Nothing starts my morning better than a little TSA groping...
Well I arrived at DIA at 4:45 AM and got right through to the gate (after getting to know TSA a little after I opted out of the naked body scanners). My flight took off at 6:30 AM and even arrived 20 minutes early. The guy I sat next to was nice and we had a lot of talk about. Ironically he had gotten both his masters and bachelor's degrees in finance which he mentioned after I told him that would be my hardest final and I wasn't looking forward to it. The next nice person I met was my taxi driver who originated from Armenia.
Once I arrived at the Consulate General of France in Los Angeles, I wandered around the building to find the door to the visa section. After about 15 minutes of waiting outside, I was called in for an interview from the guard. Once he gave me the go-ahead, I proceeded to the next waiting area. After sitting for about 5 minutes I was called up to the window. I proceeded to give my application, ID, passport, photo, program acceptance letters, financial support and residence forms. It may seem like a lot but they didn't even ask for half of the papers I had brought with me. It was definitely better to have more than less at least!
Overall, it was a lot less stressful of an experience than I was expecting. After hearing some horror stories about people not being able to get their visas and having to return at another date, I was pretty nervous.. but there was no need for that! Nevertheless, I'm glad I was prepared.
After arriving so early at the consulate, it was nice that I didn't have to wait for my actual appointment time, but that also meant that I had a lot of free time on my hands after my appointment before my flight took off. So then I wandered around the area a bit. The consulate is right on Santa Monica Blvd in downtown Los Angeles. I visited a couple coffee shops, wandered around a big mall, and made my way to Rodeo Dr. It was definitely a fancy area of town... and my impression of Rodeo Dr was that it was very sparkly. There just seemed to be sparkly decorations everywhere with winter decorations as well as sparkles on clothing. I even had to opportunity to see some paparazzi! They were hiding outside of some hotel... don't know who they were looking for but they didn't seem to be having too much luck. Looking back on it, it's too bad I didn't take a picture of the paparazzi! The paparazzi of the paparazzi haha!
Well just letting you know that everything went well for my visa process. Yes, it was hassle having to actually fly to Los Angeles to show up in person, but everything worked out. Here is proof that it is definitely feasible to accomplish a visa appointment in one day (even if I was completely exhausted after it). And to make things better!... I received my passport back in the mail today with a big, thick stamp (my visa) so I am all ready to go!
