A Bientôt Corée

     I am reaching the end of my time in Korea and it's dawning on me how sad I am, and what little time I truly spent here. I saw a great deal of the country and I would say about as much as I would have liked. For my part I like to leave places and things unfinished. I like to constantly have something unknown or undiscovered that I can go back to later. I enjoy the idea that there is always more to know. What a boring life it would be to learn everything.

     But with my sadness and fond memories of Korea comes excitement and a renewed sense of wonder. Off from Korea and on to France. Now I know I promised I'd do a visa post but the process is taking some time so let me explain why. If you are going to study at a school in France before you even try to get your visa you should go through the process at http://www.usa.campusfrance.org/en/ by first signing up for a PASTEL account. After that you will need to list your school, send in things like your transcript, Diploma, a copy of your acceptance letter and all the other gobbledygook that they ask for.

     Once you pass this time consuming process (and money consuming) you can apply for your visa appointment. BUT and that is a big but, not BEFORE 6 weeks prior to your arrival in France. That's a total of (approx) 42 days! To find a visa office near you here is a map, click on your region, and it will transport you to the consulate in your area.

     So why has it taken me this long to write about the procedure other than the fact that I haven't been through it completely yet? Well there can be some misunderstandings and hiccups along the way. The websites that run these procedures do the best that they can but sometimes it's just one of those trial and error situations. It is a lot of dedication to go through a visa process. There's lots of paperwork, LOTS of waiting, and lots of money involved. But in the end, once it's all done you have nothing more to worry about. A visa is hard work to get but very easy to maintain with proper upkeep...kind of like a car.

     Alright, that's all for today. I'll leave you with another piece of French music today. Here's one of my favorite french reggae artists. My college professor used to use his music in class to practice our listening abilities. Since the singer has a nice clear voice it makes for easy listening. This is Tiken Jah Fakoly singing a song called "Africain a Paris", a play off of "Englishman in New York".

     I hope you like it! He's an excellent artist and his songs have really good messages to them/deal with difficult topics.

A la prochaine!

Sara