Visa: I have to go everywhere to get where I want to be

Not too long ago, I decided it would be a good idea to check out how to get my visa to spend 3 months in France. I had imagined that it would involve filling out an application, and then visiting the consulate to get everything cleared. This consulate of my dreams was in a large city only an hour away from me. Apparently this only happens in a world where unicorns and fairies exist.

So what's the reality of getting a visa to study in France? Well first, I have to create a dossier on the CampusFrance website. Okay, I think as I click on website. My dad has probably done something like this before and he can...WHAT??? the website is entirely in French. Being a French speaker, this is fine for me, but it means that I have to figure the whole thing out on my own, since nobody else in my family speaks a lick of French (aside from my mother, who can say "close your mouth" and "open the window", which I don't think will be much help here). I managed to figure out how to create my dossier, but now there are 50 million other things I have to figure out on this webpage which will take me a good while.

Let's pretend now that I've figured it out. All I have to do is fill out the visa application and schedule an appointment at the consulate in...CHICAGO. Ack. That's a good 6 hours from my house, and from what I've heard about trying to schedule appointments at consulates, I'll spend a night camping on the streets of Chicago.

I can't wait.

Applying to UCO

I recently filled out my application to CIDEF, and to UCO. I'm not entirely sure what CIDEF stands for at the moment, but it is basically the program at UCO for foreign exchange students. They hold an intensive language program from September to October, to get students prepared for the upcoming semester, and to keep American students on a schedule similar to that in the states (since in France, semesters typically last from October to late January).

What surprised me about these applications was how short they are. I remember when applying to my current school, I had to fill out many more pages with much more information, and I was using an abbreviated application. I wonder if the UCO an CIDEF applications are shorter because I have already been accepted to and attending an accredited university. Although now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that I was filling out an application for only one semester (in my excitement, I didn't think about this).

Overall, the process took me about twenty minutes. All I have to do now is decide what kind of host I would like to live with next fall, and turn in my application to my college's International Office. Hopefully I can manage to do this before Friday. I don't think it will be too hard.

It begins!

Hey there, internet. My name is Erica, I am a sophomore in college in the Midwestern United States. I was recently accepted to spend a semester at the Universite Catholique de l'Ouest (Western Catholic University) in Angers, France. I've created this blog to document my experiences before, during, and after studying there.

Hopefully, this will serve as a way for me to keep in touch with everyone at home, and anyone who is interested in following the life of an exchange student.

A bientot! (See you soon, but here I mean that I will write again soon)