13 Days and Counting

Yesterday was the official two week mark before I leave for Germany.

In the past week I have read, taken care of some administrative matters, gotten a CarMax quote for my car, and sold the car for almost three times what they were going to offer me. Basically, if you want to sell a car and get actual money for it, sell it yourself. If you want to get lowballed on a trade in, then take it to a dealership. Who knew?

So tomorrow I will be officially car-free. It's a little sad, since this was the first new car I have ever owned. It had 12 miles on it when I bought it and 5 of those were from my test drive. I will miss her, but she is going to a good home and will make someone else happy for as long as she drives.

Bureaucracy and other nonsense

So I sent my rent for the month of September at the beginning of August. It needed to be there by the 25th, so I thought the earlier the better, and not wanting to have to worry about the time it would take to transfer the money from a US to a German account I took care of it on the 1st of the month. I contacted the student housing folks the other day, to see if they had received it and the woman said that she didn't see it. However the money is no longer in my account and the folks at xoom.com say that it was sent.

Now, the woman with whom I had been corresponding, is on vacation - of course because it's August in Germany, so I was talking to a new woman, but theoretically she should be able to find it. I'll have to wait until the woman who I was communicating with before gets back to see if she can track it down. It will be an odd amount because of the exchange rate, and my name should be associated with the transfer, but we'll see what happens. blah....

In other news, I'm going to set up my packing station in the basement. After scouring the Web for resources on how to pack for a year abroad, I found an awesome site run by three feminist Ph.D. students about fashion, which has got me thinking about both how I dress and what to pack. One of the women on the site is also traveling to Germany for a year this fall and posted her strategies for packing. I'm taking my cue from that - though my husband will be visiting a couple of times over the course of the year so I may have him bring me some stuff to supplement my wardrobe.

I'll keep you updated as things go along.

25 Days and counting

That's how long it is until I leave for eleven months. Holy moley there's a lot to do between now and then.

Based on the original list of things to do I can say that I've made progress

Dental Appts: Done

Expensive, but necessary. I wanted to get any big problems taken care of before I left. My dentist gave me a prescription toothpaste with extra fluoride, but when I run out of that I'm going to try to find some ACT or the German equivalent while I'm there. With my luck I'll have to get it from the pharmacist. blah....

Meet with Advisor: Done

We talked about my exams, my prospectus, and classes that might be useful while I'm in Germany. He thinks that taking my exams via Skype should be no problem, but we'll see what actually happens when I get there. Ideally I will take my exams at the beginning of October, from Germany, and then write my prospectus and have that done by January. Apparently, the graduate school has specified that you must submit and defend your prospectus withing 3 months of taking your exams. I suppose there's a bit of wiggle room there, but not much. I'll be glad to start focusing on my own work, and to start outlining what will be my dissertation.

Reading for PhD exams: In progress

I've just kept reading and taking notes but now I have a helper monkey. My husband (BookBoy) has offered to type out my hand written notes for works I've already read. This is enormously helpful, because it's seemed a little daunting up until now to get all of those hand written notes on paper. Plus, I spent the better part of 3 weeks working with him in the archives and not on my own stuff, so he owes me. ;) I'm getting to the point where I need to be strategic about what I'm reading. I need to turn in library books before I go, so I'm focusing on the books that I can get from the library, that I probably won't be able to find in Germany, and that I can't find electronically. I can't do that for all of the works, but that's my strategy for the next three weeks.

Making sure my husband doesn't starve: Ongoing

We've been stocking up on dry goods, purchased a shelving system on which to store the reserves, and last week I browned up 5 lbs of beef so that he can add meat to his pasta sauce.

Positive Progress

So I had tried to sign up for an inexpensive language course that was being offered through the university I will be at next year. One of the reasons I'm going abroad is to work on my language skills. When you're getting a PhD in a foreign language studies, you can always work on your language skills.

Anyway, I say tried because I received word back a week or so ago that the course was full. I emailed back asking if there was a waiting list and inquiring as to how many people fail to show up, or end up canceling their registration.* I was informed that there was indeed a waitlist, I had been placed on said waitlist, and that I was #2 in line. I was a little bummed about not being able to register, but hopeful that two people would flake out or simply sign up for the earlier course.

Well, today I heard back and I have a spot in the class - whoo hoooo! I started filling out the forms today and have sent them an email back asking if I can just email them with an electronic signature instead of mailing them. We'll see.

One of the funny things about filling out the registration form, is that I had to take an online placement exam to see what level I should be placed in based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. I tested into C-1, which is what I always test into, but the registration for the course only goes through B-2. I don't really care if the course is a little below my level. The important aspects of the course for me are that I will be speaking, reading, and writing German for three weeks, I get to meet other international students, and , the course has 1.5 days dedicated to dealing with bureaucracy, of which Germany has a lot.

Everything is coming together.

* I've worked with German "Beamte" in the past and I know the questions that you need to ask to get the answers you're really looking for. The waiting list thing was not information volunteered in the first email back.

One Month to Go

I’m hoping to use this blog as a means of tracking my year abroad. When I went abroad as an undergrad about 12 years ago (jebus that’s a long time ago) there was not the level of technology available to keep an electronic and publicly available log of my trip. Now, as a graduate student, I have a digital camera, a wireless internet connection, and a laptop – AND a lot more people that I want to keep updated on my trip.

I leave for my research year abroad in exactly 1 month, and in that month I have so much to do. And this is not just purchasing some additional clothing, packing, and making sure I can carry my bags. Here's what remains that is not specifically travel related:

• Dental Appts
• Meeting with Advisor
• Reading for my PhD exams (which will continue abroad)
• Taking notes for my PhD exams (which will continue abroad)
• Making sure my husband doesn't starve while I'm gone

I'm sure there's more, but this is a preliminary list. blah....