Decision Time for Me Part 1

So Study Abroad has been plaguing me since November. The school makes you attend a first-step meeting, and only then can you get an application and everything. The First-Step meeting actually made me feel hopeful, like "wow, i think I really can go" and that there won't be massive amounts of obstacles. Wrong. So after the meeting was done, I picked up brochures for tons of countries. Then over break, I poured over everything, and painfully narrowed it down to 3 countries. I say painfully because I absolutely suck at making decisions. Especially about something that could even remotely make me happy, like getting the heck outta here. So I narrowed it down to three countries: Australia, New Zealand, and Scotland. I threw out the rest of the catalogs. Then the problem became: which company do I go w/? Because these programs are set up through outside companies that have deals with the university, and the university approves unis only through those sanctioned companies. So for Scotland, IFSA-Butler was the only choice. [In fact, pretty sure I am only interested in University of Glasgow. Glasgow has the best music scene, from what i've heard. Prob even better than Chicago (blasphemy! i know...) ] For Australia and New Zealand, there was CIEE, IES, and Australearn. Well, I think I have eliminated IES and CIEE. They give pretty good discounts off their published fees if you go to my unviersity, but the totals fees are still more than if I just go with Australearn, who have a lot more unis to choose from also. But it all just keeps getting harder. I have to make sure the universities have classes I could take. I need to take about 6 classes to graduate, and they are all specific classes for my major, not elective crap. So some unis got kicked off my list, for not having Bio or not having Psych. Then I compared climate (not scenery or attractions, because I am sure all 3 have fabulous things to see and do). Since I want to go for fall semester, Scotland will basically have the same crap weather that Chicago has in fall. But maybe wetter... So that's not good. And Oz and NZ, who start school in July, have their seasons backwards from us, so it will be winter there. I've asked around and researched and apparently winter means wet and cold there too ;) , so that stinks. From what I've found, it gets worse the more south you go. People have told me that my best bet for warm weather is Queensland, Australia. The main reason the warm weather is important to me is because I will come back to Chicago by January and I don't want to have 2 winters in one year. One is bad enough. And I want to surf. Really Often. In warm water... So I started looking in particular at Queensland unis, while not ruling out Glasgow or NZ. One problem has arisen with Glasgow. Their semester is Sept-Dec like ours BUT they take finals in January after break. Well, the study abroad program has sent us home by January, so we can't take finals. Apparently, we do extra assignments for the classes, and still only get 80% of the credit hours that we take. So if I take a 15 credit load, even though I do all the work plus more, I'll only get 12 hours. That sounds like a rip-off. I think I would really love Glasgow, but I don't want to be ripped off. What if their weird 80% rule somehow messed with my getting credit for a class I really needed. I'd die from anger. So it is probably safer for me not to go there. But that doesn't mean Oz and NZ educations systems aren't worrying me. Everything sounds harder than here!!! They rely more on essays and finals, and not on things like quizzes and midterms, which the American system cherishes (makes things a hell of a lot easier, I'll give you that). What if I am just completely incapable of getting good grades there? I can't let my GPA drop cuz of my med program. I have to get at least Bs while there (this tricky damn school won't let us take pass/fail classes while abroad, so Everything Counts). Oh, and I'd have to apply to med school way earlier than normal, because I'd leave in July. Getting applications done and begging for recommendations, yuck.Anyway, back to weather. From what i've read, NZ will be pretty wet/cold in their winter months, and so will Southern Australia. Queensland is like tropical. And has really good surfing on the coast, in particular the Gold Coast. So I'm considering Griffith Uni there. There's another one that sounds nice, called Bond, but is really darn expensive cuz it is private. so out of the question. Sydney is also an expensive place to live, so all the unis there are out. And Melbourne/Adelaide. So basically that leaves Perth unis and other more rural unis. The only thing that worries me about Perth is not being able to travel easily. I am positive there's tons of stuff nearby, but Perth is pretty isolated from the rest of Oz. So I think I would prefer East Coast, but again I could be wrong. There is another University, about an hour south of Sydney (convenient) called Uni. of Wollongong. Cool name. I think it will be colder there than in Queensland, but just as good surf. It is a rather small town, so I worry a little about having enough things to do. But still sounds pretty positive. So thus far, the only particular unis I have considered are Wollongong and Griffith. But I don't even know how compatible there are with me, other than weather and surf :). I don't know if they have the classes I want. I've tried looking it up and just get really frustrated because all of the courses are named something completely different from here and I can't tell which, if any, are the ones I need. And I talked to Cameron last week about NZ, and he mentioned Uni of Otago on the South Island was good for medicine. The campus looks really really great, and the town is really student-friendly apparently. And Victoria Uni in Wellington sounds really good too. But again, I was kind of scared away from both by weather. I have for sure eliminated Auckland and Christchurch from the list of cities in NZ (money and snow, respectively). There are a couple more rural unis I haven't eliminated from there though. So basically I first haven't been able to pick a country and then i haven't picked a city and then I haven't picked a school. So I am going to put up a poll for the first decision, which is country. I'm going to list all 3, even if I am doubtful of Glasgow. I'm pretty sure I've written all I know about each above. After a country is chosen (either by me or by the voting results, whichever one is quicker), I'll put up a poll of cities/universities located in those cities, to vote on. Not every single one of course, just the ones I have barely been able to narrow down to.

Which country should I Study Abroad in?
	Australia
	New Zealand
	Scotland
pollcode.com free polls

I forgot to mention, this other company ISV has been going around our campus about volunteering abroad in summer in places like Oz and NZ wouldn't ya know. But it's only 4 weeks. 2 weeks volunteering (which I don't mind) and 2 weeks outdoor adventure. If you know me, I am not particularly fond of being forced into outdoorsy activities. Never rowed a boat, that I know of... The NZ one has some form of rowing on over half their adventures. The Oz one actually sounds better, cuz u get to surf...but only for 2 days. AND I'd be stuck w/ kids from my school and other American unis. I feel like I wouldn't really get to explore and get to know locals, so what is the point? It'd be a working vacation than an actual living experience. I don't even think I could get college credit (which costs extra) for it, like they claim.And the normal cost seems kind of much, but so do the programs I talked about above. (Keep in mind, I haven't factored airfare into any of the above discussion.) And if I did this in the summer, I couldn't go to summer school and then I'd be stuck here till May 'o8 anyway. I say, if I am going to have to graduate in May, I might as well spend a much longer time abroad, and do things more independently. If I don't go anywhere, I'd save a ton of money. Period. And I could graduate in December, move back home and do ? for six months before med school started. It sounds like a lazy plan, but it is actually the best one for my family...but they don't see it that way. They really want me to go, and I feel uber-guilty about agreeing (however begrudgingly I did), and not just about money issues. Oh well. I have a lot of garbage to sort out with this Study Abroad stuff. The final applications are due on Feb 28th. But I need to make some decisions now, so that I can get signaures, look for scholarships, etc, etc... Oh yeah, and start doing my schoolwork and MCAT preparation, both of which I have essentially put on hold.

NFC Champions for Me

So Woo-Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Da Bears are going to the Super Bowl and I can not be more excited!! Granted, I don't watch football as much as basketball or tennis, but there is only one team I would ever root for. The last time the Bears were at the Super Bowl was in '86, right before I was born. So this has been a long time coming. I really want to be in Chicago on Feb. 4th to watch the game w/ my fellow Chicagoans. The only problem is that I need to go home to pick up some stuff I forgot (like my cell phone charger, my phone is dying. and my shoes for snow, which we have a lot of now.), but home is pretty far from Chicago. However, I have crazy Bears fanatic parents. My dad can't handle the stress of watching the game, and will probably hide away (like right now,my mom told me he's w/ patients at the nursing home, instead of the hospital, where there are plenty of TVs around), and my mom will be praying/screaming the entire night, right in front of the very nice Super Bowl capable Sony HDTV we have at home. But then all the sports bars across the street from my apt have plasmas too. I just want to be able to go out on the street and scream my head off and give hi-fives to people driving in cars, like we did in 2005 when the White Sox won the World Series. And I don't even care about baseball. It's harder for me to root for a baseball team since Chicago has 2, and technically I live on the South Side, but I do find the Cubs' North Side appealing as well. So I can't really pick a team. Back to the Bears. I need to find a way to go home and get back to Chicago in time for the game. Since the game is at night, it would not be practical to watch the game at home and then make my parents drive 2 1/2 hours to drop me off and 2 1/2 hours back. Maybe I can take a train Sunday morning. That sounds like a good plan. Hopefully the train tickets won't be sold out. The game is in Miami, so I can't imagine why there would be much crowding here. Normally, I would just go home this upcoming weekend, But I had to open my big fat mouth and agree to volunteer at night at the museum... On a Friday that I have NO classes and therefore could easily have gone home on Thursday night. Damn me and my charity. There's no point in going home for basically 24 hours on Sat./Sun. and then come right back to Chicago. So this weekend won't work. Sheesh, I'm in a pickle. And I haven't even factored in schoolwork. I did start studying for the MCAT. So technically all I did was open the book and read Chapter 1:Preparing for the MCAT. But it is a start. Ooooo I can hear people screaming and honking outside on the street right now, yea! Back to classes. I think my classes will be fine. I purposely tried to take easier classes this semester in order to concentrate on the MCAT. I didn't factor in all the work that applying to Study Abroad takes, and apparently I have to write some huge paper for this Indepedent Study Seminar for my med program. So it probably won't even matter that I tried to take a easier courseload, there are other things to make up for it. Damn. But the Bears winning the Super Bowl will be the highlight of my semester (as well as getting a good study abroad program and getting the score I need to get on the MCAT, that would probably trump the Super Bowl because the odds of it happening are much more faint than the Bears winning, which is unfortunate for me) Ok, got to go... Do the Shuffle!

Winter Break (?) for Me

So my break has been exceptionally ruined by various circumstances. I spent the first of my 4 weeks off waiting for grades. Checked online probably 5-10 times a day. Finally the unofficial ones came out and I was bittersweetly surprised. In my 2 hardest classes, I thought I would get C's because the finals seemed horrible, and it turned out I was Completely wrong, which was exciting. My easiest class, Music 100, turned out to be the most pain-inducing of them all. My grade was posted as an F. As soon as my eyes fell upon this heathen of a letter, I almost screamed out loud a huge "WTF!!!!!!!!!!" but not in initials, if you catch my drift. Luckily, I held back because my mother was in hearing distance. I waited one night to see if it would change and then e-mailed my teacher. No reply. Then I e-mailed again 2 days later. no reply. Then the Final grades were posted and it still was the horrid letter. I literally had nightmares, which i never do, and couldn't get to sleep for nights.So I sent him an "urgent" e-mail, the day after christmas.I suppose he wasn't checking his e-mail till x-mas was over but, quite frankly, I could give a shit less about his damn convenience, not when it comes to my grade. You have to understand, I was expecting an A, and would even now be cool w/ a B. According to his "grading system", if u can even freaking call it that, w/ what he explained to us in class, i could fail the final and still get a B-. I only missed two classes, so no attendance problem there. I explained all these things in the e-mails.Finally, he wrote back after the third one, claiming I hadn't turned in the second paper. I just about had an aneurism. I had the paper in my music folder, which i thankfully brought home. I scanned copies of the graded version he gave back to me in class, a ungraded version and even a receipt for the event the paper was based on. All the Fucking Proof one would ever need. If he so much as claimed that he never graded it and I made it all up, I was ready to get a handwriting analysis done. It helps to have a sister who worked at a law firm all last year and started law school this year. She could probably get me connections. Anyways, he wrote back quickly, apologizing, so I guess he realized what a god-awful mistake he made. Then he claimed he would turn in a grade-change form to the school (still don't know the grade I really got). That e-mail was sent over a week ago, and the grade has still not changed. I sent him another e-mail, in case he did forget to turn in the grade change form. So basically week 2 of my vacation, ha!, was spent trying to contact him about his heinous mistake, checking my e-mail 20 times a day, having horrible sleep, and week 3 was spent checking the grades online a dozen more times, having a recurring stress headache, and still not sleeping normally. Now normally, one would just wait to get back to school to clear up this bullshit in person. But I cannot afford such a luxury. His Fucking F has lowered my GPA so significantly, I will get kicked out my med program, through the US Postal Service most likely. It would be one thing if I had gotten those C's and deserved what was coming, but I did nothing wrong, and could still get kicked out because of his irresponsibility. Granted, he has to change it sooner or later, cuz I am not afraid to litigate, and my program would have to un-kick me in (litigation people!) but all the fucking hassle of bureacracy that I have so far gone through and would have to go through, if they did kick me out, just does not make sense to me. Do your fucking jobs right people. If u expect me to turn my shit in on time, at an A quality nonetheless, I expect u to fucking have the thing graded in a timely manner also, and recorded down correctly, so as to not ruin my life. Is that far too much to ask??? Also included in week 3, the soul-killing decision of whether or not I should study abroad next fall. My main cons are money, money, money, and grades/classes. I have kinda sorta narrowed down the countries to Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, and maybe non-London England. After that I am stuck. I can't afford to fail classes in an education system that is way different from ours, and I really need to get some major requirements done, so I can graduate on time, but not sure any of school's have the exact classes I need and can transfer. My alternative to study abroad is graduating early and then proceeding to do nothing for 6 months (I doubt I could get a job in my town, even w/ a bachelor's. Even the food service jobs are taken by teenagers) At least I would save a bunch of money being home. I don't know. I have no idea what decision to make. And so begins week 4. Oh yeah, I was supposed to start studying for the MCAT but this grade issue has completely thrown me for a loop and I have been virtually stuck, just waiting... Oh, thought I should add some new recommendations. I found a bunch of cool bands during break. the Only positive thing that has happened, dang it. Anyways, one that is definitely going to blow up HUGE this year, at least I think so, is the Glaswegian band Popup (click to hear tunes, can't stop listening to the first 2). They are big overseas already, of course, like all good bands are. I can't find any stuff about them by Americans, so hope i am one of the first. They are booked through freaking October. This quartet will be playing at SxSW which is a really good predictor that they will be huge. Too bad they are not stopping by chicago. And knowing my luck, it'd be a 21+ show and before september anyway. The second band are Liverpudlian's called The Wombats, who churn out really good danceable indie rock. When I first stumbled upon them, I feared they were emo or warped tour-y, cuz they look rather young, but then I listened and was gravely and happily mistaken :) The woo-woo's and ooo-ooo's are some of my favorites. They're touring extensively in the UK, so I'll probably need to wait a while for them to come here. Hope you enjoy these 2 bands. They'd be huge, if it were up to me (incorrect english, I know, but it's from some song I like).