I've been awol from this blog, in part because of the rather intense homework/finals/presentation schedule of the last week of my Arabic class and in part because I've been pretty down lately.
Before I get into all that, because this blog is intended to be about the financial aspects of studying abroad, let me mention a recent happy/strange happenstance that really turned out to be less awesome. The lovely people at Gilman International e-mailed me to let me know they were giving me $500 more. GREAT! Yay! Happiness (and a slight increase in my willingness to eat fancy lunches) ensued. Then I got an e-mail from my school's financial aid department reminding me that I was going to have the $500 deducted from other aid, and I needed to pay that to them right away. I'd be more upset about this but it still means replacing $500 of my loan with $500 of a grant, so I guess I still win? Anyway, just another reminder that winning scholarships often doesn't do much more than offset other forms of aid- there is a limit to the amount of money you're allowed to "earn" this way.
Ok. So now that things are winding down in Morocco (I have less than 2 weeks left with my program) I'm starting to feel an odd combination of things. 1. I'm sad because I will miss all of the great new friends I have made and my life in Fes. 2. I'm homesick because I've been away from my family for so long during a rather turbulent time for them/me. 3. I'm SO EXCITED to see my best friend in August and to spend a month in Burkina Faso with her. Because so many of these feelings are at odds with one another (I can't keep hanging out with my friends here AND see my family AND spend a month with my best friend) I'm trying to just keep them in three distinct boxes in my head and deal with them one at a time as they arise.
I haven't wanted to blog because I haven't wanted to admit that I'm having these feelings and because I've just been overwhelmed with work, and I didn't want my writing to sound like a list of complaints (the homework is really not unreasonable.. it's just sometimes hard to know how to budget "getting really sick from dehydration and spending a night vomiting and trying to keep the room from spinning" into my study schedule. These things happen. Anyway, I'm off to do more homework and study for the test I have tomorrow. I will try to be better about updating (particularly once we're in Essaouira.)
Before I get into all that, because this blog is intended to be about the financial aspects of studying abroad, let me mention a recent happy/strange happenstance that really turned out to be less awesome. The lovely people at Gilman International e-mailed me to let me know they were giving me $500 more. GREAT! Yay! Happiness (and a slight increase in my willingness to eat fancy lunches) ensued. Then I got an e-mail from my school's financial aid department reminding me that I was going to have the $500 deducted from other aid, and I needed to pay that to them right away. I'd be more upset about this but it still means replacing $500 of my loan with $500 of a grant, so I guess I still win? Anyway, just another reminder that winning scholarships often doesn't do much more than offset other forms of aid- there is a limit to the amount of money you're allowed to "earn" this way.
Ok. So now that things are winding down in Morocco (I have less than 2 weeks left with my program) I'm starting to feel an odd combination of things. 1. I'm sad because I will miss all of the great new friends I have made and my life in Fes. 2. I'm homesick because I've been away from my family for so long during a rather turbulent time for them/me. 3. I'm SO EXCITED to see my best friend in August and to spend a month in Burkina Faso with her. Because so many of these feelings are at odds with one another (I can't keep hanging out with my friends here AND see my family AND spend a month with my best friend) I'm trying to just keep them in three distinct boxes in my head and deal with them one at a time as they arise.
I haven't wanted to blog because I haven't wanted to admit that I'm having these feelings and because I've just been overwhelmed with work, and I didn't want my writing to sound like a list of complaints (the homework is really not unreasonable.. it's just sometimes hard to know how to budget "getting really sick from dehydration and spending a night vomiting and trying to keep the room from spinning" into my study schedule. These things happen. Anyway, I'm off to do more homework and study for the test I have tomorrow. I will try to be better about updating (particularly once we're in Essaouira.)
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