(the misadventures of an expatriate corporate dropout)

Thursday, April 24, 2008

this and that.

I've been a bad blogger but an excellent juggler. I'm in California this week and managing to get lots of unrelated but equally important tasks handled.

1. The Consulate. So, I sweated being late and thus left 90 minutes ahead of time for my appointment and arrived 30 minutes early! whew! Entered armed with 2 huge folders of paperwork times three. They were pleased with all of my documents except health insurance. Apparently they don't care if your provider says they will cover you abroad, they want a separate policy specific to being abroad. So, more research, more paperwork, more money! sigh. But the good news is, once I have that, I do believe I will receive my one year Long Stay Visa! Oh, and they KEPT my passport!!! But practically NONE of my copies. That they specifically asked for. grrr!

2. Mignonne. Yesterday Mignonne kicked my butt. I LOVE designing our windows and I re-did both of them yesterday. But our windows are raised about 2-1/2 to 3 feet from the ground and climbing in and out of them does a number on my knees. Doh!! Step stool Kim, give it a try! Anyways, I'll try and take a decent picture and put it up later. We have a Mother's Day theme going on.

3. Yesterday was also my son's 25th birthday. Unfortunately he was sick. So unhappy about not being able to celebrate appropriately. Can you believe I have a 25 year old son?????? Shock and awe, shock and awe (and let's not even TALK about his older sister!!!) No wonder my joints hurt! All this time I thought we were all getting younger!

Okay, well those were all rather boring thises and thats. But working your ass off destroys your creativity. Only in the short term though. I'm working on some real doozies for y'all in the next few days.

Yeah. I said doozies. What?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello! Found your blog and it seems we are making the move at around the same time. I'll be curious to know how long it will take to get your visa. I was surprised to learn they kept your passport. I thought, they made a copy and one would have to return to the consulate to get the visa. c'est la vie.

La Framéricaine said...

Kimberlee,

Congratulations on getting to the Consulate on Bush Street on time. That's were I got my Livet de Famille in 1988! I have nice memories of that place.

It's probably a great sign that they kept your passport and are just waiting for you to bring back your proof of travel insurance. My hat is off to you!

I will look forward to seeing the new window at Mignonne.

Amitiés,

Anonymous said...

I just looked at your blog so I haven't read every last post but I can totally relate to your consulate story. The way I got around the health insurance thing was that I went on a student VISA, I had to register for 3 months of language classes at the Alliance Francaise, or other certificated school, and then I got the right to one year, the right to work, and all students no matter your age are covered by the national health system so I didn't need my own coverage. I needed the language classes so for me it worked out perfectly.

You can read about my VISA appointment here.
Funny VISA story