A visa, a flight, and too many endorphins?

Well the fantastic news of the week is that I got my visa! Yayyyy!!! Although I was confident I had all of the paperwork I needed, I nearly did NOT get my visa because the French people didn't like the letter I had from the school (ie. my admissions letter). They read through it and were like "this isn't sufficient."

I couldn't believe it, since I had used the same letter to get my approval from Campus France (the annoying organization that you are forced to pay $150 to "check out" your university admissions). Not to fear, my extensive experience with French bureaucracy has taught me not only to bring 5 copies of everything, but also to bring every extra paper you can think of. Does the consulate ask for your high school transcript? I bring my grades from elementary school as well, because it is inevitable they will want to see your kindergarten transcript just for kicks. But anyway, being the prepared person I am, I pulled out another paper from my arsenal (which, PS, seemed to be to be completely useless as it was merely a printout of my online application to the school) but shockingly, it did the trick. Nothing quite as satisfying as seeing a French bureaucrat nod in approval at something they couldn't really care less about.

Also, my favorite thing about my visa is my newly photoshopped official passport-sized photo, which will also be used for everything else official this year. The french always want you to provide your own picture, for everything from your student ID to your train pass, bus pass, and even your grocery store discount card. I was glad I could photoshop mine into something cute that I won't mind seeing on everything. Not only did I save money by printing 12 copies of my official picture for 50 cents, but I also look good. I highly recommend DIY photoshopped-for-perfection multi-purpose passport-size photos, just for reference.

Anyway- with visa in hand, I was finally able to get my flight back to France, yay! I will leave on Sept 3, which will get me to France just in time for the new handball season to start, and to make it to my Master's degree orientation. Couldn't be better.

On the training side of things, I've been keeping up with my Kathy-designed weight lifting program (AKA "The Viking Plan"), and my French coach's delightful running program. All in all, I feel pretty good. Definitely in fighting form, although I realize that the transition from the track to the handball court will still be hard. I am kind of sad I left my handball in Paris accidentally and don't have a ball to practice throwing around at home. It might be a little more tragic than I would like in the beginning as I get used to throwing a handball after three months and a half months. Hmmmmm. I will try to use some sports psychology visualization techniques instead.

Overall, I'm really looking forward to going back to France; there are a lot of people I want to see, and the year seems filled with possibility. Despite some bad news on the Team USA front (apparently we are withdrawing from our international games this November due to lack of preparation as a team), I feel very motivated about everything I have going on in Lyon.

Oh, and as an aside, I find myself writing this blog post at 7:00am, which may make it seem like I have some kind of intense discipline that forces me to get up on Sundays and be productive- but really, it is just too many endorphins. I had a really hard run last night (too late, I guess) and despite staying up to watch USA basketball win a brilliant gold medal game and going to bed at 3am, here I am, wide awake a few hours later. Lame! This is the second or third time this has happened to me since starting my more hardcore running program. Hope this annoying side effect is somehow representative of me becoming a human machine, because it is ridiculously irritating for someone who is trying to relish as much sleep as possible before starting the "real world" of school and practice in one week!!

Hopefully I will fall back asleep until noon, at which point I will wake up, see a movie, do practically nothing all day and enjoy my parents home-cooked Sunday night grill-out. Until then, maybe I will dip into my cache of downloaded episodes of The Shield :)