It's here!

After a month of waiting, my new passport arrived two days ago. You can see the old one on the left -- the State government's clipped it and removed all the electronics, so it's virtually useless now but a nice little momento. The new one is on the right, and it's a little different from the old one! Whether that's because it's a newer version or one for adults, I'm not yet sure...

But that's it! I have everything I need to put my UCAS through the system. I do still need to contact my old professor and see how that reference is coming along, but hopefully it's something I can get within the next week. I've also rewritten my personal statement about five times now, and I'm still not entirely satisfied with its strength and presentation. If I have to, I'll keep going over it until I and my familial team of read-and-reviewers can't find any flaws anywhere.

I'm kind of crossing my fingers and biting my cheek, hoping that mid-October is still an acceptable time to submit the UCAS. I think January is the official cut-off month, but I was rather hoping to impress by appearing ready and in-control earlier than this!

Funding is probably my largest problem aside from actually getting accepted into the university. Most of my friends have pushed me to ask relatives for money, but I'm hesitant to let others do the work for me. I want to get to England on my own effort, even if I'm not so stubborn that I can't recognize that I might need a little help along the way. I've been pet-sitting and dog-walking for the past few months, but I'm holding off on really buckling down and striving towards super money-making plans until I've been accepted (or not, however it works out... but I can't express how much I really hope I'm accepted!). This is mostly because the sum of the three-years-long degree and living costs whilst staying in England will be a whopping $110,000.

The good news is that this final cost includes plane tickets, personal/travel insurance, and the passport/visa costs. The bad news is that I would have to be a very successful business person (and not a fresh out of community college 20 year old!) to make that much in a year -- let alone in a few months! Scholarships and grants are nearly impossible to find, and unfortunately I've found that those available do not apply to my situation (I was never directly affected by 9/11, I'm not a post-graduate student, etc.), so I'm embarrassingly relying on fundraisers and sponsorships for the majority of the cost. Whatever's left over, I do intend to get a loan for (urk! Never thought I'd see the day I'd willingly get myself into debt!). Since I am hoping to get sponsorships and such, I'd like to have proof of my acceptance to show to sponsors and donators so they'll know the effort isn't a scam, hence the wait until the university's decision on my acceptance.

I'd be lying if I said it wasn't stressful, that I have no doubts that I'll be accepted or be able to raise that kind of funding, or that I'm not at all worried about the journey as well as the outcome. But I have no doubts that just trying like I am is worth it, whatever the results, and I'm certain that I'll continue to try my best and push myself past my best whenever and wherever I can.

In The Meantime

Since there's really nothing else I can do except wait for my passport to come in, I've been doing loads of research on student life within the U.K., especially as it applies to foreigners.

There are loads of things I've discovered so far, and it's really satisfying to be able to answer every question that anyone's thrown at me so far. For instance, I now know that do qualify under the NHS for limited services since I'll be a student for longer than six months.. and that's a relief since American health care insurance is insanely priced and is only getting more expensive thanks to the new Obamacare system.

Then there are the student discounts and such and so on, but that's all the really lovely stuff that's nice to look at. I wanted to know even the nitty gritty side -- like if an apple costs $5 or something like that (which thankfully it doesn't). Still, there are a lot of things to learn about every-day life in the UK that normally wouldn't cross a person's mind... like the idea of 6 o'clock tea, how late dinner is eaten, the fact that Pop Tarts and Kraft Mac n' Cheese cannot be found (oh, dear...), etc., just to name a few. Then there are manners and etiquette, accents to think of, the differences in language -- not just in spelling, but in usage... I've never had to use the word "queue" in my life, but I'm definitely going to try using that now instead!

Likely the most important thing I've been learning about is the UK's university grading scale. Imagine my surprise when I found that a 70+ mark is supposedly difficult to attain when a 70 is the lowest possible passing grade available in the US. Then there were the honours -- Firsts, Upper Second, Lower Second, Third, pass, and a spare for Oxbridge (a useful term I hadn't known until reading up on all this)... These are so very different from the American ideas of graduating with honours that I was a little stunned, especially because of the weight they carry not only in advancing to further degrees but in the chances of finding a respectable career! After comparing my current grades with a chart found on wikipedia (thank you, wiki!), I've found that I'm currently performing at the Upper Second Level. That's a relief, but I will definitely be aiming for First Level Honours.

Another thing I've been a little iffy on is finding my way around the UK. While I've been memorising maps and practising manoeuvering around using Google Maps (hey, technology is pretty great), I still haven't figured out how the UK goes about naming their, er... areas. There's a Bristol inside Bristol which is apparently in Avon but not anymore, and inside the first-level (third-level?) Bristol are even more areas like South Gloucestershire. The easiest way I can think to describe this is by putting them in American terms...
There's the city of Bristol, inside a county (such as South Gloucestershire) inside of a State (Bristol again)... only I think the UK calls it States "counties" and I've no idea what goes on from there. It's all very mind-boggling because it's the same language but still so incredibly different. If anyone cares to explain this to me (because I can't find the dratted explanations on wiki or Google), I would certainly be most appreciative!

Lastly (although this is not the least of my findings), I've discovered just how many regional accents and dialects there are in England, and I am alarmed. For such a teeny tiny little country, there certainly a lot of different ways to say things. And as concerned as I am with blending in so as not to offend anyone with cultural gaffes, I'm hesitant to throw myself into adopting a Bristol accent for fear of getting it wrong and offending someone. However, as charming as an accent might be, I'm not certain anyone would want to hear an American's southern country twang ringing in their ears for too long. So I've been practising the Bristolian accent in private, and it sounds all right to me, but then I'm just a silly American who probably can't pick up on the mistakes anyway.