So today I went the the Préfecture to start the process of getting my carte de sejour. Everything went very smoothly, I had all the necessary documents except for 4 photos d'identité; which was a problem easily solved by walking to Monoprix and taking four pictures in a photo booth. Then I turned everything in and recieved my récipasse which is basically a reciept valid for 3 months showing that I've applied for the carte de longue sejour. When I was leaving the guichet (booth) I saw that Lizette from El Paso was waiting to apply for her carte as well. So I waited on her to finish and we walked downtown and ate at a nice chinese resaturant which was delicious except it cost me €11... She is an American citizen but of Mexican decent, so we spoke Spanish at lunch. I am happy about this because I was very worried I was going to forget all my Spanish while i was here, and since she is the only other American assistant in Moulins, I imagine we will probably hang out a good bit. After that since I had my récipasse for the carte de longue sejour, it was now possible for me to open a bank account. This is where the shafting begins. Actually I got a great deal on the account itself. I opened an account at Crédit Agricole Centre-France which is a widely used popular bank throughout France, and my debit card will be valid all over France and most of Europe. There are CA atm's all over France. Normally it costs money to maintain a bank account in France, anywhere between €2-4 a month. Also it usually costs €15 for the carte bancaire but I opened a Compte Mozaïc which is only for those between 18 and 25 years old, where I get my checks and bank card for free, and the account is free for the first 3 months and only €1.80 per month after that. How I got shafted was in the exchange rate for my travelers' checks. This morning I looked up the exchange rate online and it was €1 = 1.279...well at the bank the best they could give me was 1.349...Its not a massive difference but I would prefer to keep my money rather than watching it fall into the void of nothingness, lol. Not to mention a 6 euro fee just for accepting the travelers' cheques...thanks american embassy for telling me that travellers' cheques would be the best way to avoid fees... I should have just taken cash from an ATM with my American debit card and given them that to start the account, i would have gotten away with a better exchange rate probably, but only time will tell, when my reciepts start rolling in from my debit card transactions and I can calculate the exchange rate on those... anyway enough financial talk. Now I have to go and deal with more paper work and apply for the CAF (Caisse d'Allocations Familiales Which is the government program for subsidizing my rent. I now have to pay 262 euros a month, but I should be able to get about 156 back thus only owing a little over €100 a month which will help greatly seeing as my monthly income after taxes is only going to be €760. kbye. Will update more later, New pictures of my walk downtown and downtown Moulins here.
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