Old Soul, Young Heart

I never thought a binder would mean so much to me. Today I received mail from the University of Cambridge! I was so excited about it! My excitement quickly vanished into confusion, frustration, and sadness when I realized that it wasn't the entire binder I had put together during my time there this summer. From what I saw, all they sent back to me were some of the materials that I used to do my research. All of the extra things that I had accumulated about the university weren't there, nor was the actual binder. I'm wondering why this happened. The reason I didn't just take it home with me in my luggage was my concern that my bags would be too heavy. Carrie was happy to take the binder back to the DRC; she was sure that the DRC would be happy send it back to the U.S. for me since I worked there for free. I said there was no rush--if it arrived in six weeks it didn't matter. So here it is... eight weeks later and I get not even half of what I had put together...

Finally an email back from the DRC. Pretty brief, though--just to say that he's waiting to hear back from HR about next steps, I'm assuming for filing paperwork for me to get payment of some type. I'm sure he knows what he's doing, but I wish we could talk about dates and projects in the meantime. He did say that they would need a background check, so I'll work on that as soon as possible. At least it's still good news from them. I finally broke down and at the end of the week last week sent out a couple emails to Canterbury Christ Church University. I feel like I need to cover my bases now in case none of this works out. I do feel better/less pressure about the whole trip planning with Pam thing. I saw her over the weekend and let her know that I still don't have any information but once I do, I will let her know as soon as possible. She understands and gave me some info on what other trips she has planned for next summer, so I know now what else is going ...

Still haven't heard anything from Mr. Harding with the Disability Resource Center. He should've emailed me a week ago and he hasn't responded to my email from the beginning of the week. I'm unsure how long I should let this go before I explore other options. I feel like it's really important that I start making plans. It would be especially nice to have something to tell Pam next weekend when she's here for Adam's birthday and is asking me... I wish I didn't have that added pressure. I can only do so much and the traveling after the work shouldn't be at the forefront of my mind, but I understand how she's wanting to know. I would've liked to know two weeks ago myself. I think definitely by midweek (Wednesday or Thursday) if I haven't heard anything I'm going to do some follow-up emails with other departments and send some to Canterbury Christ Church and University of Kent. This is just so incredibly frustrating!

Finally some good news! I got an email from John at the Disability Resource Center at Cambridge and he sounds interested, pending some information from HR. He mentioned how they would like to pay me, but may not be able to due to budgetary things. I'm of course fine with that--I wasn't planning on being paid anyway, but if they could give something (like reimbursement for the flight or payment of rent while I'm there), that'd be phenomenal. I'm so super excited and want to know nownownow! The project he's thinking about has to do with benchmarking, which I just learned about a few weeks ago because a second year student talked about doing it during her practicum. It's not my number one choice of project--finding out what other universities are doing for international students with disabilities--but it will be a great experience. I just hope there is an opportunity for me to also work with students face-to-face. If not, I'm cool with it because I realiz...