Head to the Grind Stone

April 20, 2008

Originally Written on the 13th April 2008

Another calamity week of organized chaos. I’d better start with my exchange updates as this has been the root of my stressfulness.

Firstly I cannot under take the teaching spoken english project, well I can but I just wouldn’t get the credit for it. On further investigation I discovered that for me to receive credit I would need to complete several excess courses which simply isn’t worth it. So scrap that.

This leaves me with either the fully paid scholarship or doing an exchange with an exchange partner with my home University in ShangHai. I have been applying for both with the hope that one of them will ensure an exchange. For the fully paid scholarship I just need to get all of my forms back to the Chinese embassy before the end of the month, this includes a complete physical report with X-rays, bloodtest etc. With such a limited time frame I may not be able to apply in time.

Last Monday I finally found out the outcome of the ShangHai exchange which is that they will still accept my late application (which I think is completely reasonable). I was incredibly surprised to discover that my home University has offered me a $5000 scholarship and a further $1000 travel grant. This as well as some more positive impressions from a little more extensive research has me leaning in favour of this option.

There is still a massive catch. Firstly I find out the result of the fully paid scholarship by the time I have committed myself to study in ShangHai. This is obviously highly problematic. Even though I get full fees paid (including tution, so yes, a free semester an then travel costs) I would rather not pull out of this other deal to ShangHai, especially when I have been provided with another scholarship.

So the way I am slicing it now is that traveling to ShangHai is the main goal and the fully paid scholarship is Plan B. This way is a much more secure way of thinking as I have already been accepted at this ShangHai University, I just need to get enrolled and I will be content.

God this is a painful situation to try and explain to everyone. I still don’t want to keep my hopes up until everything is finalized. So hopefully by the next time I report in I will know my fate.

I’m not really in the mood to write about anything else really. Thats not to say that there isn’t much to talk about rather I can’t be fussed writing it down. Its currently holidays and I have spent most of the first weekend trying to recoup my energy and clear out some work first up so that the rest of my time can be spent on relaxing.

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