(no subject)
Letters I have to write:
- Requests for letters of recommendation to three of my college professors. I have been wittering and whining about this for the last week, because even though I chose professors I was quite close to in school, I haven't talked to them in the year+ since I graduated, and I don't really know how to say 'Hello, I was kind of a crap student and I haven't spoken to you since I didn't have to anymore, do something incredibly nice for me, please?' politely. My final deadline is to get them out today so that the recommendations have time to be written before I need to start applying (my earliest grad school application has to be in-hand at the school by October 1). Still feel more like waffling than actually getting the thing done.
- I got two e-mails from the Czech Embassy in Dresden. One explained in English that its attachment was the form stipulating the reason for my visa being denied, but the attachment was in Czech. Then I sent back a question (in English, naturally) regarding how soon I could re-apply, and got back an answer... in Czech. So I sent both of those off to a Czech English teacher I know, who told me: The reason I was denied is because the Embassy believed that I did not intend to leave once the visa expired, OR they believed that I intended to use the visa for a different reason than given in the application (it was a form letter so the reason could be either of those, although how in hell they determined either of those things is completely beyond me). Apparently, the other answer I received was that anybody can re-apply at any time without the result of the previous application being taken into account. Which is nice.
Ivonna also told me, though, that I should write her a letter discussing the things I am doing at home, and she said, "If you use some interesting language, I might use the letter in a lesson with the Energon people," (that's how I met her, she was the second teacher at one company in Dobříš that I taught at). "They would love to read something from you." So now I need to make up a letter with "interesting language" for my friends.
- Various grad school applications and their attendant essays. Luckily, only one of the schools I'm applying to requires something along the lines of a letter of intent, and it's my most reachy reach-school. This is excellent, because while I intend to go to grad school, my understanding of my future beyond that is hazy in the extreme, and I would prefer not to have to write about something I have such a poor understanding of.
Also I need to keep studying for the GREs, and my father and I are going up to New York tomorrow to visit his family, as his father is 100 years old now and had a stroke earlier this year. I need to have made Significant Progress before I see my aunt, who has strong ideas about how to run a successful life (mostly with incredible amounts of planning and focusing on one idea from early on - neither of which I'm good at). I'm hoping I can throw her off my scent if I can throw her a few tidbits about how really dedicated and together I am about this whole grad school thing.
She will probably be able to see it is a sham, and she doesn't even know me all that well.
Erin
- Requests for letters of recommendation to three of my college professors. I have been wittering and whining about this for the last week, because even though I chose professors I was quite close to in school, I haven't talked to them in the year+ since I graduated, and I don't really know how to say 'Hello, I was kind of a crap student and I haven't spoken to you since I didn't have to anymore, do something incredibly nice for me, please?' politely. My final deadline is to get them out today so that the recommendations have time to be written before I need to start applying (my earliest grad school application has to be in-hand at the school by October 1). Still feel more like waffling than actually getting the thing done.
- I got two e-mails from the Czech Embassy in Dresden. One explained in English that its attachment was the form stipulating the reason for my visa being denied, but the attachment was in Czech. Then I sent back a question (in English, naturally) regarding how soon I could re-apply, and got back an answer... in Czech. So I sent both of those off to a Czech English teacher I know, who told me: The reason I was denied is because the Embassy believed that I did not intend to leave once the visa expired, OR they believed that I intended to use the visa for a different reason than given in the application (it was a form letter so the reason could be either of those, although how in hell they determined either of those things is completely beyond me). Apparently, the other answer I received was that anybody can re-apply at any time without the result of the previous application being taken into account. Which is nice.
Ivonna also told me, though, that I should write her a letter discussing the things I am doing at home, and she said, "If you use some interesting language, I might use the letter in a lesson with the Energon people," (that's how I met her, she was the second teacher at one company in Dobříš that I taught at). "They would love to read something from you." So now I need to make up a letter with "interesting language" for my friends.
- Various grad school applications and their attendant essays. Luckily, only one of the schools I'm applying to requires something along the lines of a letter of intent, and it's my most reachy reach-school. This is excellent, because while I intend to go to grad school, my understanding of my future beyond that is hazy in the extreme, and I would prefer not to have to write about something I have such a poor understanding of.
Also I need to keep studying for the GREs, and my father and I are going up to New York tomorrow to visit his family, as his father is 100 years old now and had a stroke earlier this year. I need to have made Significant Progress before I see my aunt, who has strong ideas about how to run a successful life (mostly with incredible amounts of planning and focusing on one idea from early on - neither of which I'm good at). I'm hoping I can throw her off my scent if I can throw her a few tidbits about how really dedicated and together I am about this whole grad school thing.
She will probably be able to see it is a sham, and she doesn't even know me all that well.
Erin