fall and instantly bonded over college
life, visa stress, and excitement for France. Would you look at that, I’m one
small step ahead in this friend-making game.
The second time I went to the
Consulate (to pick up my visa; NY won’t mail it to you), I saw my fellow IAU
classmate again on my way out. Just a quick “Hi! Bye!” this time since we are
trying to get out of that place as quickly as possible. Visit numéro deux was, delightfully, only one
hour. Phew!
So now I’ve got my visa! Nothing
can stop me now (Except the weight limit on checked baggage. Hey, we girls need
our shoes and this is France we’re talking about, remember?).
To Aix-en-Provence, and beyond!!!
xxo, S
No comments:
Post a Comment