Monthly Archives: July 2006

Around the 14th of July I received an additional packet, this one sent directly to my house, from the UvA.  Thankfully, this packet included a course listing where I could check off my desired courses (first and second choices).  This was a major breath of fresh air for me, as I’m a planner who likes to lay things out ahead of time.  Not knowing how registration works, or what classes I’ll be taking when I arrive, or what days/times I’ll be in class, drives me totally insane.

The UvA came through, however, and I’m very much relieved.  It’s not exactly “online registration” (where I get to see “open” courses and I’m either in them or they’re full), but it’s good enough for me.  Drs. Hemming (my programme manager at UvA) has informed me that it’s likely we’ll receive our course schedules sometime after July 28.

As an interesting sidenote (I had to look this up) the title “Drs.” is a title in the Netherlands which is given to he who should become a doctor.  How cool is that?

Anyhow, my friends are probably wondering why I’m posting all this preperation/registration junk, and the simple answer is: to help future study abroad students.  The Bilateral programs (and especially the Dutch one) are pretty ambiguous and it would have been nice to read someone’s blog and have had a general idea of what was going to happen.

In other news I’m selling my car, getting shots for (and microchipping) our cat, and cleaning out all my stuff to make selecting what I’m going to take a bit easier.  I’m also trying (trying) to stay focused on my last summer class.

Well, on thursday I hopped down to the Study Abroad office to pick up my acceptance packet from the UvA. It’s very exciting to know that I’m officially in the program and everything is ready to go. I’m waiting to hear from my academic advisor over there, who will theoretically assist me with course selection and information.

Part of this whole process involved browsing through the course catalog on UvA’s website, selecting a few, and then asking my department chair to approve some of the courses I’ve selected. It’s all fine and dandy, but I’d sure like to know what days/times the courses are, and what I have to do if I want to change them. I was hoping for more information on course registration to be included in the acceptance packet, but I guess I’ll just take care of it all when I get to Amsterdam.

At the study abroad office there’s this chant which they make you perform, and it includes the phrase “I’m capable of dealing with ambiguity.” Turns out maybe I’m not.

What I am capable of doing, however, is procrastinating. Instead of doing the readings for my summer IPE class, I’ve been listening to Pimsleur language tapes and playing around with Rosetta Stone software. Both IPE and Dutch are important things to be doing with my time, but somehow I doubt that Joseph Stiglitz will help me find food in Holland’s supermarkets.