05.22.08
One day at a time
This is my new philosophy. Along with practicing patience. Lots of patience.
So as many of you know, I was supposed to be going to China for my research project. The first date of departure was April 19th, then it was moved to May 7th, then May 13th, June 1st (you getting the picture?). Well, once we were told June 1st we sent an email requesting confirmation that we could in fact travel to China at this time to kick off the project….and we waited and waited for someone to say something about our visas and the confirmed travel date. Well, yesterday we heard June 20th!! At this point my supervisor flipped and sent a curt email back to these project partners about how we need to complete our theses in a certain time period in order to graduate!!! Aaahhhhh… Technically our research project period is April-July. We have already being pushing into August with these delays.
I am trying to remain calm but last night I turned to the bottle…or the can I should say. A very TALL Heineken to be exact. So during my outbursts of uncontrollable laughter while making dinner with Jeff I came up with a few scenarios: 1) we still go some time near the start of June, 2) we don’t go, but somehow they manage to get their act together to conduct the survey in time to send us back results to complete our theses on time, 3) we have to re-enroll (via a sponsorship by the consulting firm) and we still go but complete our thesis in say September, 4) we don’t complete our thesis, are viewed as drop outs by future employers and need to go live in isolation somewhere, 5) we do literature analysis and skulk outside our supervisor’s office daily grumbling about how our thesis was ruined, 6) I don’t know, I really just don’t know. Last night I calmed myself by watching cute football players in the Champions League with a beer in hand.
A lot of these delays are due to the extensive information that needs to be provided to the Chinese government about daily activities of the project and then waiting for their approval…and waiting….and waiting. Anywho, we are now contemplating extending our school year to still travel to China, but there is of course concern that the project will KEEP getting delayed. If we don’t go, I am not sure exactly what will become of our theses…sigh. So I wait…still.
A second annoying note: we went to buy groceries last night and after ringing everything up discovered neither of our bank cards would work. We had to set our groceries to the side and ask to come back. It was fun having people watch as we left the store, I am sure they were muttering something in Dutch about “those deadbeat Americans, can’t even afford to buy food here.” So we tried the ATM outside…no luck. Went home to see online our account had been locked. We grabbed a US bank card, went back to the ATM for cash, then the store where we had the pleasure of going back through line and feeling like assholes as they probably thought we were running some scam. The girl just smiled sheepishly at us.
Our online account was locked and said to call customer service. Who told us to go to a branch bank today. So I went to the closest one. Who sent me to the one by school where I opened my account. They said they needed a BSN number or my permanent address from my country of residence. Which they already had!!!! They said they sent a letter. I said no you did not we never received a letter. I know when I first signed up for my account and cards I gave you my permanent address! Aaaahhhh. So she took the information and it will now take 2-3 business days to unlock our account so we can use our card again. I had to go to the bank teller with my card and residence permit to pull out some cash! And I came home to check my paperwork. Sure enough I gave them my permanent address via my license last fall because they wouldn’t give us our bank cards till they verified our address. So they obviously had our address from me giving them the proof or we would not have received our bank cards in the first f%*ki#g place.
Ah serenity now. One day at a time. It will all work out. Whatever!!