Futures in Paychecks
So my financial situation is getting more and more confusing. Basically, I'm broke...but also NOT broke at the same time. The main problem is that I will be working as a TA for the second half of the summer, teaching First Year Arabic, but I don't start until 7/14. This means that I don't get paid until the next calendar month - 8/1. Moreover, since my appointment goes until the end of August, that first paycheck will only represent that first third of my total summer income.
This, I expected, even though it blows and means I will be broke(in that I will have no money in the bank)at the same time as I have money coming, which is just really irritating. Better than broke and unemployed, in a way, but it's silly to be in hardcore money saving mode when I actually am making a good living(well, for a grad student). It's like being a farmer or something. But what's worse is that the inexplicably only credit 75% of your tuition assistance to your actual tuition bill...the other 25% is paid to you in cash(even though the total assistance is like $60 short of the bill, meaning I'm just going to use the cash to pay the bill, which is startlingly dumb)...which won't be paid to me until *mid*August. Is that not insane?
In other news, I met the two Assistant Instructors for the summer, Melanie and Summer, and the other TA, Cory, who I knew before. They seem like pretty cool people, and Summer, who I'll be working under, seems laid back and competent - Fred says she (and her husband) are really cool, so I look forward to working with her. Also, I floated the idea of a weekly or twice weekly musalsal watching night with other DMES people, which people seemed kind of interested in.
Also, attended my first German for Reading Class. It seems pretty good- the professor is laid back, and has cool ideas, like extending class an extra 15 minutes(hell, we're there anyway) in order to be able to skip some Fridays. I think the work load will be pretty ok - he says 2-3 hours prep per class, which still leaves me with a bit of time. Granted, I'm comparing this to CASA, by which standard EVERYTHING seems like a light workload. Also, men are actually the minority in the class, which is a welcome change from everything I've taken in the Arabic department. Thank god for the liberal arts.
This, I expected, even though it blows and means I will be broke(in that I will have no money in the bank)at the same time as I have money coming, which is just really irritating. Better than broke and unemployed, in a way, but it's silly to be in hardcore money saving mode when I actually am making a good living(well, for a grad student). It's like being a farmer or something. But what's worse is that the inexplicably only credit 75% of your tuition assistance to your actual tuition bill...the other 25% is paid to you in cash(even though the total assistance is like $60 short of the bill, meaning I'm just going to use the cash to pay the bill, which is startlingly dumb)...which won't be paid to me until *mid*August. Is that not insane?
In other news, I met the two Assistant Instructors for the summer, Melanie and Summer, and the other TA, Cory, who I knew before. They seem like pretty cool people, and Summer, who I'll be working under, seems laid back and competent - Fred says she (and her husband) are really cool, so I look forward to working with her. Also, I floated the idea of a weekly or twice weekly musalsal watching night with other DMES people, which people seemed kind of interested in.
Also, attended my first German for Reading Class. It seems pretty good- the professor is laid back, and has cool ideas, like extending class an extra 15 minutes(hell, we're there anyway) in order to be able to skip some Fridays. I think the work load will be pretty ok - he says 2-3 hours prep per class, which still leaves me with a bit of time. Granted, I'm comparing this to CASA, by which standard EVERYTHING seems like a light workload. Also, men are actually the minority in the class, which is a welcome change from everything I've taken in the Arabic department. Thank god for the liberal arts.