So Much Trauma
I hate ranting about stuff on lj, but I just have to make an exception in this case.
So much trouble with grad school paperwork! I'm never going to get my visa if things continue like this. First of all, I couldn't log into the system to fill out my housing application. I called multiple people at the school who kept saying they had fixed it and it was going to work, but it never did. Finally I gave up and paid to have the application faxed at the FedEx in Ikebukuro. Such a pain! But at least it finally got through. And the FedEx people were very nice and helpful. But of course at this point all the school owned housing is basically full so my only options are really expensive housing or waiting till I get there so I can actually meet the people I will be living with and see the apartments.
Then for the visa I need proof that I have enough money for the course and 12 months of living expenses. My loan had already been processed so I was just waiting on the school to certify it. Then when I called them, they had all my paperwork, but they couldn't certify my loan, because they couldn't verify that I had ever accepted my offer from the school. This was from the same computer glitch that wouldn't let me log onto the online housing application. Finally, I had to call my Admissions Tutor to get it sorted out. (I cringe to think what my phone bill's going to be for this month.) I called back the Funding office only to discover that I didn't just need the letter from the school saying that my loan had been certified, I need an official letter from my loan company. Big big problem. My loan company is in the US, which means I have to wait for them to mail this letter to Japan. Which could take weeks for all I know. I called them and begged them to send it a faster way. Finally, the woman said that they could only overnight it if I had an account with FedEx or UPS. WTH? I have to make an account to have one letter sent to me!?
I immediately went to the FedEx website and tried to make an account online, and of course it didn't work for some reason. Then I tried to call their customer service number, but it was a 1-800 number which I can't call from Japan. Finally I made an account on the Japanese FedEx page, but it takes time to process so I still don't have my account number, which is what they need to mail the letter. In the meantime, my time is running out. It takes 1-2 weeks to process the visa which I have not yet even applied for, and the day I need to register for classes is Sept. 23rd.
So I don't know if it's going to happen at this point, but I'm hoping that if I talk to the school they might let me register late. (especially since the computer glitch thing was not my fault) Surely there can't be that many people registering for Teaching English as a Second Language masters classes. Hopefully.
In good news, I did get the pre-reading material for my course from Amazon yesterday. It all looks really interesting, even the stuff about Linguistics, which I was a little concerned about since my co-teacher almost failed that section when she was doing her masters and it looked ridiculously complicated. But these are basically Linguistics beginner's books so they lay things out in a very straight-forward manner.
I am also very very excited about new Supernatural and Merlin! They're both coming so soon! Not that I'm counting down the days or anything...
I read a really amazing Supernatural fic recently that is novel-length and gen, but kind of like Dean/Castiel pre-slash. It's an alternate take on Season 5 and is really really amazing and in character. I've found that a lot of the Dean/Castiel fic is extremely ooc, especially where Castiel is concerned, but this fic really nails the characterization. It's called Summer of '09 and starts here.
Also, takadainmate had a theory that it was written by two people writing the characters of Dean and Castiel. This was kind of proven, when the authors went through and replied to all the comments IN CHARACTER! So freaking adorable! I was particularly happy when Castiel replied to my comment! Check out all the replies over here. I loved how some of the people they replied to just didn't get it.
So much trouble with grad school paperwork! I'm never going to get my visa if things continue like this. First of all, I couldn't log into the system to fill out my housing application. I called multiple people at the school who kept saying they had fixed it and it was going to work, but it never did. Finally I gave up and paid to have the application faxed at the FedEx in Ikebukuro. Such a pain! But at least it finally got through. And the FedEx people were very nice and helpful. But of course at this point all the school owned housing is basically full so my only options are really expensive housing or waiting till I get there so I can actually meet the people I will be living with and see the apartments.
Then for the visa I need proof that I have enough money for the course and 12 months of living expenses. My loan had already been processed so I was just waiting on the school to certify it. Then when I called them, they had all my paperwork, but they couldn't certify my loan, because they couldn't verify that I had ever accepted my offer from the school. This was from the same computer glitch that wouldn't let me log onto the online housing application. Finally, I had to call my Admissions Tutor to get it sorted out. (I cringe to think what my phone bill's going to be for this month.) I called back the Funding office only to discover that I didn't just need the letter from the school saying that my loan had been certified, I need an official letter from my loan company. Big big problem. My loan company is in the US, which means I have to wait for them to mail this letter to Japan. Which could take weeks for all I know. I called them and begged them to send it a faster way. Finally, the woman said that they could only overnight it if I had an account with FedEx or UPS. WTH? I have to make an account to have one letter sent to me!?
I immediately went to the FedEx website and tried to make an account online, and of course it didn't work for some reason. Then I tried to call their customer service number, but it was a 1-800 number which I can't call from Japan. Finally I made an account on the Japanese FedEx page, but it takes time to process so I still don't have my account number, which is what they need to mail the letter. In the meantime, my time is running out. It takes 1-2 weeks to process the visa which I have not yet even applied for, and the day I need to register for classes is Sept. 23rd.
So I don't know if it's going to happen at this point, but I'm hoping that if I talk to the school they might let me register late. (especially since the computer glitch thing was not my fault) Surely there can't be that many people registering for Teaching English as a Second Language masters classes. Hopefully.
In good news, I did get the pre-reading material for my course from Amazon yesterday. It all looks really interesting, even the stuff about Linguistics, which I was a little concerned about since my co-teacher almost failed that section when she was doing her masters and it looked ridiculously complicated. But these are basically Linguistics beginner's books so they lay things out in a very straight-forward manner.
I am also very very excited about new Supernatural and Merlin! They're both coming so soon! Not that I'm counting down the days or anything...
I read a really amazing Supernatural fic recently that is novel-length and gen, but kind of like Dean/Castiel pre-slash. It's an alternate take on Season 5 and is really really amazing and in character. I've found that a lot of the Dean/Castiel fic is extremely ooc, especially where Castiel is concerned, but this fic really nails the characterization. It's called Summer of '09 and starts here.
Also, takadainmate had a theory that it was written by two people writing the characters of Dean and Castiel. This was kind of proven, when the authors went through and replied to all the comments IN CHARACTER! So freaking adorable! I was particularly happy when Castiel replied to my comment! Check out all the replies over here. I loved how some of the people they replied to just didn't get it.