Eating my way through NOLA (and Dallas too…)

The past week has been an absolute marathon of the best kind, which involved no running whatsoever.  My type of marathon is the eating type, and there has been no shortage of excellent meals in the last week.  Though New Orleans burned me out completely – I don’t think I could have handled one more second of smelling Bourbon St. – but the meals were certainly my favorite part.  My first night in town, my family and I went to dinner at a french-ish restaurant called R’evolution.  It was so good.  We started with crab beignets, and I had a goat cheese and cherry tomato ravioli-type dish.  My sister ordered lobster gnocchi, my mom got scallops, and my dad got duck, all of which were wonderfully delicious.  The next day for lunch, we went to a lovely pizza place called Dominca, and I ordered the prosciutto pizza, again very yummy. Dinner that night was at Ascension, and I had veal.  The following night, though, was definitely my favorite.  We went to GW Fins, and we all ordered a bunch of appetizers and one main dish, their famous “Scalibut”, which was a generous piece of fresh halibut with scallops baked onto the top, bedded over a lobster risotto.  It was unbelievable.  Easter brunch was at Antoine’s.  The food was okay, but the experience was worth it.  It is one of the most historical restaurants in the country, and all 14 dining rooms were beautiful.  Brunch concluded my meal journey in NOLA, but then I was on my way to spend my week eating throughout Dallas with my mom.  The week’s restaurants included, NOSH Euro Bistro, Dive, East Hampton, Victor Tango’s, Taverna, Toulouse, Little Katana, and Fireside Pies, Nick and Sam’s, and Saint Ann are still to come.  It has been such a great week; there is nothing I enjoy more than great food and even better company.  I will certainly be sad to say goodbye to my family, but in two weeks, I will be back home and ready to eat my way through Marin, SF and Napa/Sonoma. 

No parlo Italiano

If I’ve learned anything in my twenty years of meticulous planning, it’s that nothing ever goes according to plan.  I had dreamed up a semi-specific plan for my course load while I am in Switzerland, and, surprise surprise, it’s already gone to the dogs.  The original plan was for me to take Italian I during the summer – in June – and then take the second semester of it in Lugano.  With this plan, I would be done with my language requirement by the time I returned from my semester abroad, which would take a huge burden off of my course load.  However, as most things go, this is no longer the case.  The SMU June term schedule came out a few weeks ago, and Italian was listed as an available course, as it was supposed to be.  When it became open to enroll, I made sure I logged on right away in order to get one of the supposed 15 spots…but it came to my attention very quickly that this was no longer an option.  Each time I entered the class number, it told me that this course did not exist.  So, I went in to meet with my counselor to talk to her about this issue, and she delivered the news that I knew was true but did not want to hear: the course was not, in fact, available in June.  This threw a monkey wrench in the plan that I had been depending on to stay on track with my course load.  Luckily enough, though, my brain quickly rerouted and I have orchestrated another plan that is on par with the previous one.  I decided it would be in my best interest to stick to doing summer school in June anyway, even though SF is calling yelling my name.  I am going to take one course for my major and one for my minor, which will hopefully make it so that I am on schedule, if not ahead, with my courses.  This will still allow for me to be home for almost two months this summer, and I will escape Dallas before it gets unbearably hot.  It sort of stinks, but it is necessary so I’ll just have to suck it up and deal.  Switzerland with not a hint of knowledge of the local language should be interesting to say the least.  Hopefully they’re nice enough to accept my English, at least at the beginning.  Ciao! 

Getting a Visa, and not the fun kind

From what I understand, you must obtain a Swiss Visa in order to stay in the country for an extended period of time.  I also am under the impression that it is one of the most frustrating and difficult processes to go through.  In the end, there should be no reason to not be granted a Swiss Visa, but the process is daunting.

Franklin University (formerly Franklin College) is supposed to send me a packet that includes everything I will need to apply for the Visa.  I’ve been told that as long as I follow the directions diligently, I should run into no issues.  I have been anxiously awaiting this package of paperwork due to all of the nightmarish stories I’ve heard about the process.

From what I can gather from my research, the Swiss Visa Desk will only accept Visa applications from people whose main destination is Switzerland – so that is a step in the right direction for me.  The application process also takes about five to ten days.  It requires that your passport have at least  two empty pages, and that it does not expire within a year after travel is expected to end.  It is also required that I submit my Visa application in person, in San Francisco, my hometown.

All of this information has been gathered in only my preliminary research.  I am well aware that I have a lot more to research and a major task ahead of me.  I am confident, however, that this process will be worth it when I get off the plane in Geneva to start my semester in Switzerland.

Ciao for now.