....and there was MUCH rejoicing.......
Dear Lee Anne Shaffer:
Congratulations! This email serves as unofficial notification that you have been selected for the 2005-2006 National Security Education Program (NSEP) Boren Undergraduate Scholarships. Your official notification packet should arrive within the next few days.
The notification packet will include a number of forms, as well as a schedule indicating when each form needs to be returned to the Institute of International Education (IIE). Please note that in order to accept your award, you must fax copies of forms I and II to IIE within three days of receipt of the notification packet.
Congratulations once again on your successful application! We look forward to working with you this year.
Sincerely,
The NSEP Boren Staff
Institute of International Education (IIE)
1400 K Street, NW, 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Ph: 800-618-6737
Fax: 202-326-7672
::dances::
Ah, lovely. An enormous load off my mind, for I really do need to break away from the vicious cycle I've gotten myself caught up in here. Sooo.....here's what my itinerary's looking like starting next Tuesday:
May 10-14: New York City
May 17- Jun 7: England/France/Italy/Belgium? Austria? Greece?
Jun 7-17: Ireland
Jun 17- Jul 2: Scotland/ Wales?
2-3 weeks in July: El Salvador
fall semester: Bejing!
winter break (a month and a half, I believe): Taiwan, Hong Kong, possibly Japan/Tibet/Mongolia
spring semester: Shanghai
A ridiculous schedule, perhaps, but one sorely needed.
The past three semesters have, in their madness, drowned out my love for learning and left only the hunger. It was only upon whiling away the latter half of an afternoon in the bowels of Hayden Library, picking one book after another off the shelf, happily dreaming of a schooling in which I could spend hours just reading books in the business section, of all places, that I suddenly realized --by contrast-- how little I enjoy learning within the structure of our current schooling system...or rather, the structure which I've set up for myself. The reason for my taking so many courses is that I want to go beyond what makes sense to me, what I find easy to digest--I want to understand, I want to comprehend, I want to build a base of knowledge from which I might gain the ability to grasp things currently beyond me.
But alas, wings function only as weights once submerged.
This will be my chance to break free of the surface tension that's been keeping me down. Dry off a bit, regain those loves I lost, have a little time to breathe and stretch now that my time won't be occupied with trying always to keep from sinking.
I bought myself a hefty book of Leonardo daVinci's drawings of the human figure--I'm going to spend my free time sketching bone and muscle formation, wandering about doing watercolors of the cities and countryside, attending interesting lectures from intriguing and well-learned professors (in Chinese...I talked with a visiting professor from Beijing University and he said that students are welcome to sit in any class they like), spending hours in the library (where there will be, presumably, books in English as well as Chinese) reading my way through the library stacks, starting from history (of all sorts), then philosophy, science, geography, business, art and music theory, political science, religious studies, and onward.....
And actually doing my homework, since Chinese teachers are (thank heavens) generally a lot more strict about deadlines. Someday I'll develop enough self-discipline to pace myself, but for now I'm a bit safer when held to the rigid expectations of a demanding teacher.
Oh, and I bought myself a teach-yourself-Italian kit. We'll see what comes of that. :P