Whew! It’s done! And despite a meltdown, a mostly sleepless night (two to be perfectly honest), a bit of scrambling and a lot of stress – I got approved for my student visa. Yay! Happy dance!

I have to return to the consulate in San Francisco in about 10 days to pick up my passport and my shiny new visa. But otherwise I feel like the biggest departure hurdle has been cleared. Of course I still have a lot to do – booking a plane ticket from Paris to Bordeaux, paying tuition (yikes!), packing (double yikes!) – but I finally feel like things are winding down toward departure. Now I can turn my attention towards getting on the plane on September 10^th.

I do need to say a big thank you to those of you who helped with last minute official documents, peeling me off the ceiling as I had a meltdown and those who kept me sane in general. You know who you are! And I wouldn’t have pulled this off without you to keep me going.

Ta for now!