Packin' Up

Well, departure is two (one and a half, really) days away. YAHOOOO IT'S REALLY HAPPENING!!!

But unfortunately there is one very important task left to complete before I can get on a plane and fly far, far away.
Yes, that's right. The time has come for me to begin packing.

My brother is already gone at college, so I am basically just taking over his room and using it to lay out all of my stuff. And by "laying out my stuff" I mean "hurling all of my clothes in a pile on his bed." I actually cannot believe how many articles of clothing I own. Now I just have to figure out what gets to come along.

~The Task Before Me~

make this

fit into this

And that's just clothes! I also have to fit books and cameras and shoes in there. 

Oh, and also it's like one million bajillion degrees outside with 120% humidity.

This should be fun.

Nora

VISAAAAAH

I finally got my visa for France! Yip dee do.
My parents and I have been working on it all summer. The preparations you have to do for the application are insane: we gathered records of EVERYTHING. Literally- academic, medical, financial, residential, familial, animal, vegetable, mineral.
We ended up having to road trip to Chicago to go to the office of the French Consulate in person. Vis-à-vis* for a vis-a. Ha. Ha. Ha.

This is us in Chicago:

Hanging out by the cool bean sculpture in Millenium Park

The nice part of the whole going-to-Chicago thing was that I got to spend a great day in the city with my parents, and we had a whole lot of fun. God, I feel like a dork for saying that. 

It arrived in the mail a few days ago. It's amazing that we did all that work and spent all that time and all that money for a little page in my passport with some pretty stamps and the MOST horrendous picture I have ever seen of myself.

There it is! In all its glory. I covered up the picture of me because it actually looks like mug shot.

So now I can legally go to France. Thank you France, for allowing me to come to your country.

It's only 13 days away! Waaaahahaaaa.

The end.

Love, Nora

*"face-to face"

Good Bye, Daddy

Today I said good bye to my dad (he's going to work in Seattle from now through October, so he'll be gone when I leave for France). It will be close to a year before I see him again. It's hard to imagine.

This is the first of many big, sloppy good byes I'll have to make to the people who are most important to me. In many ways, I think it will be a huge relief to finally get on a plane and fly away from everyone, to have all the good byes over with.

That's my dad.

I put a picture up to make this blog more interesting to look at. I think I write too much.