Updates

First off, after a few weeks of nail-biting and self-doubt, I'd like to declare that we finally have our Indian visas! Woo-hoo!

I haven't managed to write that in here because I'm very bad with time management these days. Haven't even finished writing about the trip in Provence. With one month left before we go, there are a couple of property issues we have to settle before flying off to Whoknowswhere.

To explain, we've been a little worried because the process for Indian visas is a bit strange. The embassy doesn't accept applications, a third party British company takes care of that. They have an online system that I heard has made the process a lot faster compared to a few years ago, when people could wait half a day in queue before the visa officers give them the time of day.

So we did this online thing, filled-in the form electronically, printed everything out nice and orderly-like so when we go to the visa office all we have to do is pay. When you get there you also have to get your picture taken, special Indian Visa style that only they can make, so you can't do it on the cheap by taking a picture of yourself and cropping it at home. So we did that, pasted it on the forms as prescribed, everything neat and orderly-like. And in fifteen minutes from coming in, we were called to the counter and we showed my form first and the woman tells me I can't get the number of months I'm asking for and I can't go back and forth from Nepal to India because I'm a journalist, plus that means I have to sign some special forms saying I can't be writing while I'm in India as a tourist. Whutda?

Well, we reason that I'm not a journalist, I'm a writer, that's different. I'm a writer of the mundane. And she said India does not make a distinction, and those are the rules. The company says all writers are journalists and therefore cannot stay longer than 3 months and have to sign a journalist's waiver. What have you got against writers?! But, ok, it's their country and I'm just asking to be let in. So, to get it over with, we decided to say I'm a housewife. H photocopied the form stuck to the wall, we paid for that too, no free forms here. I filled up the new form, H was again his stressed-out self, and I submitted my hand-written form, H surrendered his internet application. The new guy at the counter asked H why his was computer-generated and mine was not, but we paid for the visa applications anyway and then we went home. But on the way home, doubt was gnawing on H because they might trace my application and find out I wrote "writer" and that mightn't help my case and we might have just thrown away our money if my application is not approved for suspected fraud. Oh lord.

But thank heavens they were happier to let me in than to nitpick. I paid a little extra too, because I have a Philippine passport. They were supposed to call us when our passports are ready for pickup, but they didn't. We found out online. Blessings of the internet age. After a week and 3 days, I got my passport back in time to go to the Philippine Embassy to get something processed. That day was action-packed too.

I wanted the be at the embassy in the afternoon so I made some adobo flakes that take a long time to prepare - but maaaaan, it was good. I don't know why I never thought of making it in the first place. I know it has to do with the dry adobo disaster I served to H's friends who came for dinner two Saturdays ago. My failure inspired me, so to speak.

Anyway, so I'd planned to go to the Musee d'Art Moderne after filing the paper I needed processed at the embassy, because they are on the same Metro line. I scurried around the house thinking of the things I needed: camera, map, guidebook, passport, re-printing the papers that need signing because I realized the bottom was cropped wrong when I printed two nights before (we were watching Breaking Bad so, no attention to detail at all)... plus I had to remember to photocopy the last page of my passport for the embassy requirement, and drop off two letters for H at the mailbox.

Of course, knowing me, I would forget something as important as getting the photocopies done before I get on the Metro. Well, when I got to the embassy it was 15 minutes before closing time and I had to rush out and find a photocopier because, of course, our embassy doesn't have a photocopier. So I get to La Poste, a guy with dreads is there, he keeps pushing the button and nothing comes out. Now I'm worried that the machine is broken. So this happens for about five - eight minutes until he decides to ask for help, and he tells me to go ahead and try. I try it, it works. Turns out, he thought the copies were ten cents, but it was plainly written on the machine that it's 20 cents. Go figure. But I still thank him for letting me go ahead. I get back to the embassy on time, I get it done, POW, it's closing time. I always make it by closing time.

After that, I went for a walk along the Seine at Ave. New York, in front of the Eiffel Tower. It was the long way to Palais de Tokyo, home of the Musee d'Art Moderne, where I took a time out from my suddenly hectic life. After we got back from the trip, I thought we could relax in Paris; but I was running all around, seeing friends, partying, cooking, writing, seeing other friends, doing errands, dancing, seeing to the needs of drunk strangers in our house. You know, Saturday night.

When I got home, H hadn't moved from the couch. He was playing the new Assasin's Creed and finishing the adobo flakes. Smh.

I wanted to write about the museum trip too but I only got 4 hours of sleep last night, working on something computer-y that's also annoying me, because I just found out there's something wrong with my Adobe InDesign. Well, to reset it, even online, I have to have the installation CD apparently, the installation CD that's IN THE PHILIPPINES, dammit! That's why I'm trying to repair it online, stupid Adobe-eating numbskulls! Whooo. Breathe in. Breathe out. So I try to download a trial version on H's PC, it takes 5 hours, by the time it finishes, a day of free trial is gone. Yay. So I have to work fast. I can't sleep. Coffee, coffee, coffee. I know what I'm doing is worth all the headache anyway. I hope I could tell you what it is now. But it's awesome. It's gonna be awesome.

I pray for the end of technical glitches NOW NA!

Are You In Seine?

The streets of Paris are beginning to look like new year's in Manila. 

H drove me to the embassy today to get our marriage registration papers. They were due for pickup last Friday but we didn't have time to go so we said we'd do it this week. Well, it's been ten days (12 if you count the weekend) and guess what - it's been resting on a desk the whole time! Apparently someone went on an emergency trip to the Philippines and just left it there to gather dust. They don't know when the person is coming back and there's no one else who could do it. For real?! For real. The consul told me not to expect it next week either.

It bugs me that no one told us we had to post-register at the Philippine Embassy in Paris (not even when H went there with the wedding requirements last May and forked over 75 euros) so therefore we registered late and had to pay an extra 25 euros aside from the 25 euros they charge for the processing. Okay, I'll pay the fine! But when they do things late they're just sorry.

Oooh! A pile of leaves! Reminds me of the embassy.

Word. Up.

I met the ambassador last week at a friend's art exhibit and she gave me her business card. I wish I was the kind of person to pull out cards and just ask for favors, not that I'm sure it would wield results, but you know, just pull some strings and get the rusty gears of bureaucracy turning. But I'm not. But I could, I really could. And I should.

But I can't!

So I'll just have to wait. Just like I have to wait forever to get my last salary from my former employer, whose sticky web of redundantly unnecessary legal procedures is keeping me penniless and living off my good looks until now.

No, honestly, I'm not. Thank you, mom, for giving me emergency money. I love you very much.

You know ma, I went to the Notre Dame yesterday and went inside and remembered how you forced us all to listen to French mass. I even went past the pew we sat on. And the column where I tried to sit my tired ass down while you and Allan checked out the church treasures for an hour and a half.

This is what the Notre Dame looks like now:

They were cleaning the chandeliers.

Three years after my first time inside, this place still leaves me in awe.

But it still bothers me that insensitive visitors just walk anywhere they please 

and talk loudly during mass.

I would still say this even if I wasn't a catholic:

The Notre Dame is still a place of worship, it's not just a museum! 

Take it to Sainte Chapelle. 

When we came last August it was only me, mommy and Allan in the plaza. 
But it was 7am, so what do you expect?

There are a lot of people angling for position here in front for a picture...

Because not a lot of people know the best side of the cathedral is its derriere.

Its flying buttresses are the stuff of gothic legend.

Sending architects into throes of ecstasy.

The South Rose exterior, which features a retelling of the Old Testament in colored glass, 

looks just as spectacular as the inside.

You are looking at the original heart of Paris. No, not the old couple.

This is the tip of Ile de la Cite.
The original settlers built the city here
2,000 years ago.

A temple to Jupiter stood
where the Notre Dame now stands.

It also gave ancient lovers the best views of the sunset over the Seine.

On one side it overlooks the Rive Gauche, or the Left Bank, where great writers, artists and philosophers spent whole afternoons in cafés being all sorts of creative; what with all their drugs and shit. This was the birthplace of bohemianism. If it was the 19th century, and it wasn't so cold, I'd be pitching tent here so their genius could rub off on me.

A mock wedding and French Marriage Visa Requirements

The original plan, as discussed with my lawyer/groom, was to get married in his parents' adopted town 5 hours from Paris (first at the town hall and then immediately after, at the church down the street) and then have a party at their lawn which annexes to a forest. After that I go back, finish the year at work while organizing the Philippine leg of the H&M Marital Mystery Tour which may or may-not-be in January of 2011. 

This plan fits in perfectly with getting the requirements for a resident card in their sequential order (if you want a wedding in France, that is):

1) get a short-stay marriage visa (3 months only) to get a marriage license which makes it easier for you to -

2) get a long-stay visa (1 year, and it's free when you're a missus!) which is necessary to -

3) obtain a Carte de Séjour or residence card

In a meeting with a Filipino consul in Paris last month, I was told we didn't need to get married again in the Philippines because the marriage certificate inked in France would do. But I wanted a ceremony in the Philippines too, because I didn't want a wedding party without them witnessing a wedding. I wanted a reason to celebrate!

So yesterday, my friend J told me I don't really need to get married again in the Philippines. I can get by with a "mock" wedding, where we dress up and act out the ceremony with a pastor. Another friend, The Attorney had a similar idea, in his legal opinion there is no need to get married here again but we could have a mass held so we can renew our vows in front of friends and family. This saves me from dealing with bureaucratic poop-cedures!

Now all I need is to file my Visa de court séjour pour mariage en france avec un ressorissant Français or Short-term Visa for marriage in France with a French national. Here are the documents I need (translated from the embassy website with the help of H, because there is no English list):

FROM MOI (me)

1) An accomplished form downloaded from the French embassy

2) A passport valid for at least 6 months

3) A copy of the page of the passport with the picture and the page with extensions of validity and changes of names or surname

4) The certificate of the publication of banns and no opposition to the wedding delivered by the town hall where the ceremony is to take place

5) Proof of my personal income (bank account and if necessary, the last 3 salary sheets)

6) A return plane ticket

7) Medical insurance for 90 days

FROM LUI (him)

8) Proof of French nationality (ID card)

9) Proof of income (the last income tax sheet, or the last 3 salary sheets)

10) Proof of lodging (the title of property to his flat)

11) Proof of means of subsistence and housing (attestation d'accueil, less than 3 months old)

12) Letter from the fiance confirming his intent to marry me and stating how we met (how nosy!)

13) A copy of his passport and the pages with the Philippine entry stamps

14) and my pictures

I read somewhere that you could get a long stay visa for marriage and then stay in France to get a carte de séjour and never have to look back (which I won't do anyway, I actually like my home) but my correspondence with the visa consul dashed all hopes by saying the process I just gave is now the only way to do it legally. 

I'm sure there are still loopholes out there. Like getting a short-stay visa then getting married and then asking the prefecture for a carte de sejour, but then the requirements to get a long-stay visa and to get a marriage license are the same anyway, so why risk it? Your first marriage is special, so it's best that you do it right the first time :)