T-49 Days

Holy crap… did I just write that?  Forty nine days?  Really.  Excuse me, I’m going to go have a panic attack while screaming with excitement.

Nothing much to report, I’m basically in the inbetweens right now.  And by inbetweens I mean that I have submitted my visa application and my application for accommodations, but haven’t heard back from either.  But it had been awhile since I wrote anything, and for my fearless followers, I thought a bit of a progress report was in order.  

So that’s it, that’s my progress report… I’m waiting.  The progress bar is loading.  Give it two weeks, then we should be golden.  Provided I get a visa.  And accommodations… 

In other news, I got a job, so I hopefully won’t be nearly as broke upon arrival and might not have to feel horrifically guilty about the fact that I’ll be spending as much as I will be in London.  Yay!  I might even be able to pay towards my credit card bill a bit so I won’t be traveling abroad with massive credit card debt!  DOUBLE YAY!  

Just got a postcard from my friend who has been traveling in Scotland, so that was fun.  She gave me a few ideas about where I should visit while I’m there for Christmas.  And… yeah.  That’s about it.  Working, trying to get money, will hopefully have shoes to wear while I’m in London, which is currently the biggest thing I need.  Part of me wants to wait to buy them there so I won’t have to transport tennis shoes, the other part of me wants to buy them here so I know what I’m getting and how much I’m paying.  Also I want converse… Gotta rock the one good thing the USA is good at doing… even if we send out to china to get them……… oh America.  

I’ll check in again once I’ve heard from the Consulate about my visa app, or from Swansea about my accommodations.  

Until then, farewell my fearless followers, which I shall henceforth call you. Also I’ve been watching Jane Eyre.  Because Jane Eyre is amazing, and Michael Fassbender (Sp?) is beautiful and amazing.

T-88 Days, On Being Impatient

I have to very seriously ask myself what it says about me that the most exciting things to happen to me recently are these: 1) I now know that my tier-4 sponsor school is in fact Swansea and NOT Chico, and 2)I am now in possession of a money belt.

Of course, neither of these things mean ANYTHING to me for another month at the earliest.  I can't apply for my Visa until I have my CAS (conformation of acceptance to study), which supposedly won't be until July, and I'm banking on mid to late July.  My money belt doesn't really mean anything until I am hosteling it, since I don't even really expect I'll use it while I'm in London.  Maybe I'll use it just to prove that I need it.

I recently also acquired a copy of the Rough Guide to Wales, a jewelry roll, a foldable travel day pack, Rick Steve's Europe Through the Back Door, and a Streetwise London tube map which is about a third of the size I expected it to be.  In all, I'm doing pretty well for the things I need to buy, though I am beginning to think maybe I should have bought a rain shell instead of a jewelry roll and tube map, but in the end I'll need them all, the only difference any of it makes is when it arrives.

Mostly, I'm just sitting on my hands wishing I could be doing more to prepare.  I can't set up housing or apply for a visa or do any packing.  I'm horrifically impatient, but forced to wait.  It's unbearably frustrating.

In the meantime, I am making lists up the wahoo and making phone calls about selling my starbucks stock for a few extra dollars to last me until I get my finaid, or maybe for a bit of extra spending money in London (okay, let's face it, its almost certainly to keep me going until finaid gets here, but hey, a girl can dream, right?).  I'm also dealing with some, shall we say, less than brilliant people with the office, who has continually sent me angry emails claiming I have failed to submit a form that was most definitely submitted, forcing me to send several duplicates of the form until at last they sent me an email explaining that it was missing a certain signature stamp, which apparently they couldn't tell me the FIRST time it was submitted incomplete.

So I guess what I'll really do for the next month is troll an Amazon and keep a running track of all the things I can't afford.

T-107 Days; Money Matters

I’m a little concerned about some of the people I saw at the orientation as representing our country while they are abroad.  I realize that the US doesn’t have the greatest reputation in certain places, yet these people were showing up unprepared after a night of hard partying, talking about how they were dehydrated.  It seemed almost as if they were just sort of there on a whim, as if one morning they woke up and thought, “I wonder how they party in Marseille,” and they signed up to go.

My study abroad peer advisor is a bit like one of those.  Not NEARLY as bad, obviously, but a little.  A few weeks ago I got an email from the Visa Agency requesting that I make sure I have the adequate funds in my bank account for at least one month before applying.  Basically, when applying for a Tier-4 visa in the UK, you need to have enough money to pay your fees, which, with exchange, is about $7000.  I don’t have that much money, I have never had that much money, and, as I’m hoping to be a writer, I will probably never have that much money.  Hell, I don’t even know what that much money feels like, I’ve never even seen that much money.  And I doubt that any other student has, so I can’t possibly be the only student traveling overseas for year who doesn’t happen to have that much money just hanging out in their bank account.

So a week or so ago, I wrote an email to my peer advisor saying essentially that.  I figured there was some form I’d need to sign, or to bring in an official financial aid award, or some other little formality like that.  The poor girl, apparently she did have that much in her account, or more likely her parents did, and she had no idea what to do.  But rather than saying what I would have in that situation, “I’m sure there’s something, I don’t know what, but I can find out,” she said, “I have no idea what you should do about that… I’m going to have to ask Jenn and Steve (the people essentially in charge), they might be able to help with the specifics of your case.” My case… as if I was something special, something hitherto unknown.  And thus the panicking began.

How am I supposed to prove I have this much money? I don’t have this much money.  Best case scenario, I’ll have to lie.

And then BOOM my head exploded and I was sure I was going to be massively in debt and I have no way to pay for any of this and I’m in so much trouble how am I going to pay for anything and I just bought a backpack and I don’t have tennis shoes, but I need to buy a pair because mine are dying, but I can’t afford them.

And then I got an email from Steve saying that all I need is an official printout of my financial aid award and I’m fine.  Of course.  As expected.  I’m still going to be massively in debt, but at least I can pay for school next year.  Now I just have to figure out how to pay for the visa…