Faisons un bon voyage!

Two more days, so this is going to be my last post from the states. I spent a lovely week in Colorado and now I have just a few days to recover before flying out Monday night. My flight leaves at 7:50 pm, I fly first to Amsterdam, then I'm changing planes and flying to Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, where I'll be arriving in the early afternoon and meeting my sister who flies in from London earlier that morning. I'm lucky to have flown so much last year going back and forth to Korea that I have "elite status" on Northwest, so I have a really nice seat from Minneapolis to Amsterdam - The first row of coach. Actually, I'm not sure how it works on international flights, but when I flew back from Colorado I was given a free upgrade to first class since it wasn't full.... That was amazing!

Packing is harder than I'd imagined. I'm bringing a lot less than I did to Korea, but since my bag is smaller I'm having difficulties getting it all together. I have an empty duffel bag to put stuff in on the way back, but I don't want too much with me on the way there since the first few days will be rather hectic as it is.
I guess this is it... Nervous jitters as always but it'll be worth it! Next post will be in France - Paris or Montpellier, depending on when I get internet next.

In any case, à bientôt!

French Visa - Acquired

I made the journey down to Chicago in order to visit the French consulate and obtain my student visa for my time in France, valid through the 29th of June 2009. The process was rather painless, but it involved a lot of sitting around in Chicago - which could be fun if the weather weren't so darned cold. The windy city lived up to its name, though, and I tried to spend as little time as possible outside despite the about a mile walk to the consulate from the metra station. I guess getting there five hours early didn't help either, but the trains from Kenosha don't run very often.

Now it's time to finalize packing, make sure I have everything ready. First things first: I still have 2 papers, 2 days of class and four finals to go! Not to mention Christmas in Colorado... It's going to be a busy few weeks leading up to December 29th, but that's nothing new to me!

First order of business in France: Disneyland Paris. My sister and I will be spending New Year's there, before I fly to Montpellier on January 2nd for the start of my programme. Should be a good time. I hope.

22 days!

Into the black...

Countdown to France: 82 days

I've moved my blogging for this trip to blogger because I like the format better, and it's easier for those without livejournal to follow. So to those of you who followed my Korea trip on Soul in Seoul, welcome back. For anyone who found this by chance, welcome. At first I started keeping these sort of travel "diaries" as reminders to myself, but I realized it might be nice to share my experiences with others - not only so my friends and family could keep track of me, but also so they could figure out exactly what it was I was doing.

Expect to see minimal updates regarding my travel plans before I head abroad, then semi-regular posts whenever something of note happens. I'll be taking lots of pictures, and I'm a particular fan of scenery photos; expect to see lots of those.

Once again I am studying in a university abroad, this time the Université Montpellier III in Montpellier. I'll be in the south of France, which will hopefully be a more unique experience than studying in Paris. I hope to travel around Europe while I'm there, my trip ending with about two weeks in the UK before I return home.

That's about all the introduction I have for now. I'll update again when I have a few more details.