L'affaire d'OFII

So, I realize I've been slacking more than a bit on the blog, so I've decided to back date everything and skip over some of the vacation stuff for a bit because it takes FOREVER to write! Don't worry--I'll get to it soon enough now that my midterms are over, but I want to provide you with a few tidbits from the last month in the meantime. I'll provide a link when I post anything about my February vacation.

(EDIT: Lisbon and Madrid post now available here!)

Upon my arrival back in Lille, I was greeted by an envelope in my room from the French government. This can only mean good things. It was a letter informing me about my mandatory medical exam for OFII (don't ask me what that stands for...) to insure that I hadn't infected the entire population of France with tuberculosis and provide me with certification of my legality in France. Thankfully, a few of the other international kids had their appointments at the same time as me so I didn't have to trek it out to the office alone.

Fun situation number 1: When we got to the office for our 12:30 appointments (which I had to miss an exam for, by the way), we found out just how French this office is--it doesn't even open until 1!! Surprise! So, we waited outside until they finally opened and went in with a bunch of other people. They ladies at the desk took our names and we waited until we were called.

Fun situation number 2: After a bit, they called Sadie and I back for our chest x-rays. They took us each to little changing-esque rooms and told us to take our shirts off. Sadie went into the x-ray room before me and I could hear the woman talking to her and telling her to go back a few times. After a few minutes of awkwardly standing in a two doored room in my jeans and my bra, the woman came to get me and not so politely told me that I also needed to take my bra off...HELLO! Bienvenue à la France, I guess... That was more than a little strange for me. After that...experience...there was a lot of waiting around until the doctor strutted in a few hours later to ask me if I was healthy, smoke, or take any medications. After that, they took my 55 euro stamp (which I'm still not sure the purpose of) and pasted something in my passport claiming my legality in France.

Fun situation number 3: You thought this would end after the visit, right? Wrong. We finally all finished and headed out back towards the tram to go back to Lille for class. I needed a ticket, so I put my money in the machine...it thought for a while...then told me there was a problem with the payment and ended the transaction! I sat there for about a minute sputtering about what I should do and a nice guy came up and asked me what had happened. I explained to him how the machine ate my money and he told me that I could go to the office down the road to get a ticket, but they wouldn't give me my money back. A tram showed up on the other side and he said he would be right back and jumped over to talk to the conductor. It was at this point that I realized he was from Transpole, the transportation company in Lille. When he got back he told me that there would be someone coming to help me out. The next tram showed up and I thanked him for his help and a bunch of other Transpole guys got off. They came up to me and started asking me what was going on and I explained everything...kind of intimidating when about five French men are all talking over each other and asking you questions at the same time, but eventually one of them wrote me my own personal ticket (I still have it!). They were actually super nice and pretty funny. One of the guys asked us where we were from and we told them we were Americans studying at La Catho and they wanted to know where in America we were from. When I told one of them I was from Wisconsin, he got all excited about Little House on the Prairie. Pretty funny...apparently that's a popular show here? I didn't even know it WAS a show. Then there was the one who asked Sadie if she was planning on marrying a French guy or an American guy when we were on the tram. Okay?? I finally made it back just in time for Version class, but definitely not without some excitement.