I doubt it will ever be said that I am clever when it comes to money. I'm always the one who prefers to buy new rather than bother looking/repair an older item. I love buying new things, and letting the clutter build and build. Only recently have I even bothered to really consider how may times my credit card is swiped, or how much cash flows out of the coffers. I love buying things for people, and frequently pay for dinners without expecting immediate reimbursement. I always assume the debts will even out over the course of the semester.
Is this sound financial planning? No.
But it becomes an issue now as I plan a semester in Europe, and really want to add another month in London. Add to this my rather pricey habits and interest in live theatre and the recent strengthening of the Euro, and I'm in trouble. I've never been big on the whole working thing, and barely cleared $1200 in income for the summer, most of which ended up in movie theatres and the mall near the camp. As such, my bank account is in a sorry state for a prospective world traveller.
So I do what all good college students do: I ask for a loan. KIDDING! The prospect of a loan terrifies me. I don't have enough monetary savvy to be taking out a loan that I'll be paying off for the next forever. Especially as I'll be entering the world with a Liberal Arts degree, and a desire for grad school. I've been lucky with undergrad: Virginia In-state Tuition (reasonably low), lots of scholarship money from many sources, and parents with the foresight to set up a college savings plan when I was but a 'wee timorous beastie' that covers whatever I lacked in scholarships.
In reality, I've spent hours working on scholarship applications. My home institution offers a study abroad scholarship of $500-$1000. I'm hoping my lofty dreams of four months wandering Switzerland (which includes with any luck Carnivale in Venice, Easter at the Vatican, and a rather exciting spring break, perhaps to Casablanca) and other countries, followed by a month in England will sway their hearts to giving me a substantial check. Other than that I've been using finder websites, such as www.fastweb.com to seek out other sources.
Unfortunately, so many of these are national scholarships, which means a wide pool of applicants, and at times very sketchy application rules. I can only send off what I have and hope for the absolute best.
As if the odds weren't already against me, turns out one national study abroad scholarship which I had spent three weeks working on, trying to get a really solid 500-750 essay on why, where, what I was going to do overseas, has decided in the last week to completely change their competition. Instead of one essay with a tidy chunk of change once a year, it's $100 for 100 words. Same parameters. Now, I've had enough troubles getting 500-750 words and covering everything I could do. and suddenly I have to reduce it to 1/7 of the original length, and keep all the information for a paltry $100.
Oh, yes, do not turn my poor student nose up at the $100. That could get me a designer handbag off the streets, iffy seats to the opera, maybe a Eurorail ticket. And perhaps change for coffee or grappa (which everyone tells me I should be drinking, but seemingly as the only person out of the travelling group who's had Thanksgiving dinner end with battles between grappa and Cointreau-pass, thanks). However, the advent of Craigslist means I could easily acquire that same $100 passing out fliers, running a chocolate fountain, or by more disreputable means (Again-pass). I can already tell that I'll likely be back at Bath and Body Works for the Christmas season, and maybe finding other quick jobs for the holidays. For family grab-bag, all prezzies will be necessarily related to getting over there. And then asking for money.
For you see, I really want to see Hamlet in London. And there will be no greater tragedy for me if I come up a few pounds short.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Language Barrier
Admittedly, the first posting of a travel blog could and probably should include some sort of itinerary of the proposed travel: dates, locations, modes of travel, dreams and hopes for the future....all that good stuff. But there are far more important issues at hand-and this week it's the language barrier.
Oh yes, the countries of Europe have mostly unified the monetary system, and some governmental forms. Yet there's still no common language. Now I love listening to languages, I love listening to accents, I find accents very attractive. However, I spent five years in high school learning Spanish. Struggled through five years of language, trying to understand what the devil was going on. I watched movies, took an AP course in Literature and forced myself to not only understand, but to analyze poetry in a foreign language. Five years I half-slaved to have passable skills, skills that I have since let slide from disuse, and the fact that my university is not in the most Hispanic-oriented area of the world. As such, all I can ask is the ability to greet and read a menu, and hopefully renew those skills should I ever need it for an advanced degree.
As it turns out, I will be spending four months in an area of the world that communicates in Italian. How wonderful for me, surely! I spend five years with a romance language, only to end up in an area with another romance language. On paper this should be easy-the skills I learned once upon a time should surely extend to this new language: the structures are the same, and the vocabulary is remarkably similar. Which, as I said, looks really good on paper. The practice is horrible.
Every time I try to count to ten, I begin in Italian, and by 'seven' I'm well ensconced in Spanish. I've realized that I knew far more Spanish that I ever realized, because every time I try to write a sentence in my extremely limited Italian vocabulary and shaky verb conjugations, it comes out as a remarkably complex and detailed Spanish sentence. I'm not sure the grammar is entirely correct, but it sure sounds good.
My roommate, who will be going abroad with me, has been having problems as well. Her linguistic background lies with Latin and a semester of German-which it turns out is entirely useless. The Latin should help in principle, it being the root language for the romances, and a certain percentage of English. It could be that the problems lie with a professor that didn't make a good first impression, and that sets up a barrier. If I don't have faith in a teacher's ability to teach, I'll resist learning, whether or not I can actually absorb the information. That means I feel the need to do extra practice with the other resources provided, and yet my reluctance to do work combined with my existing work load prevents me from that practice.
That inevitable lack of skills that comes from resistant learning and procrastinated practice means that I will have to rely on my natural charm to get around cities-which will end badly I'm sure. Although I've been told I can get out of class work if I can catch a glimpse of George Clooney. So maybe, I don't need to overcome the language barrier as much as the charm barrier.
Oh yes, the countries of Europe have mostly unified the monetary system, and some governmental forms. Yet there's still no common language. Now I love listening to languages, I love listening to accents, I find accents very attractive. However, I spent five years in high school learning Spanish. Struggled through five years of language, trying to understand what the devil was going on. I watched movies, took an AP course in Literature and forced myself to not only understand, but to analyze poetry in a foreign language. Five years I half-slaved to have passable skills, skills that I have since let slide from disuse, and the fact that my university is not in the most Hispanic-oriented area of the world. As such, all I can ask is the ability to greet and read a menu, and hopefully renew those skills should I ever need it for an advanced degree.
As it turns out, I will be spending four months in an area of the world that communicates in Italian. How wonderful for me, surely! I spend five years with a romance language, only to end up in an area with another romance language. On paper this should be easy-the skills I learned once upon a time should surely extend to this new language: the structures are the same, and the vocabulary is remarkably similar. Which, as I said, looks really good on paper. The practice is horrible.
Every time I try to count to ten, I begin in Italian, and by 'seven' I'm well ensconced in Spanish. I've realized that I knew far more Spanish that I ever realized, because every time I try to write a sentence in my extremely limited Italian vocabulary and shaky verb conjugations, it comes out as a remarkably complex and detailed Spanish sentence. I'm not sure the grammar is entirely correct, but it sure sounds good.
My roommate, who will be going abroad with me, has been having problems as well. Her linguistic background lies with Latin and a semester of German-which it turns out is entirely useless. The Latin should help in principle, it being the root language for the romances, and a certain percentage of English. It could be that the problems lie with a professor that didn't make a good first impression, and that sets up a barrier. If I don't have faith in a teacher's ability to teach, I'll resist learning, whether or not I can actually absorb the information. That means I feel the need to do extra practice with the other resources provided, and yet my reluctance to do work combined with my existing work load prevents me from that practice.
That inevitable lack of skills that comes from resistant learning and procrastinated practice means that I will have to rely on my natural charm to get around cities-which will end badly I'm sure. Although I've been told I can get out of class work if I can catch a glimpse of George Clooney. So maybe, I don't need to overcome the language barrier as much as the charm barrier.
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