Visas Arrive as we Depart....for Hilton Head!

On Wednesday, June 26th Alex took our 13 lb tabby cat, "Ruckus," to the vet to get a microchip implanted so that we could take him to France.  With the microchip and several health papers we will be able to bypass any quarantine once we get to Nice.  "Ruckus" did very well riding in his new carrier to the vet and we hope he will remain this calm for the airplane ride (more to come on the furry escapade later).

Thursday, June 27th was bittersweet.  Alex and I were excited to drive to Hilton Head Island with the family, but were still anxious about getting our visas for France.  It was also my last day working at ELHS for Communities In Schools and not only did I have to prepare the new graduation coach, I had to try to plan better futures for multiple students before I left.  

The whole day I kept worrying about leaving a student out or wondering if there was something I had forgotten. I will miss the staff and students at East, it has been an amazing year introducing Communities In Schools into this school.  Overall, we got the drop out rate down from 3.9% to 2.6%!  However, numbers do not make me half as happy as seeing the smiles of my students as they would improve their grades, attitudes, attendance, and life situations.  It is my hope that these students continue to strive for greatness and not settle for anything less.

As soon as Alex's mother got to our place to pick us up, she handed us a package with none other than our much worried about visas!  They had come and now we had much less to worry about in terms of getting into France.  Now we were free to enjoy some family time on the beach and start planning our move from our Mooresville home.

Shout out to an ELHS Student:

I am so proud of Taylor M. for doing amazingly well with her online Algebra II class and taking credit recovery for more credits over this Summer!  You rock and I know you will have an amazing Senior year! 

Paperwork, Folders, Labels & Translations...

Before we started out on our trip to the French Consulate in Atlanta, GA, many things had to happen.....like a pile of paperwork and scheduled appointments!  Alex will be attending EDHEC Business School in the Fall and in order to make this happen, we needed to apply for visas (A student visa and a long stay visa for myself).  I have provided a basic overview of what to expect below.

Steps to Apply for a Visa:

• Register with Campus France and pay a fee
• Campus France checks into your school acceptance to verify enrollment
• Get the O.K from Campus France to schedule an appointment with the French Consulate in your region (Ours was in Atlanta, GA).
• Schedule an appointment no sooner than 3 months prior to flight
• Gather all documents for processing (See the list on the french consulate website)
• For long stay visas, get all documents translated into French (this can cost a penny or two but the consulate acted like they didn't need them even though the website demanded them)
• Check and double check documents to ensure you have copies and sufficient documentation
• Attend appointment at the French Consulate (No bags/briefcases/etc are allowed so just take a folder).  The whole process took about 15 minutes for each of us
• Go through fingerprinting and take another photo (They take a photo of you seperate from the photo you provided for your visa)
• If there are no problems, wait on your Passports to be sent back to you via the pre-paid envelope you have given the consulate during your appointment

Alex was pretty nervous about the appointment because he did not know what to expect and knew that this was our last big hurdle in getting to France.  We shared some laughs with the lady at the French Consulate after it took him 6 tries to get a good picture between him shutting his eyes and the camera not focusing!  His fingers were also so sweaty that the fingerprint machine couldn't read his prints so he had to wipe his hands off with a napkin, poor guy!  He said that once we were out of the appointment he could relax and we did, listening to music on the 4 hour ride home.

Shout out to a student at ELHS:
On the way home, I received an awesome message from Emily E. and am very proud of her for graduating and thinking of her future.  Keep pushing forward girl!