As I begin to finalize plans for this upcoming fall, I'm realizing how soon all of these changes are going to materialize. Essentially I have one more month of normalcy before my life takes a turn for the awesome. My sublet is up at the end of April and because I am trying to save up cash for travels, I have secured a spot in my friend's front yard to set up my tent for May/June. Yes, I will become a hobo-drifter. Not only is that another $1200 in my pocket from not having to pay rent, but I'm envisioning long nights spent next to a small fire, getting yelled at by my friend for making a fire in her front yard, and brisk morning walks to the bathroom...paradise.
Either way I'll be in Ireland and the UK for half of May so it won't be so bad. I'm really looking forward to visiting the motherland and checking out my school in London. I'm half expecting to run into some evil twin version of myself in Galway. Come June 30th I will have had my final day of this tedious job and hopefully will have packed up much of my belongings and shipped them to my mother's house. Then I'm hoping a train to LA to stay with a friend for two weeks, then another train up to San Francisco, staying 2 weeks, then riding my bike from San Fran up to Oregon on highway 1 for a few weeks. It feels great to have fairly loose plans/no plans until September. For now, back to work, to sleep and to dreaming.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
8:03 a.m., Santa Fe
It's official. On Monday I was accepted to Univ of London's School of Oriental and African Studies for a Masters in Near and Middle Eastern Studies/Arabic. I had originally applied to grad school as sort of a back up or additional option to Peace Corps and after months and months of waiting to hear from the PC my priorities shifted. Frankly, if Peace Corps is going to remain viable through the next few decades they're going to need to do some MAJOR restructuring.
Regardless, I am absolutely thrilled to finally be going back to school and study what I'm passionate about and on top of that live in foggy London town. To those of you still waiting patiently for word from PC, I wish you the best of luck on your upcoming adventures and I will continue this blog as sort of a journal of my travels and studies. Toodles!
Regardless, I am absolutely thrilled to finally be going back to school and study what I'm passionate about and on top of that live in foggy London town. To those of you still waiting patiently for word from PC, I wish you the best of luck on your upcoming adventures and I will continue this blog as sort of a journal of my travels and studies. Toodles!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
8:28 a.m., SF
Foggy morning in the desert. I typically ride my bike to work; down an extremely busy street filled with angry commuters. I got to thinking this morning, are the health benefits of riding my bike everywhere overshadowed by the exhaust I inhale while exerting myself on the streets of my fair city? Quite honestly if I end up with lung cancer at the age of 35 because of years of bike commuting I'm going to be pretty mad at all of you drivers out there. Anyways, morning routine of late:
1) Wake up at 6:30 a.m. before my alarm
2) Go to the Daily Show website and watch choice clips from the previous night
3) Lay in my bed for another 5-10 mins gathering up the energy to get out of bed and ride my bike in the cold.
4) Buy coffee at this bakery by my work, chat with employees.
5) Get to work, drink coffee, read all relevant Peace Corps blogs and lose just a tiny bit more of my sanity waiting.
6) Get more and more excited about the potential for next fall!
I hope hope hope Peace Corps lets me back in (still waiting on Placement), otherwise grad school. But, either way hopefully this time next year I'll be chipping away at my goals and living some place where I feel challenged. Ok, back to reading all the other blogs.
1) Wake up at 6:30 a.m. before my alarm
2) Go to the Daily Show website and watch choice clips from the previous night
3) Lay in my bed for another 5-10 mins gathering up the energy to get out of bed and ride my bike in the cold.
4) Buy coffee at this bakery by my work, chat with employees.
5) Get to work, drink coffee, read all relevant Peace Corps blogs and lose just a tiny bit more of my sanity waiting.
6) Get more and more excited about the potential for next fall!
I hope hope hope Peace Corps lets me back in (still waiting on Placement), otherwise grad school. But, either way hopefully this time next year I'll be chipping away at my goals and living some place where I feel challenged. Ok, back to reading all the other blogs.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
8:49 a.m., SF
Finally got an email from School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, regarding my application.
I submitted my application online on or about January 7, 2010. My references were all submitted on January 22, 2010. When I was filling out the online application I sort of jumped the gun and selected four referees with whom I had not previously discussed my application. Long story short, only two of them were able to complete letters for me in a timely manner due to professional obligations…to be expected. I then had my third reference emailed to the SOAS dept of postgraduate admissions (which they tell you to do on their website).
Once I had confirmation that the three letters were in, I made an expensive call to London to confirm that their system was showing my application as "completed and ready for review". Perhaps it's my own naivety, but British folks generally sound fairly competent...a result of our (American) constant reminder in film of British intellectual prowess and worldliness. With that said, it took about five minutes before I realized that the woman with whom I was speaking was a complete moron and could not seem to grasp the concept I outlined above re: my application.
After I hung up, feeling unsatisfied, I phoned again and asked to speak with someone else. This new woman, while much more helpful, also failed to answer my questions or physically look into my application to check on its status.
After a week or so I decided to phone again to follow up. I got the same woman as before. Great. I explained to her that yes I had called before, but that I would like her to physically check into my application as there had been some confusion with the references letters (admittedly my fault). She scoffed and said "ok, what's your student reference number?" I gave it to her and she said "well it looks like we don't have any letters of reference for you". WHAT? How is that possible, I have 3 confirmation emails from SOAS saying that they received them? "Oh wait, here they are. We have three, ok bye!" And she hangs up without actually answering my question. I called right back and was connected to another person in the department.
"So the previous woman I spoke to hung up on me without actually answering my question. I want to make sure that your system shows my application as ready for review because there was some confusion with the reference letters, which you now have." Finally, this woman (hereinafter described as Savior) went to check on my printed out application. Savior then informed me that yes, my application had been moved from the 'waiting for further information' pile to the 'ready for review' pile. S. told me that I would be emailed later in the week when my file was being reviewed.
Luckily I got an email later in the day and my application packet is now under review by the admissions dept of University of London. I'm doing some intense finger crossing these next few weeks.
**This sounds way more confusing than it actually is. However, I can’t even seem to write it simply. Either way it should be straightened out!**
In other news I got a new tattoo this weekend which was super, super fun. After living in the southwest for 6 years or so I thought it might be time to memorialize it, so i drew this up on Thursday and got it pounded into my skin on Saturday. Here's some pictures! (They are a little wacky, hard to take a picture of the back of your own arm!)
I submitted my application online on or about January 7, 2010. My references were all submitted on January 22, 2010. When I was filling out the online application I sort of jumped the gun and selected four referees with whom I had not previously discussed my application. Long story short, only two of them were able to complete letters for me in a timely manner due to professional obligations…to be expected. I then had my third reference emailed to the SOAS dept of postgraduate admissions (which they tell you to do on their website).
Once I had confirmation that the three letters were in, I made an expensive call to London to confirm that their system was showing my application as "completed and ready for review". Perhaps it's my own naivety, but British folks generally sound fairly competent...a result of our (American) constant reminder in film of British intellectual prowess and worldliness. With that said, it took about five minutes before I realized that the woman with whom I was speaking was a complete moron and could not seem to grasp the concept I outlined above re: my application.
After I hung up, feeling unsatisfied, I phoned again and asked to speak with someone else. This new woman, while much more helpful, also failed to answer my questions or physically look into my application to check on its status.
After a week or so I decided to phone again to follow up. I got the same woman as before. Great. I explained to her that yes I had called before, but that I would like her to physically check into my application as there had been some confusion with the references letters (admittedly my fault). She scoffed and said "ok, what's your student reference number?" I gave it to her and she said "well it looks like we don't have any letters of reference for you". WHAT? How is that possible, I have 3 confirmation emails from SOAS saying that they received them? "Oh wait, here they are. We have three, ok bye!" And she hangs up without actually answering my question. I called right back and was connected to another person in the department.
"So the previous woman I spoke to hung up on me without actually answering my question. I want to make sure that your system shows my application as ready for review because there was some confusion with the reference letters, which you now have." Finally, this woman (hereinafter described as Savior) went to check on my printed out application. Savior then informed me that yes, my application had been moved from the 'waiting for further information' pile to the 'ready for review' pile. S. told me that I would be emailed later in the week when my file was being reviewed.
Luckily I got an email later in the day and my application packet is now under review by the admissions dept of University of London. I'm doing some intense finger crossing these next few weeks.
**This sounds way more confusing than it actually is. However, I can’t even seem to write it simply. Either way it should be straightened out!**
In other news I got a new tattoo this weekend which was super, super fun. After living in the southwest for 6 years or so I thought it might be time to memorialize it, so i drew this up on Thursday and got it pounded into my skin on Saturday. Here's some pictures! (They are a little wacky, hard to take a picture of the back of your own arm!)
Monday, January 25, 2010
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Friday, January 22, 2010
8:25 a.m., SF
Here's picture from snowy Santa Fe. Bike ride home from work, saw this, almost fell off my bike, too beautiful. Sangre de Cristo Mountains...scary name.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
3:13 pm, SF
Woke up to a bit of a blizzard this morning. Well, more accurately, I was woken up by a brilliantly orange colored sky at about 3:00 am, at which point, I noticed a significant amount of snow. I'm not from Santa Fe, I'm from Chicago. I've only lived here for about seven months. But, I am told that almost every time the sky turns orange we have a blizzard. Kind of a beautiful/fantastic/bizarre phenomenon.
As I read more blogs of fellow applicants I'm feeling a bit of negativity and general antsyness regarding people's applications. Let me say these words of encouragement as a person who has already been through the entire process:
IT TAKES A LONG TIME! Don't be surprised if you don't hear from them for months. This isn't to say that I haven't been feeling extremely anxious this time around, in fact I think it's worse than last time, but just immerse yourself in the present as much as you can. Those of you that are sort of putting things on hold until you feel better prepared, I think this is a wonderfully mature thing to come to terms with. I myself was guilty of jumping the gun with service last time and it ended up costing me about two years of serious contemplation and hard work. If you don't feel ready, then put it off, it will always be there. It's hard when you've told friends and family that you're doing Peace Corps and now you're having second thoughts, but it's better than terminating early. Peace Corps makes us wait for precisely this reason, 27 months is a long time and we need to be ready.
As a person who ETed, I had to go through some very serious hurdles to make it this far (nomination) again and there's no telling whether or not Placement will turn me down. It's likely that they will. It is extremely rare that a person in my position gets nominated again and I have yet to come in contact with anyone that has even tried to reapply, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. But I think it's wise to apply for a few things at once; grad school, other volunteer organizations and not put all of your eggs in one basket. I wish you all the best and I do hope that we can all make our dreams come true. Keep your heads up and whatever luck we do have is likely to work in our favor. <3
As I read more blogs of fellow applicants I'm feeling a bit of negativity and general antsyness regarding people's applications. Let me say these words of encouragement as a person who has already been through the entire process:
IT TAKES A LONG TIME! Don't be surprised if you don't hear from them for months. This isn't to say that I haven't been feeling extremely anxious this time around, in fact I think it's worse than last time, but just immerse yourself in the present as much as you can. Those of you that are sort of putting things on hold until you feel better prepared, I think this is a wonderfully mature thing to come to terms with. I myself was guilty of jumping the gun with service last time and it ended up costing me about two years of serious contemplation and hard work. If you don't feel ready, then put it off, it will always be there. It's hard when you've told friends and family that you're doing Peace Corps and now you're having second thoughts, but it's better than terminating early. Peace Corps makes us wait for precisely this reason, 27 months is a long time and we need to be ready.
As a person who ETed, I had to go through some very serious hurdles to make it this far (nomination) again and there's no telling whether or not Placement will turn me down. It's likely that they will. It is extremely rare that a person in my position gets nominated again and I have yet to come in contact with anyone that has even tried to reapply, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. But I think it's wise to apply for a few things at once; grad school, other volunteer organizations and not put all of your eggs in one basket. I wish you all the best and I do hope that we can all make our dreams come true. Keep your heads up and whatever luck we do have is likely to work in our favor. <3
Monday, January 11, 2010
8:32 am, SF
Still no new from Peace Corps, which actually isn't THAT surprising considering I was nominated for a fall 2010 post. I'm starting to sort of accept that I won't hear back for several months and it's a relief. I submitted my application to University of London on Friday and, remarkably, I believe I hear back before Peace Corps. I'm still working on applications to a few other schools just to have a few options come spring. For those of you who have the waiting blues, I'd recommend either taking the GRE, LSAT, (other acronym for grad school test), or applying to schools. It has significantly reduced the stress I've been feeling. I know that after all of the rigors of Peace Corps application another seems daunting, but either way it's a great distraction! To those of you already getting your invites congrats! To those of you nominated for fall 2010, take your time getting your stuff into Peace Corps, we're not gonna hear anytime soon either way. Ok, back to tapping my foot and writing statements of purpose...
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
9:21 am, Santa Fe
I wanted to write and ask if anyone has been nominated for the South Pacific for Fall of 2010? I think we should all band together and pool our collective intellects/resources to try and tease out some sort of potential invite date and potential countries. So far I've deduced that, out of the five potential countries in the South Pacific only Tonga, Vanuatu and Samoa have education listed as work areas. I was nominated for English education, therefore it would seem that one of those countries are the match. Now, staging dates. Vanuatu (September), Tonga (October), and Samoa (October). SO, as I cannot remember if they gave me a specific month at nomination (I believe she just said fall, I'm at work so I can't check the nomination letter), it would seem like Vanuatu is the most likely....which is fine with me, that place is gorgeous. But, let's work together and figure this out. I may be the only person nominated that far out right now, I have a feeling that my recruiter did this to torture me because she was somewhat evil. Hope to hear from some of you soon!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
8:53 am, Santa Fe
I just reread this in Pandey's book, Remembering Partition: Violence, Nationalism, and History in India, and thought I'd share it as it has been instrumental in my understanding of contemporary historical theory and method.
“The discipline of history still proceeds on the assumption of a fixed subject – society, nation, state, community, locality, whatever it might be – and a largely pre-determined course of human development or transformation. However, the agent and locus of history is hardly pre-designated. Rather, accounts of history, of shared experiences in the past, serve to constitute these, their extent and their boundaries” - Gyanendra Pandey
Amazing.
“The discipline of history still proceeds on the assumption of a fixed subject – society, nation, state, community, locality, whatever it might be – and a largely pre-determined course of human development or transformation. However, the agent and locus of history is hardly pre-designated. Rather, accounts of history, of shared experiences in the past, serve to constitute these, their extent and their boundaries” - Gyanendra Pandey
Amazing.
Monday, January 4, 2010
12:47 pm, Santa Fe
2010! I've never been one for resolutions or regrets or any of that nonsense. With that said, I plan to make 2010 the year of living in the present. It is all too often that we (humanity) get way ahead of ourselves and forget to appreciate the lives we are living TODAY. I have certainly been guilty of this, on a grand scale, since my graduation from college in 2007. Rather than marking x's on the calendar until I hear from Peace Corps, I'm going to go out, make new friends, have fun, and work on things that make me happy. Because when it comes down to it, we are going to end up missing our friends and family and everyday things like hot showers and cold weather (for those of us nominated to the equatorial regions).
In the meantime, I'm applying to a few graduate programs in History that I am almost equally excited about as Peace Corps. The first, the Masters of Islamic Societies and Cultures, through the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, sounds incredible.
So, as I said, lets make 2010 a year of contemplation, action and success. It's ok to work for the future, but lets not forget all the beautiful things that happen day to day.
In the meantime, I'm applying to a few graduate programs in History that I am almost equally excited about as Peace Corps. The first, the Masters of Islamic Societies and Cultures, through the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, sounds incredible.
So, as I said, lets make 2010 a year of contemplation, action and success. It's ok to work for the future, but lets not forget all the beautiful things that happen day to day.
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