The trip to the Prefecture de Police this last week was a success but not due to anything I or the twins did but because of the lawyer assigned to us was with us last Tuesday when we arrived there to collect Kian and Niall's "temporary Recippises" (I'm sure I just spelled that wrong). Those are essentially an extension of their current passport extended visas to enable them to obtain their student "Carte de Sejours" which again is the French version of the American
"Green Card". The lady that greeted us (and I use this term very lightly) was the soul sister of the original all and powerful OZ Cassie and I met at the French Consulate in Georgetown last February except this one wasn't behind a window and we were viewed with a disdain I'd almost forgotten about until last Tuesday. Our attorney Christelle took one look at her and basically took over speaking rapidly and forcefully in French to an apparently not so all and powerful oz and really earned her money that morning (I hear her firm charges a very premium fee for her services) and all forms were duly signed, stamped, and handed over to us and low and behold, the all powerful oz smiled as we all told her "merci" and bon journee which I think surprised her. Go figure, the Americans actually spoke a little French.
The next step for the twins will be a physical at OFII near Bastille where aferward they'll get their Student Carte de Sejours after approximately 700 euros changes hands which Christelle explained to us was a "tax". Then, like me, the twins will have to renew these every year by presenting ourselves at the Prefecture de Police yearly and paying more money until we leave.
Naturally while all of this was happening the elections back home were also happening and although I've followed them with online news sources this year all of us completely missed the screaming and yelling and lying advertisements that cater to the absolute lowest common denominators in our society which also included the so called robo calls which I guess someone of questionable intelligence thinks will somehow sway people to change their votes at the last second.
The paradox for me and others in this election is that a large group of voters decided to vote a bunch of people into office who's stated goal is almost exclusively to run interference on Barak Obama. Absolutely none of them have any new ideas to help the country out of the mess it's in that was almost exclusively the fault of the previous administration's fostering fewer safeguards regarding the financial health of the country through less oversight and basically letting the market take care of itself which resulted in the near meltdown of our entire financial infrastructure. Much has been made by these folks as a need to "take the country back" but they're never specific about who or what they're taking it back from but I'm reasonably sure that it has everything to do with the president being black and almost nothing to do with either the deficit, health care, or Nancy Pelosi. As a rule I will never use this blog as a platform for any kind of political statement but I can only call it as I see it. The thinking amongst the French and others in the EU is that the USA still yearns for the time when anyone there could own slaves and the fact that Barak Obama is president makes all of those people completely insane to the point they'd do just about anything to make sure he's not elected again in fact the incoming house majority leader has already emphatically stated just that.
Pretty sad stuff in a time when everyone needs to pull together to get the country back on track again. Although we weren't even remotely fans of George W. Bush, we never regarded him in the way the current crop of crazies are reacting to the current president.
Let's just say that the perspective from here is clearer and not too favorable as far as the rest of the civilized world regards the American political process these days.
Have a great day wherever you are and make sure that whoever you voted for actually DOES something in congress.
Love to all even if you voted to take us back to the 1700s.
Sid
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