Umm, so yeah....
It's been an incredibly long time since I posted anything on my LJ, and probably would have been an even longer time since I would have kicked my own butt to actually post (without the intervention of lovely Jennie *thanx*), so here goes...
I'm currently on my lunch break at work (having some yummy salad if you're interested!). The day's going well, and is not overwhelmingly busy, so I'm feeling pretty good. I've got a few proofs to check, but I'll get to them soon enough :-D. The past few months have been kind of strange as so many things are changing (or might be changing) in my life, that I sometimes don't know how to plan ahead!
The reason is that Sven's finishing his degree in June of this year, and we have to plan ahead for all possibilities; ie, we had to decide whether he or we were going to apply to grad school, and where we would be applying. Also, if we didn't apply, I knew I had a great job in Oxford, and we could stay here for a while until we wanted to move on, but the problem was that we needed to figure out both this (grad school or no grad school), along with the papers we need to file to move back to the US (spouse immigration visa) if we decided to go to back to the US. We both ended up applying to Cornell, thought it took me a long while to decide that I was ready to go to grad school :-). But it's still so *freaking* complicated to figure out what needs to be done for the immigration visa! I mean, we have to get all documents (birth certificates, wedding certificates, my adoption papers, and all sorts of crap like that translated into English for both of us, and we need to get police records of all the places Sven has lived since the age of 16). Not only that, it costs a bundle of money, and can take up to 6 months! So we can't even wait to find out if one of us has been accepted to Cornell before starting the application, because then we'll miss the first several weeks (maybe more) of the semester. But if we start now, and neither one of us gets accepted, there goes a lot of money that we need for other things..... Ugh, it drives me mad!
In any case, at the same time we were trying to figure out about applications/GRE/moving to the States, I was thinking abut applying for a position above the one I'm currently in. For those of you who remember, my position is an Assistant Production Editor - but I've recently applied for the full Production Editor (now on referred to as PE) role, and have been told that I'm one of the 5 who have made it to the interview stage. Yay! I'm really excited and can't wait to find out when I'm supposed to set up the interview, but hopefully, I'll know soon. The really cool thing is that I had spoken with my manager and my team leader about our applications to Cornell, and that we wouldn't find out until March sometime, but they were still really cool and very supportive of my application. I really love working with them!
So, at the moment, I'm waiting anxiously to find out about both my application to Cornell and my job interview.....:-P But my books are coming along wonderfully!
Oh! I've also been taking Japanese lessons (did I say this sometime ago....???)and it's so much fun. I try to practice using it as much as possible by watching some old Japanese movies directed by Ozu (they're quite cool!), and also listening to Japanese music radio at work sometimes. I'd like to go visit Japan one day (and even do some research there), but we'll see... One of my friends from work is going there in April for two weeks and I'm indescribably jealous!!!
I've also been taking belly dancing lessons and I absolutely love them! Of course, I want to buy all the costumes I can get my hands on, but it's kind of dumb to do that since I don't even know whether I'll be here past the end of July! Even if I wanted to continue in the States, I don't think I'd be able to find a class as easily as I was able to here.... which is too bad. So I've settled on some skirts that were a bargain, and I'm gonna wear one of them on the 6th of March for our Hafla (it's like a party, but it's really a performance at a club). I'm looking forward to it :-).
All in all, that's the most important stuff that's happening.... I'll try to keep this more up to date :-D, and will probably have a post how both my applications go (one way or the other)!
I'm currently on my lunch break at work (having some yummy salad if you're interested!). The day's going well, and is not overwhelmingly busy, so I'm feeling pretty good. I've got a few proofs to check, but I'll get to them soon enough :-D. The past few months have been kind of strange as so many things are changing (or might be changing) in my life, that I sometimes don't know how to plan ahead!
The reason is that Sven's finishing his degree in June of this year, and we have to plan ahead for all possibilities; ie, we had to decide whether he or we were going to apply to grad school, and where we would be applying. Also, if we didn't apply, I knew I had a great job in Oxford, and we could stay here for a while until we wanted to move on, but the problem was that we needed to figure out both this (grad school or no grad school), along with the papers we need to file to move back to the US (spouse immigration visa) if we decided to go to back to the US. We both ended up applying to Cornell, thought it took me a long while to decide that I was ready to go to grad school :-). But it's still so *freaking* complicated to figure out what needs to be done for the immigration visa! I mean, we have to get all documents (birth certificates, wedding certificates, my adoption papers, and all sorts of crap like that translated into English for both of us, and we need to get police records of all the places Sven has lived since the age of 16). Not only that, it costs a bundle of money, and can take up to 6 months! So we can't even wait to find out if one of us has been accepted to Cornell before starting the application, because then we'll miss the first several weeks (maybe more) of the semester. But if we start now, and neither one of us gets accepted, there goes a lot of money that we need for other things..... Ugh, it drives me mad!
In any case, at the same time we were trying to figure out about applications/GRE/moving to the States, I was thinking abut applying for a position above the one I'm currently in. For those of you who remember, my position is an Assistant Production Editor - but I've recently applied for the full Production Editor (now on referred to as PE) role, and have been told that I'm one of the 5 who have made it to the interview stage. Yay! I'm really excited and can't wait to find out when I'm supposed to set up the interview, but hopefully, I'll know soon. The really cool thing is that I had spoken with my manager and my team leader about our applications to Cornell, and that we wouldn't find out until March sometime, but they were still really cool and very supportive of my application. I really love working with them!
So, at the moment, I'm waiting anxiously to find out about both my application to Cornell and my job interview.....:-P But my books are coming along wonderfully!
Oh! I've also been taking Japanese lessons (did I say this sometime ago....???)and it's so much fun. I try to practice using it as much as possible by watching some old Japanese movies directed by Ozu (they're quite cool!), and also listening to Japanese music radio at work sometimes. I'd like to go visit Japan one day (and even do some research there), but we'll see... One of my friends from work is going there in April for two weeks and I'm indescribably jealous!!!
I've also been taking belly dancing lessons and I absolutely love them! Of course, I want to buy all the costumes I can get my hands on, but it's kind of dumb to do that since I don't even know whether I'll be here past the end of July! Even if I wanted to continue in the States, I don't think I'd be able to find a class as easily as I was able to here.... which is too bad. So I've settled on some skirts that were a bargain, and I'm gonna wear one of them on the 6th of March for our Hafla (it's like a party, but it's really a performance at a club). I'm looking forward to it :-).
All in all, that's the most important stuff that's happening.... I'll try to keep this more up to date :-D, and will probably have a post how both my applications go (one way or the other)!