Wiring Money to my Swiss Bank Account

... Ok, I don't have a Swiss bank account. I have dreamt of a day (although, not a legitimate reason) wherein I happen to be the owner of a Swiss bank account. Alas, really all I've done is finished paying tuition and board for my next adventure. It's funny, because all throughout school and in all of the books I've read, the characters make wiring money across an ocean sound as easy as e-mail money transfers. Like you just click a button and suddenly SHAZAM! There's money in Switzerland.

It turns out this is not the case at all. In reality, you take reams of paper with tiny numbers and confusing foreign addresses on them (seriously, can anyone enlighten me on how the Swiss organise their addresses?) to the bank, and wait in line until a teller is free. Then you debate with the teller as to whether or not Zug is a Swiss provence, town, or a sound that monsters make in the Hobbit, until one of you figures out that you should just Google it. Then you check the reams of numbers that are part of the banking information over and over again to make sure you're not sending your worldly savings into the digital hinterland of IBAN, because that would be bad. THEN the bank manager comes out and checks everything over once more, you debate about Zug again, and then things are stamped and signed. It's quite a process. Worth it though, if it means I get to spend time in France.

Right! France. So, since returning from France the last time - which finished with a whirlwind of travelling through Annecy back up to Paris and flying home - I have been saving and scheming to return. This time I will be staying in Montpellier for four months, attending the same language school. Through what is likely the most lucky twist of fate I have encountered in my travels thus far, I will also be returning to Catherine and Michel's home while I am there. Deja vu? Yes. Although potentially the Matrix just changed something, and what I should really be doing is looking over my shoulder for Agent Smith. That would mightily complicate things.

Geeky diversions aside though, I depart on April 26th, and have begun packing.

As someone who spent a fair amount of her childhood and youth travelling, you'd think this wouldn't be a problem, and that I'd be terribly efficient at the whole process. That beginning to pack exactly three weeks before my departure would be an excessive precaution. Can we have a discussion about how packing for four months is drastically different than packing for two or three weeks? o.0 Suddenly, nothing is travel sized. Everything is normal, everyday sized because it just becomes silly to bring several very tiny shampoo bottles instead of one regular sized bottle. Understandably, this has severely compromised everything I have been taught in my life-long education of how to pack efficiently.

Somewhere, my mother just began to giggle and she doesn't know why.

This is it guys, I'm leaving again! I am excessively excited, and look forward to keeping you posted on all of the ridiculous I am likely to encounter abroad.

Cheers!
- K