French Administration...

Well, friends, family, acquaintances, people whom I don't even know exist....

I went yesterday for my visa renewal appointment.  After a week of restless nights, fingernails chewed off, and barely eating, I woke up at 6:45 and met Chloé at their house at 7:45.  We dashed out the door and made it to the prefecture just a little before 8:45 only to find a HUGE line out front.  We weren't sure what was going on, because we had a rendez-vous (rdv) at 8:45 and were certain we didn't have to wait in line.  Chloé waltzed up to the man at the front and showed our paper and argued a little bit and were shoved through the door with vitesse.  We rendered all of our paperwork at the accueil and were told to have a seat and wait.  So....we waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  Finally my name was shouted over all the room.  We went to desk number 3 and the first thing she said was,  "Je vous ai appelés quatre fois, avez-vous pas entendu?"  ("I have called you 4 times already, did you not hear?") Well, of course we didn't hear and Chloé and I quickly looked at each other, put our scarves back on (we had both worn low-cut shirts in case it happened to be a man..), and sunk down into our chairs.  She was an absolute PEACH I tell you.  I knew I was screwed.  

After shuffling through all my things, she decided that I needed to go to an office at Clignancourt, on the periphique of Paris...for students.  SO, we took my dossier of documents and sped off in Chloé's car.  We bypassed the line at the next office, and went straight to desk 'Z'.  It was the desk for the confused, mixed up, and overly distraught.  Aka, me.  I don't know why, but the consulate in Atlanta had given me a "visiteur" visa instead of a "student/au pair" visa.  Which, is complicating things VERY much so now.  We waited a full 2 hours in that office for them to come to a conclusion.  Turns out we have to make another contract, get some documents from my school (thank goodness I've been attending class regularly), and a document from my bank (thank goodness I opened a bank account!) and go asap to have the contract verified and renewed.  I then go to another appointment on the 22nd of December (bad timing...I know) to desk 'Z' to depose my contract and then wait and see if I'm cleared.  

So, the good news is, I'm legal to stay in France for another month, but the bad news is. I'm in the same situation as I was 2 days ago.  

I am so thankful that Chloé came with me because with all the visa problems I'm not sure I would have conquered that situation.  She knew to ask the 'what if' questions and 'why' and I would be most certainly concentrating on what was right in front of me.  I can't even imagine if I had had to ask the first lady we met with to repeat something I didn't understand. Oh la la....

French Administration is a nightmare.