so after this morning L. offered to come with me to the secretary's office at school with me to explain my situation en francais. we went at 3 pm and talked with a wicked cool secretary here who rolled her eyes in disgust at the whole stupidity of the situation. she immediately got on the phone with the rectorat-- sort of like the superindendent-- to get to the bottom of things.
they told her on the phone that the rectorat did indeed send the work cards to the sous prefecture, but somehow they "got lost in the mail" and are no where to be found. oh la la!!!
so basically she told me not to worry because i'd done everything i could and soon the sous prefecture would send me the right documents and the whole thing would resolve itself. phew. thank god for the party tonight!!!!