Christmas in Belfast

I just got back from a wonderful evening of coffee and conversation with one of my best high school friends, Sandra, who is leaving for Belfast, Northern Ireland (by way of Chicago) on Monday. She's going to be spending a year thereworking as a volunteer through her church.

We both studied abroad as undergrads and now we'll both be living in Europe this next year so our conversation was a colorful mixture of reminiscing and imagining our next year, which now includes Christmas in Belfast! I'll be traveling with Mark over winter break, and Sandra's boyfriend and his brother will also be there so we are going to have a fun little Christmas together.

The rest of my tentative itinerary for winter break starts with meeting Mark in Paris, then taking trains to Brussels and Amsterdam before flying to Belfast. From Belfast we'll fly to Bratislava, then Prague, Munich, and Bern, ending at my apartment. A couple days later Mark will fly out of Paris. I am super excited for this; I hope this doesn't mean that I was mistakenly given coffee with caffeine.

I do have a small (?) problem, however. I received my passport with my French visa in the mail today. Of course I looked at it, admiring the official seal and sparkly security features before noticing that it is valid only from September through December. I checked my copies of the application where I correctly noted that I was planning a 9-month stay. The application also required proof of a return flight, which indicates a 9-month stay. I'm not sure how the error occurred, but I am dreading calling the consulate Monday to try to fix this. Not only was it expensive to send my passport, but I am afraid that it will be complicated to change or replace the incorrect visa.