7 posts tagged “college”
It's been very busy here. I have two work study jobs and am taking 15 credits (semester hours, not quarter) and finals are coming up. I had a horrible flu all last week, so I missed all of my classes except one, so there's lots of catch up to do. I'm in the process of switching my Spring schedule around, as I met with my second advisor today to declare my 2nd major, and he told me that it would be more advantageous to switch one of my classes. I'm also have the great opportunity to work on a real research project with a professor, but I needed to switch my Spring classes around for it. The project I've been working on organizing and heading up started last night, and there was another edition of it today, so there's been a bit of last minute finalizing and stressing. There's one more to go, but my work's going to help me out a bit, so I'm pretty close to being done. My spring schedule is now all set, my work project is pretty much done, so all I have to worry about is finals.
Recently, I've been looking into study abroad programs. When I first applied to my school I was not going to major in Integrated Media, so I didn't look at the program. While it's not bad, it's actually decent, it is lacking in certain aspects. It's a liberal arts Integrated Media, but that's good. The problem is that I want to go into web design and there aren't any upper level web development classes, or upper level programming for web design classes. During a reception for a very interesting sociologist CJ Pascoe, a friend of mine mentioned how he was planning to study internationally in order to take classes that aren't offered here and at the same time get the cultural experience. It sounded perfect. I immediately started looking into the English speaking international programs my school offers. Since I'm double majoring, I don't have the time to go to a foreign country and take courses that don't apply to my major, as I would have to do if I went to somewhere that didn't speak English. I need to maintain the academic level of courses that I'm taking.
I've found a great solution. My school has an agreement with St Mary's College in London. The program price includes a homestay with breakfast and dinner. They have a great media program with upper level web design and programming classes. Because I came into the school with so much credit while being a freshman, even with double majoring I have enough time to spend a semester in England. It would be perfect.
However, I have to raise the funds. My parents can't afford to help at all, so I have to come up with all of it. It's going to be difficult, but I can do it. The program itself (tuition, homestay, breakfast and dinner) are covered by my school's tuition and room and board. This means that my scholarships which allow me to go here will still apply. I'm meeting with the coordinator of study abroad programs to discuss the exact financial and application details. Hopefully, my federal grants and loans will still apply. If they don't, I most likely won't be able to go.
I'll need to pay for my plane ticket, lunch for a semester, and spending money. It'll be quite bit of money. I also need to come up with $250 in order to submit my application on February 8. Normally, that'd be easy. I make that in about a month of working. However, we get paid the month after. So I get January's paycheck on Feb 15. That's not going to work. We're gone all of December. So that means that within the next 20 days I need to come up with $250. There's no doubt that a bit of the paycheck I got today is going towards the $250. However, there's been a bit of a paycheck snafu where I haven't gotten one of my paychecks (that happened last month too) and I owe my sister a chunk of change because of it.
plane ticket: $750-830 (school will reimburse me $750)
lunch: ???
spending money: ???
I'll find out the details about class fees, books, etc on Tuesday, when I meet with the study abroad coordinator. I was really happen with the plane ticket price (although that is for this year, rather than next cause orbitz won't let you go that far ahead) and I think that going to England is doable. The hardest part right now will be coming up with the $250.
When I moved in this year, I was shocked. This year I paid a little extra so I could have a single room, a room to myself. It doesn't have a bathroom, but that's fine. The size of my room is simply amazing. I had no idea that it was going to be this big. I love my room to death; it's my haven, I don't have to go to sleep or turn out all the lights when my roommate does, I don't have to worry about my music, or picking up all my stuff. I can decorate the entire room the way I want. Now, don't get me wrong; I've had amazing roommates. But I'm a very independent, individualistic person who can spend a few days by herself and be totally satisfied. Having a room to myself just works a lot better. I'm being so spoiled this year by this room that I don't think I'll be able to share a room again. Hopefully I won't have to.
Since several people have asked about my room, here it is!
I love my corner!
Summer's finally over, and school is here. My professor's are definitely taking advantage of that, and although it's only the the third day of school, I've already been loaded down with reading. Luckily not many assignments yet, just reading.
I've been pretty busy. I worked all summer at Sears (I'm naming them as company C since I am no longer employed there) in order to save up for a car. I did save up some money, but luckily my parents helped me pay for quite a bit of it so I didn't have to get a clunker. Instead I got a '98 Civic Coupe DX (ie. no power windows, locks, or A/C) but I love it to death. My car is simply adorable, and fits me quite perfectly. It's amazing what a difference having a car has made so far. I've been able to go out to lunch with friends, go to Portland to meet the wonderful PDX knitters from Ravelry in order to go on a yarn crawl (more on that later) and went to Cannon Beach yesterday. I love it. I'm no longer going stir-crazy in this little town my school is in, and the trip to Portland does not take 2 hours each way.
So I'm back in school and loving every minute of it. It's very busy, and hopefully will become more so as I'm handing out my resume to several organizations tomorrow in order to get a work-study job. There are about nine that look like they would fit me and what I'm studying pretty well, so I'm hoping for one of those. If not, I'll just have to take a job on campus.
I'll post a bit more later, but tomorrow's going to be a busy day and I need to get some sleep.
Night 'all.
... more school days! Yay! Although I love it here, I am perfectly okay with school ending soon. My only worry is my stained glass project, which has over 220 pieces, and needs to be done in just a few weeks. To that end, in the past three days I've spent more than 10 hours in the studio trying to get it done. I'm not even half done yet. Sigh. Don't get me wrong, I love it and the way that it's turning out, but I'm just worried that I won't finish it in time. If I don't, then I have to take an incomplete in the course and then they set a deadline and I have to have it finished on my own time by then.
I've also been working on the counterpoint baby blanket. I did FOUR mini-blocks, to bring my grand total up to three big blocks. I really need to block the blocks :D, so I can seam the mini-blocks together to make big blocks, but I don't have that much room to spread them out. Also, I really want a blocking board, because it has lines and makes the pieces dry more quickly than the towel that I use, but I don't have the money for one right now. I haven't decided yet whether I'm making the blanket out of all multi-colored blocks, or whether I'm also going to include solid blocks. But of course, this makes no sense to you until I post pics, right?
You know that criminology test? (mentioned here) I got an 84 out of a possible 86! Whoohoo!
In other news, I gave my sister the earrings I had made for her, and she loves them. I can also post them here. I'm working on Clessidra from the Spring Knitty 2007, and it's turning out well. I have pics, but I think I dislocated/broke my thumb, and since I have to write 3 essays in two hours on Thursday for my CB class, I don't want to aggravate it any more.
It's been a long day. I got up at 9 to go to my first class, which lasted until 11ish. In there we watched a documentary about Harvey Milk, the first gay public official in the United States, and his assassination, as well as the Mayor of San Francisco. It was heartbreaking, especially the light sentence his shooter received. Seven years. Seven years for killing two men. For bringing his gun as well as extra bullets in his pocket as he climbed through the side window of city hall, argued with the mayor, then shot him several times. He proceeded to reload his gun, then went to Harvey Milk's office and killed him. After an eleven day trial, the shooter, a former public official serving on the same board as Harvey Milk, received seven years.
That made me a bit emotionally exhausted, and it was only 11 am. I proceeded to go to the library to pick up a manual on writing sociological papers, and spent two hours reading it cover to cover and taking notes. Soon it was time for my next class, so I went down to the art studio and was there for a couple of hours, only to come back and spend 3 hours in the library doing research (non-internet research, which is the much more exhausting than searching through Google) for one of my term papers. Once I copied everything I needed, I ate dinner.
Sorry to bore you with all of that, but that's why I'm tired. I've been on my feet for 5 hours (in studio I get better results if I stand) and I was looking through and hunting for reference books filled with tables of information. So unfortunately, now I'm tired and I still have to do Calculus and some reading. :(
Oh well. I'm taking an hour break (my first break today) to just relax.
And I finished plying the CMF Azure Sky singles. And boy, is it gorgeous. Pictures will probably be up later today.
Isn't it pretty?
