When I wrote about returning to Europe, the only caveat to the post was that while the probability was strong enough not to leave any room for doubt, it hadn't been officially confirmed that I would be going, getting the grant, and studying at Católica. Happily, within the past week, that has been verified and accepted, and I will be going with one other student from CU who applied in a similar timeframe as I did. There is apparently one other prospective person, but that is not at all set in stone, and more unlikely than not at this point. I imagine the scrambling to get all of the documentation, how it takes so long, for the visa alone would be enough to nullify it. Basically, this means that all of the work that I've put into this process has paid off in an official capacity, and so I can breathe with slightly less anxiety than before. I don't have to worry that this whole thing was some kind of cruel, sick joke played on me in some kind of elaborate dream, from which I will wake up in a cold sweat of terror at 5 AM on some night where it is not only snowing, but also wherein my every means of leaving the house are broken and useless. With small children crying and country music playing just a little bit too loudly in the background. I am working for something tangible after all.
This should be exciting, right? Except that I've been dealing with sinuses that have been trying their absolute best to explode inside of my skull and eject themselves forcibly out. I was more excited about eating the pho soup that I was having for dinner the night that I got the email that my application status had changed than I was for the fact that, well, it's set and I'm going in January. That soup was divine. I really couldn't think of anything better than consuming that soup in solitude in that moment.
Not to say that it isn't exciting, but I think it hasn't hit me because of the haze I've been in courtesy of my sinuses. Other people are far more congratulatory and excited than I am, which can be attested by 28 "likes" to this very news being reported on Facebook, something I have never gotten and didn't really expect. My opinions on Facebook and how I would prefer to be using social media aside, the fact that 28 people on the internet, people with whom I am somehow acquainted, thought it worthy enough to click their approval of what I posted is still pretty nifty. I felt certainly more excited about it after seeing that, and then I went to sleep, because I am exhausted all the time.
As each day goes on and I feel a little better, because each semester the same pattern occurs and I spend one to two weeks feeling abnormal, I realize the gravity of things getting put in motion in a formal, bureaucratic way, and how there are really only a few months left until departure. My excitement is still dampened, though, because there is an endless amount of somewhat mindless work to be done for the procuration of the long-stay student visa. There are 12 time-sensitive things to be gathered together and shipped off to San Francisco, where they will sit for approximately three weeks before the granting (well, with sensible and good luck) of the visa, after which my actual passport will have to get mailed along with an envelope that is prepaid and trackable. Some of these documents are straightforward, others are ambiguous and I am not really sure what exactly they're asking for, and so I'm going to meet with people at CU to clarify it all before I start dreaming about paperwork and bureaucracy. On top of that, we still have to sort out our housing options, which means I have to figure out what exactly the options are actually going to be and all of the various information that goes with that, oh, and classes. I have to figure out which classes of the list provided by the program are going to be offered, are compatible with the certificate, and applicable to my major. I was planning on doing all of this in November, but November is on Tuesday, so that means I don't really have time to be excited about being formally accepted.
But hey, there are 89 days or less until I leave! (Not that I have a countdown...)
This should be exciting, right? Except that I've been dealing with sinuses that have been trying their absolute best to explode inside of my skull and eject themselves forcibly out. I was more excited about eating the pho soup that I was having for dinner the night that I got the email that my application status had changed than I was for the fact that, well, it's set and I'm going in January. That soup was divine. I really couldn't think of anything better than consuming that soup in solitude in that moment.
Not to say that it isn't exciting, but I think it hasn't hit me because of the haze I've been in courtesy of my sinuses. Other people are far more congratulatory and excited than I am, which can be attested by 28 "likes" to this very news being reported on Facebook, something I have never gotten and didn't really expect. My opinions on Facebook and how I would prefer to be using social media aside, the fact that 28 people on the internet, people with whom I am somehow acquainted, thought it worthy enough to click their approval of what I posted is still pretty nifty. I felt certainly more excited about it after seeing that, and then I went to sleep, because I am exhausted all the time.
As each day goes on and I feel a little better, because each semester the same pattern occurs and I spend one to two weeks feeling abnormal, I realize the gravity of things getting put in motion in a formal, bureaucratic way, and how there are really only a few months left until departure. My excitement is still dampened, though, because there is an endless amount of somewhat mindless work to be done for the procuration of the long-stay student visa. There are 12 time-sensitive things to be gathered together and shipped off to San Francisco, where they will sit for approximately three weeks before the granting (well, with sensible and good luck) of the visa, after which my actual passport will have to get mailed along with an envelope that is prepaid and trackable. Some of these documents are straightforward, others are ambiguous and I am not really sure what exactly they're asking for, and so I'm going to meet with people at CU to clarify it all before I start dreaming about paperwork and bureaucracy. On top of that, we still have to sort out our housing options, which means I have to figure out what exactly the options are actually going to be and all of the various information that goes with that, oh, and classes. I have to figure out which classes of the list provided by the program are going to be offered, are compatible with the certificate, and applicable to my major. I was planning on doing all of this in November, but November is on Tuesday, so that means I don't really have time to be excited about being formally accepted.
But hey, there are 89 days or less until I leave! (Not that I have a countdown...)
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