Back and Forth Across the Pond

After a lot of waiting, and intermittent emails from Dr. Melosi insisting he had not forgotten about me, I got an offer from Houston for a research assistantship. It includes a tuition waiver (the big expense) and a monthly stipend. I will be doing various assistant-type tasks for the Center for Public History. In other words, I'll be working for Dr. Melosi. I don't know the value of the stipend, yet. Dr. Melosi gave me the email addy of the program director with instructions to contact her. I immediately did, but have yet to hear anything back from her. So, I'm back to waiting. But at least now I can work on my application package and know that I'm going to Houston. Technically, there's a chance I wouldn't get accepted. After all, I've done this all backwards and have not actually applied, yet. I sent Dr. Melosi an official transcript of my studies here at UNF, a writing sample, my CV, and a short personal statement. If he didn't think I'd get accep...

Wow, the last post I wrote was from February. It was when I got my acceptance at Lancaster. I was so excited. I eventually received acceptances from Stirling and St. Andrews, too. St. Andrews was quite exciting. It's well respected here and my advisor would be the head of the environmental history center there. So lots of excitement and feelings of accomplishment. Unfortunately, none of the acceptance letters came with funding. The economy in Britain is a lot worse than here, and what funding it does have is left for UK and EU students. It makes sense, but it's a big disappointment for international students, like me. After much soul searching, I let go of my dream. It hurt, but it was the right decision. I have moved on, and I know that I will get to spend time doing research in England down the road. So I just consider it a postponement, rather than a cancellation. In the mean time, I have to sort out my future. I have decided to go on for a PhD here in the US. I still fret a...

Thursday started out like pretty much any other weekday. Steve dropped me off on his way to work, and I settled into my morning routine of email and Facebook. I opened my UNF email account and quickly scanned the inbox. That's when my day changed. Near the bottom of the new mail list was a message from Lancaster University with the subject "The result of your offer has been updated." My heart thudded in my chest as I clicked open the file. It was an automated message advising me to log in to my application to see the new information. Nerves taut, heart still thumping, I followed the link. And . . . forgot my login name! A few seconds later (thought it felt like long minutes), I got the right login/password combination input and the decision appeared on the screen: Unconditional. I blinked. Unconditional? Okay, I had read on the St. Andrews site a description of the different statuses. Unconditional there meant complete acceptance. Was it the same here? Then I saw the note...

I've heard nothing from Lancaster or Manchester univerisities about my applications. I actually just got everything squared away with Manchester, so I'm not surprised. And I don't care if I do hear from them. I'm not that keen on the program there. Though if they offer me admission and money, I will give them sincere consideration. I did get an email from Dr. Jotischky (man, hope I spelt that right) letting me know my file had been given to a couple of potential advisors and he would get back to me shortly. That was about two weeks ago. I'm trying not to fret. Like I think I mentioned before, even if I get accepted, I still have to wait and find out if I'll get any funding. But I want so badly to live in England. I've wanted it for some time now, and staying there over the summer just reinforced it. Steve's not keen, though. We had talked about leaving Florida, and I remind him of that when he laments leaving behind the life we've built here. Of cou...

It's been about a week-and-a-half since Steve injured his eye. The doctor declared his retina healed (no more swelling or bleeding), and gave him the all-clear to return to sports. The doc did suggest protective eye gear and I'm very happy Steve followed his advice. He bought a pair of safety glasses designed for raquetball/squash players. They should do the trick, should Steve kick any more balls into his face. Despite all the good news, however, Steve's vision has not improved. His pupil remains dilated, he still has the blank spot in the bottom half of his vision, and he doesn't see as clearly as he used to. The doc says it's a waiting game. Maybe Steve's vision will improve. Maybe it won't. Steve's worried most about the blurriness. His left eye compensates, but is he making its vision weaker as a result? Hopefully the doc will have answers when Steve calls today.

It's amazing how something so quick can have such lasting effects. It was the last few minutes of Steve's soccer game. His team was up 3-2 after coming from 2-0 at the end of the first half. Steve was playing defense. The other team was crowding the goal, trying ferociously to tie the game. Steve got the ball and attempted to clear the goal. He kicked it - hard. He was trying to launch it to the other end of the pitch. But the team's fast runner swooped in from nowhere and was less than two feet in front of Steve as the ball flew. The ball hit the guy in the chest and bounced backward - right into Steve's face. Steve tumbled backward. Play continued, but I wasn't paying attention. I watched Steve as he rolled up onto his hands and knees. When he slammed his fist on the ground, I knew something was very wrong. I thought he had injured his foot or ankle in the tumble. He crawled to safety on the sidelines. I quickly joined him and asked what was wrong. The ball had hi...

The end of the year, that is. And the first decade of the second millenium. Damn, has it really been ten years?! Hard to believe. It's nearing 7:30 a.m. as I write this and it's another cold morning. It was 34 when we got up, but it's forecast to get around 67 today. That will be nice. An element broke in our central heating about two years ago, so we suffer through the winter with space heaters. I've got a parabolic sitting about a yard from me at the moment. It gives a nice laser-beam of heat. At the moment, Valenica has parked her furry butt right in front of it. She doesn't care much for the cold, either. School starts in five days. Five DAYS! I swear it was just yesterday that I was looking forward to the holiday break and all the tasks I'd get done during my down time. And now the semester is just five days away and that to-do list isn't all that much shorter than before the holiday. But that's the life of a grad student - a history grad, anyway. I...