T minus 4.5 days

...and I am slightly panicked. I was just informed by a (very kind!) German ex-Erasmus student what exactly it means to have a "dossier" when looking for housing in Paris. CV, copy of ID card, copy of Uni acceptance letter (in my case, probably the arrêté de nomination), parental guarantee, copy of parents' tax return as well as their last paystubs. Oy. And that's just to be taken under consideration!

I'm also trying to come to terms with the fact that I will need to pay a good 600 Euro/month to live anywhere halfway decent (in other words, not a closet), plus agency fees.

Thankfully I have a good number of kind people helping me with my move; otherwise this would be truly overwhelming. Nevertheless, it has added tension to my final days, which I had hoped would be filled simply with relaxing, homey things, such as floating down the Mississippi in a canoe and watching American football with my extended family. (Both of which I admittedly did, but with the horrible dread of my upcoming apartment search hanging over me).