French buraucracy will be the death of me!

I went to Immigration today to get my carte de séjour (resident card), halfway across Paris for them to tell me that foreign students need to have their immigration file processed in the foreign student centre of the Cité universitaire (at the opposite end of Paris). When I got there, they asked for several documents that weren't on the list of documents to bring (though somewhat wise now to their bureaucratic shenanigans, I have been amassing photocopies in triplicate of every document even vaguely related to this process). The lady seemed ever-so-slightly disappointed that my file was in order. I, on the other hand, was rather more disapointed that they didn't ask for some documents I had to jump through hoops to get (like the letter from OHIP or a copy of my insurance policy in French). Now I have to do a medical exam (!) in Mid-October (!!) before I can get my permanent card.

I think back to those dreamy, rose-coloured days when I arrived in Japan and a kindly old English-speaking gentleman filled out my one-page form for me at the ward office. Much nicer than the shouting and chaos of the student immigration centre that smacked more of a makeshift refugee camp than anything else.

And I bet you didn't you know that you need 15 different document to open a bank account in France – including a copy of the deed to your parents' house? Honestly! How does anything actually get done in this country? To think of the mountains of paperwork that must get stuffed into vaults every day in France, never to be seen by human eyes again...