I'm just really stressing out right now. This whole Teach For America thing has me really upset. I don't want to do anything. All I want to do is call overseas and get everything straightened out. I'm in limbo thousands of miles away. I have no idea what's going on right now. I got an email back today saying, we are contacting your region to discuss your options. What options? Me being denied from the program, me not being able to participate, me having to reapply next year? I just want to know what's going on! This is my future! This job means so much to me. The night I got accepted, I felt at peace. I could stop worrying about whether I got in or not, and I could just enjoy my time here. Now, I'm playing email tag with tons of people who expect me to respond right away, but because of the time difference, it takes away my nights. If someone emails me at 3, it's 8 here. It's just really bummin me out. At this point I just want to know whether my position is safe. That's it. I emailed TFA to ask them if they can just give me that. Am I still in the Corps? Am I still going to be part of this organization? If they said yes, you can attend training but may have to wait a little longer to be hired, I'm fine with that. Honestly at this point, I don't know what to tell people. I guess I'm 50% in? I don't know what to think? I just really don't.
And if you want to know why I'm in limbo, basically the story is...
- TFA training starts June 13th. They need a letter saying I will definitely be graduating in August. That's it, one letter stating that.
- PSU refuses to give me a letter until after June 14th when my grades from Limerick come in.
- Some idiot in the registrars office told me this fall that I'd officially be graduated by late July early August.
- I told TFA that.
- Turns out, I'm officially graduated August 14th.
- TFA needs me to be graduated by late July early August.
- Now I'm in limbo, waiting to see if I still have a job or not.
- Thanks PSU registrars office for never having your facts straight, and refusing to help students in need!
So I went over to Spar, grabbed a sandwich and a coke and ate some lunch. I decided to watch some TV since I hadn't seen anything in a long time. I somehow came across Nickelodeon and watched an hours worth of Sponge Bob. It was good. TV in general is throwing me off over here. I'm still not used to new episodes being aired later in the week because of copyright from the US and what not. For example, new episodes of the Simpsons air on like Wednesday nights. The girls watched a new episode of Greys Anatomy and Desperate Housewives last night, Tuesday. New episodes of Modern Family air on Thursday, House and 24 on like Wednesday nights. Everything is a couple days behind. It's still cool to see those shows though.
While I was eating Theodore came in to make tea or something. Pants missing, as usual. So he sits down and starts to talk to me. He decided to tell me a joke that is really big in Greece. It took him some time to say it in English, but here's what I got of it. There was a man in a Casino on a ship. The guy starts hiding cards up his sleeves. There's a parrot that's also near the table, squawking about it. "He's hiding an ace, he's hiding an ace!" So then he starts hiding another card. The parrot again tells on the man again. Then the man hides yet one more card, and the parrot again yells about it. Then the ship randomly crashes into an iceberg and sinks. The only two survivors are the man and the parrot. After waiting several hours in the water, the parrot says to the man, "Where are ya hiding the ship." It didn't quite come across like that when he told it to me, but I think that's what he meant.
So after my boring afternoon I went to class. We got out early again. Then we went to hang out in the cafeteria and waste an hour before we had to sign up for a trip to Cork in February. The study abroad office arranged 3 trips for us, but they are first come first serve and you had to be top 50 for the trip we wanted. I was #50 in line. Thank God we got there when we did. I also don't know if I'm going to Dublin this weekend anymore. I just think it may be awkward. Plus I want to hang out with my friends who are going to Galway. The trip to Galway sign-ups were last night and I missed them because I was at practice. I skipped practice tonight so I could get to this sign-up. But the club that is hosting the Galway trip has booked rooms for more students as long as we can find our own ride there and back, so I'm gonna hop a bus I think early Saturday morning. Since all my friends are going to Galway, they may not want to return. And I want to see that. I'll see Dublin enough.
Also, Emily booked her tickets for Ireland last night! However, she's showing up May 6th, Thursday, of the week we don't have any classes. I wish she read this blog so she could have came earlier and we could have traveled more. I have finals all the next week so we are stuck in Limerick. And I mean stuck. It's in the middle of nowhere. Oh well.
After sign-ups we ate at Subway, talked for a little while and then returned to our apartments. I hate drinks in Europe. I ordered a drink from the lady. She asked if I wanted a drink, I said yes. Mind you, I didn't say what I wanted to drink. I just said I'd like a drink. She starts pouring me a coke and says, what do you want. I was like, "I guess a coke now," as she is sliding it to me over the counter. Thanks for the options communist Russia. Not only did I not have a choice, but there was again no ice (I hate that) and it was filled up 3 quarters of the way. Not even remotely close to the top. She did the same to my friend Neal from Canada, and he asked if she could top it off, she told him they can't do that. Makes nooooo sense to me. But little here does.
Just an update on Jeremie's English. Today we taught him a couple new phrases. A few days ago the girls taught him "chivalrous," so he's getting very good at that. Also over the past couple days I have taught him "nap" and "power nap." He's getting really good at the understanding of both. Nap is longer than an hour, power nap is 15-20 minutes. I've also taught him, "chilly" (As in, "It's chilly outside) and "nippy." I broke it down into stages for him. "Nippy" is the first level of cold, then it starts getting "chilly" outside, and then it's just "cold." We also taught him "soaked," "damp," and "drenched" today. He wanted to know what to say when his clothing got wet. We told him "damp" is just a little wet, and "soaked" and "drenched" are extremely wet. I also taught him, "That's what she said." He's been working on it. I have a feeling he's gonna be a pro in no time.
Now I'm on here writing this. I had to come back here to play email tag again so I didn't go out tonight. Plus it's a Wednesday. Like, it just stinks here. If you aren't a big drinker, there is nothing to do. It's not like I'm in Dublin, London, or Paris. Those kids can just go out into the city and walk around and see the sites. There are no sites here, and the closest city is a half an hour away. Limerick at night isn't what you'd call a great time. There are two night clubs and a couple of pubs. Oh, and they all close at around 11:30. Yeah, that's pm. Everything closes so early around here. I just want to get off this campus but it's damn near impossible to do. I just wish this city was bigger, and I wish we lived closer to the city. We are a 30 to 40 minute walk outside the city. Buses stop running pretty early. Taxi service gets expensive. I just need everything to get straightened out or else I'm really going to start hating everything over here. I feel like everyone was expecting these wonderful stories of travel and site seeing, but where I'm at is far from it.
Oh well, I need to start looking up bus tickets for Saturday.
Goodnight.
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