Drumroll, please

.....................................I am happy to announce that:
a)I made two friends at the Prefecture which made my hour there(even though I arrived right at 9 AM) go by much faster.
b)I was right-I didn't get my carte de sejour and who doesn't like being right?

Ok, totally kidding about b I would have taken being totally wrong and admitting it to the world any day over not getting my CDS and being left in this uncomfortable and anxious state. Ugh! I buttered that lady up at the Prefecture as sweet as a freakin slice of pain de mie. I laughed when she did, I smiled when she did, did I maybe even wink at her? No, I didn't really, but I would have if that would have given me the CDS I wanted.

What's funny is that the reason I didn't get the CDS was not AT ALL one of the gazillion reasons I conjured up in my head that I saw as obstacles. I could change CDS status WITHOUT having a visa, the letter of pre-inscription was perfectly fine, the lady was unexpectedly pleasant and smiled...SEVERAL TIMES! No, all would have been in my favor had I had in my possession a freaking CARTE D'ETUDIANT which of course I won't have until I know if I'm accepted or not which won't be until after I leave France to go back to the US. Arg! She explained that now they insist that you have to have the carte d'etudiant and then lowered her voice to share this secret with me "there used to be so many people who were signing up for school and getting a CDS etudiant just so they could legally stay in France." I shook my head in disbelief as I grasped the paper saying I had only signed up for school and was not yet admitted. "How could anyone ever do such a thing?" Errrr...yeah, I totally agree.

After I had buttered her up, made up something about me not being able to get a carte d'etudiant right away because everyone was gone en vacances(thanks, Sam!), offered my student card from the US and my CROUS Student Number...I just gave up. I am not good at talking people into things and I had really maxed myself out and I didn't see it advancing no matter what I offered her or how nice I was being. Her niceness was GREATLY appreciated and I cannot stress this enough because I now know of two ladies at the dreaded Prefecture who are nice instead of just the one, so I now have more of a chance of talking to someone nice than before. I did go through my documents with her and she did make a suggestion to add another document to my justificatif de ressources so as to be sure to get approved when/if I come back to get my CDS. She was also like, "don't worry, your CDS expires at the end of September, you have time!" Ah, if only she knew.

As nice as she was, I was not about to explain that I didn't know whether I was going to get into school in the first place and that I'm leaving for the states next week which complicates things what with leaving my cat, monthly bills and my stuff behind and not knowing if I will come back for good or not. And that I might possibly have to buy a plane ticket just to come back and take my stuff with me. All in all, there was no vomit nor tears which is always good, I only waited an hour(could have been 3 or 4 just to hear no), the lady was super nice and I now know what I have to have. I'm trying to stay positive, but I'm super bummed of course. If anyone has any suggestions on how I could finaigle a carte d'etudiant before I find out if I'm accepted, I'm all ears, baby! Should I try to apply to the Fac? When I studied abroad, I remember not getting my carte d'etudiant until like 2 or 3 months in, but maybe that was because it was a study abroad program? As is with everything here, on verra bien.