So Long Mr. Howard

...wherein I detail studying overseas, being poor and everything I care about.

Name:

Desperately trying to overcome ordinary mediocrity by substituting it with psychobabble

Monday, June 19, 2006

Long time, no post.

But, hey, look, nobody's reading this yet.

Brasil 2, Australia 0. I kinda expected it.

Friday, February 24, 2006

Dr. Kim

The former supervisor. Now a full blown mentor.

I'm going to dedicate this entire post (I know, it's awfully generous of me) to tellin' people that he's a great guy.

He's basically offered me a free degree, living expenses support (in the form of a
tutoring job) and a career path to being an academic (it's a good lifestyle).

He'd also been great support while I was going through that tough phase.

So let's everyone who's reading this ponder that for a while...

and *breathe.


But how cool is that he's offered so much (and to be honest, I don't know if I can live up to the scholarship or being an academic, but I'm going to give it a good shot).

*Gushes...

About the pre-requisites

I don't need to do them anymore!

My supervisor (Dr. Kim) has organised something where I can do them while overseas and not here where I have to fork out about $4000 to do two subjects.

Plus, Macquarie Uni never got back to me about the availability of courses. Oh well.

It's going to be a lot of work over there.

Ok, the back story...

I realised that someone reading this randomly on the internet might not understand any of what's blog is about.

So here's the back story and why this blog was created.

The short version is that a while back, I needed to choose between getting a job (using my degree) and going overseas to do a Masters there. (...and not being able to find a job to use my degree qualified skills...) I decided to finally take the plunge and go overseas.

And herein I detail my struggles.

The long version is this:

Just after a life altering extremely diffcult period in my life, I faced two choices; either get a job and support my (difficult) family or go overseas to work with a former university supervisor (bit of a slave driver, the good kind) and start afresh there.

At first, I thought I was genuinely trying to make it work with my family. I was getting regular job inerviews, and had a couple of interesting feedbacks (read into that what you will) plus I was (or thought I was) getting into my first bona-fide relationship (yeah, at the age of 23 I know...) with 'A'.

Something kept on nagging me though and I think I may have sabotaged some opportunities unintentionally and I was getting fed up with everything (and 'A' didn't work out). So I made the call to go overseas.

I told mum and she looked like she was going to break down; but she said that she'd support me in any decision.

My brother was indifferent, and my stepdad was... (let's leave that alone for now).

My real dad was enthusiastic. I can't read stepmum just yet (she's only been that for a few months now).

So I was raring to go and created this website for friends to read and check up on me while I was overseas.

But there was some miscommunications.

I thought I was leaving in WEEKS, but It turns out I leave in MONTHS (which kinda screws me around in terms of schedule and budget).

And I found out AFTER I had told lots of people that I was leaving in a few weeks. Need to fix that.

And it turns out that I might need to stufy here for a while (in satisfying pre-requisites).

And I need to take an english exam (because I'm not a native speaker, I have to prove that I know english), depite having completed a university degree in Australia and being a (nearly) published author.

So...

On with the delays! *and more posts about my lead into doing a degree overseas.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Noticed something after doing consecutive posts!

It's all about Meeeeeeeee!

How egocentric.

So, how did I manage to get enrolled in the week before class starts?

Well, not reaaally.

I'm on a waiting list and if there is room for me on the classes I need, then I can go for it.

Then I have to come up with fees upfront (THREE THOUSAND SIX HUNRED DOLLARS!) plus a processing fee (ONE HUNDRED SMACKAROOS).

Then find a way to eat somehow cause that's gonna clean me out pretty good.

And there might be a scheduling conflict with the university overseas where they might start the next term like a day after I finish here.

Poo.

Not really super secret anymore but no one's reading it anyway...

Ok, this blog just unofficially went 'public' today, not that I'm telling anyone about it. But I do welcome them google spiders.

I honestly thought I was going to leave the country in the next few weeks but it turns out there was a bit of missed communication so I won't be leaving until the end of May or even the end of June (or if some things fall through, I could be on my way overseas as soon as April?).

The thing is that to qualify for a scholarship, there's a few required courses that are offered in Korean only. Given that I have Korean like they would use in playshcool, the two courses are out of reach.

Which is why I've scrambled to enroll for equivalent courses here.

And I think I did.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Super Secret Post #2

It's (in the process of) being published! Hooray!

My Honours thesis has finally been submitted to a respectable journal (unlike Passing Show, which published my lesbian tales);- The British Journal of Social Psychology.

Watch your mailboxes everyone...

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Super Secret Post

Don't nobody google this now...

Well I guess my overseas trip starts here. Planning just which jumper and handpuppet to take (I can't really fit you in a bag Phil...), what to keep and to throw away. Just realised it's going to be spring when I get there, I was looking forward to the colder months but I guess it will have to wait.

I'm gonna give away some stuff I can't take (and my brother doesn't need) and planning to give away some of my stuff. So IF you've googled this already, you can have first dibs if you give me tips on travelling light.