Good and other news

I arrived home last night after spending an evening with family and read an email from the Fulbright program. I learned that I have been placed in Mérida! I am excited about this because this is where I was hoping to go! Mérida is a beautiful city up in the mountains in Venezuela.

If all goes well, I will be teaching at CEVAM - el Centro Venezolano Americano de Mérida - an organization "dedicated to the promotion of friendship and understanding between the people of North America and Venezuela through social, cultural, philanthropic and educational activities. 


Sounds wonderful to me! 

I found this website that has several good photos of Mérida. Scroll down to the photos under "Los Chorros de Milla," I think I paddled around in that pond 20 years ago! Shortly after I first arrived in Venezuela as a high school student studying abroad, my host family took me to Mérida because my host sister had been accepted to the University of the Andes and was attending her orientation to the university.

My host family and I lived in Valera, if you look at a map it doesn't appear to be far from Mérida but I think it took at least four hours to drive there by car. The road winds up and down mountains (mostly up) and they're frighteningly narrow. My host mother honked her horn around every corner because we never knew when a truck or another car would be come flying down the road from the other direction. It was really scary! 

I also remember that car ride is where I learned to ask how much something costs. Tiny farms line the road between Mérida and Valera, on our way home, my host mother called out the window to these farmers with tiny stands at the side of the road, "A como la cebolla?" "A como el tomate?" "A como el ajo?""How much for the onion...tomato...garlic?" She bought a long rope of garlic bulbs braided together that she hung over the door to the kitchen. I thought the rope with dozens of garlic bulbs would last years but I think she managed to use it all within just a few months. 

Anyway, back to the present day. I have started the long and nail-biting process of requesting a visa for the 10 months I am expected to be in Venezuela. I was warned that it's not guaranteed that I will be able to get a visa. There are alternatives but I'll keep that under my hat for now. I'm hoping for the best! 

Well, hello, Blog! How's it going?

This is my first post. If you are reading this you may be wondering who I am, why I'm doing this and why you should keep reading.

You also may be related to me or you like me so you feel you have to read this, in which case thanks for the support!

I am going to pretend you have no idea who I am, that may make writing easier.

My name is Rose. I am 36 years old. I'd worked in a cubicle (it's not that bad, it's pretty roomy) for more than a decade when I finally figured out what I want to do when I grow up. I decided that I wanted to be a teacher. Maybe someday I'll write about that a little more but for now I'll keep moving on.

I started graduate school in fall 2010 at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Augsburg has a weekend college program that allows me to work full time in my roomy cubicle during the week and attend classes on the weekends and some evenings. Sounds easy? It is not!

Not long after the 2011-2012 school year started I read about the Fulbright program in the Augsburg daily email. I thought, "Sounds cool, why not give it a shot?" I knew there were many reasons to not apply - I have a loving boyfriend who I don't see close enough of as it is, a faithful cat, a good job that will keep me going up until student teaching, a condo, a car lots of stuff, I'm a Big Sister - it's a relationship I value deeply and a responsibility I take seriously - friends, family...so on and so forth. However, I thought, how can I not at least apply and see what shakes out.

I decided to apply for an English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) in Venezuela because I studied abroad in that country when I was in high school and still keep in touch with some of my friends there thanks to the good old Facebook. Venezuela is a beautiful country, the people are wonderful and the culture is much more relaxed - my style.

For all those who are interested in applying for a Fulbright scholarship, you should pay attention to the next part. It took me a month to compete the application process. The process included a 12-page application, full transcripts from every college or university I've ever attended, a Spanish proficiency test, three letters of recommendation, a grant proposal, a statement of grant purpose and an interview in front of a panel of five professors and staff from Augsburg. I think that was it. Augsburg provides a lot of support throughout every step of the way and I can't thank them enough for all they did. I submitted my application on the deadline - I believe that was October 17th.

And then I waited. I expected to hear by January 31st if I was selected or not. I thought every day that passed and I didn't hear anything was a good sign - either that or they lost my application. On January 23rd I received an email from the Institute of International Education informing me that I had made the final pool of potential grantees and that I should give myself a high five and keep waiting. That was not what I'd expected to hear. I also learned that I could expect to know more sometime between February and mid-May or possibly June. I'm serious, that's pretty close to the frustratingly vague language they used.

Up until this point I'd told very few people that I applied because I never thought I'd be selected. Once I got the January email I did start telling more people because it really was an honor to have made it that far. The bad part was that then the people I told kept asking me if I'd heard yet. That made the waiting worse. I waited all of February, all of March and all of April. For some reason March was the hardest. By the end of April I'd given up thinking I'd hear anything until June.

On May 3rd I was surprised to learn that I had been selected. After nearly hyperventilating and throwing up, I panicked. Now what am I going to do? What did I get myself into? 


I'm going to fast forward because this post is already way longer than I planned. 


Two and a half weeks have passed since I got the email. I've known for awhile that I'd go if I were selected. I had some moment in winter when I realized that no matter how hard it would be to shake up my life, change everything and get on a plane and go to South America for 10 months, I'd do it if given the opportunity.

Some things have become easier. I don't have to buy the jumbo pack of toilet paper at Costco, I just need enough to get me through until early August. Other things are amazingly difficult, I'll let you imagine in your own head what those things might be but I'll give you a hint - do a ctrl-F search for "reasons not to apply" and there's your reminder.

I focus on the smaller tasks for now. On Friday I had a physical and got vaccinated against hepatitis and typhoid. I also had a TB skin test, I go back to the doctor's office tomorrow to have that test completed. I'll have more vaccinations on Friday and then one more in June (That's the three-part Twin Rix for all of you who know your vaccinations.)

That's it for my first post. Way too long, wouldn't you say? Stick with me, I think things are going to become more interesting as weeks pass. My intention is to get this blog set up and keep it going in Venezuela. For now, good night!