Mozzie and the Resolutions

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Isn't that how the song goes? I must say that I agree. Holidays are an excellent time of the year, despite all of the stress that comes with gift-giving...and receiving in my case. It isn't that I don't appreciate gifts as much as the next individual - I do! But the whole "reacting to gifts" thing is stressful to me in and of itself. I feel like I never give the proper reaction that people are looking for, so I end up looking awkwardly surprised and sarcastically excited, rather than truly surprised and excited.

However, Christmas is over, awkward reactions have been expressed, and I have a beautiful new moose figurine to go along with my growing collection. If you give a moose a muffin, he'll probably want some jam, and if you give a Tayma a moose, she'll probably give him a name starting with the letter M. This year's moose? Mozzie. I felt like it fit, seeing as I've got a bit of a White Collar kick going on. I blame my friend Hammy. She couldn't just let me dislike Matt Bomer in peace. Instead, she had to get me hooked and in love.

I'm hoping all of your Christmases were just as joyfully awkward and wonderful as mine were. With the holidays and the spirit of giving and receiving and the realization of what you have and what you have not in the air, I've once again been smacked in the face with how great my life is and how thankful I am for everything that I have.

Christmas aside, the holiday season is still upon us with one more whopper days away. It's time to ring in the New Year. What probably began as a group of people celebrating another year on Earth and the start of a new calendar has turned into a pivotal day for most people. The philosophy of "out with the old and in with the new" is always abundant, and the moment the clock turns from 11:59p to 12:00a, it's like there is a shift in everyone's world. A whole year is starting over, and everyone's slate is wiped clean. At least that's how the New Year seems to be depicted, complete with promises and resolutions galore.

I, myself, have a few resolutions on this year's list that actually seem doable. I've come to learn that there is a difference between setting goals and setting fantasies. This year, I'm being realistic; molding my resolutions around goals.

1. My first goal: Getting to Sussex as easily and smoothly as possible, and succeeding while studying there (happy and content with where I've been, where I'm at, and where I'm going, remember?). 
2. My second goal: Hit the gym every day. I know, it sounds like it should be easy (at least it does to me), but it rarely ever is. Something always seems to be more important, be it school, the internet, or a piece of cheesecake - because who can say no to cheesecake? 
3. My third goal: Church every Sunday. I was so good this last semester! And then I got sick and fell off of that bandwagon. Maybe this will be my year! 

The rest, I'm still working on, but in time, I'm sure they'll unfold in future posts.

Beyond all of this, applications are still under way, as are module selections for the 2013-2014 school year. It's a little slow-going right now, but in time, I am sure it will become more fast-paced and informative. My professors have also provided me with the list of novels I'll be reading this semester (15 total - averaging to one novel a week!). The semester is fast approaching!

Mainly, this week I just wanted to check in about the holidays and wish you all a super Happy New Year!

Until next time - Keep Calm and Brighton On!

-Tayma xx

It's Time to Begin, Isn't It?

Oh, what a week, what a week. I feel like that is going to be a theme in most of these posts. That I had a crazy week, and I'm here to update you and/or give you more information.

Let me start by saying congratulations to the world for not ending. I'm as big of a fan of roller coaster rides as the next guy or gal, but I am ever so grateful that the world chose not to shift completely off of its axis, sending us into a shaky doom. I applaud you, Earth. Thank you.

[http://www.one-revolution.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Thank-you.jpg]

So remember that 19th century literature class that I pulled an A- in? Well, I thought I had pulled an A-. I had a 92.65% as a finishing grade in that class, and I was happy and content. An A- was exceeding my hopes and dreams for this past semester in any of my classes - I was expecting  to receive all B+ and make the Sussex requirements by the skin of my teeth. As it turns out, my wonderful professor rounded my grade up to that 93%! So what does that mean? It means that I have an A in that class, which bumped my GPA up  .02 points! That doesn't sound like a lot, but when your required grade point average is a 3.0, every little bit counts. In case you're wondering, I ended up with a 3.0319 GPA! It was probably the best news that I'd gotten all week, and let me tell you, I almost started crying. Relief and accomplishment is all I feel and it's a beautiful thing!

[this would be proof for everyone. i'm just SO SO SO proud!]

Also going along with this, I have numbers! Paying for my time abroad is going to be no easy feat, but I am pretty positive that I can do it - either by financial aid, loans, scholarships...more than likely, by a combination of all those different methods. After doing some math, I've calculated that I need to raise a total of $35,828 dollars based on the projected numbers that the university provides for estimated enrollment costs. These numbers currently come from the estimated costs for Autumn 2012 and Spring 2013. Now, I will be going during Autumn 2013 and Spring 2014, but I can't imagine that the numbers are going to be much different than they were for this current school year. If you're interested in finding more out about the costs and the program itself, you can find it all here. 

I know I keep saying "soon" for this, but there will be a donations button on this blog page soon! I promise! It's turning out to be a bit more complicated than I expected, and I am really, truly hoping to get all of those kinks hammered out before my next blog post. I really am working so hard to get all of this compiled and planned properly so as to bring the information across as smoothly as possible, so please bear with me!

In addition the University page has finally updated, as you can see by the image above, which means that yes, my application is about to go under way. I'm still so nervous! I emailed all of the professors for the classes I would like to take before finding out that I was selecting first and second year courses, when I should be looking at the third year modules! It's a little bit frustrating, as I had my year away planned out and now I need to start all over on that front, but it will be so worth it once I have it all completed and turned in. I just keep getting more excited the closer it gets to being completed!

Looks like it's time to begin fundraising and completing applications, isn't it?

Beyond that, this past week has been a lot of recuperating after this past semester, and cleaning. My lovely roommate Judith and I spent three and a half hours cleaning our apartment this past Tuesday - it was much more work than you would think. Our living room is all arranged beautifully and it actually looks like a living room! Yeah, we were pretty excited by that. Let's just say I walk into my apartment and I don't feel so tense and angry - I feel light and like I can breathe now. It's a wonderful wonderful! (Weeds, anybody?)

With that, I will close out this post. I hope all of you who are reading have a very wonderful holiday, a very Merry Christmas!

Until next time, guys - Keep Calm and Brighton On!

-Tayma xx

Blog post title is a line taken from "It's Time" by Imagine Dragons.

Sweet Silver Lining

And now a blog post! Brought to you by recovering from sleep deprivation Tayma!

Wow, wow, wow has this been a crazy week! There's been so much going on that I literally don't know where I should begin. So...I guess I'll be logical and start from the beginning?

This crazy week of studying, little sleep, and way more cheesecake than I would like to admit started off on an unproductive note for the most part. I spent all of Monday writing a paper and submitting a draft before learning that I left out half of the material on my paper. When the prompt says "use the following passages," I thought it meant that those were the ones to choose from - not that we had to include every passage and an explication of each. So not only did I spend all of Monday analyzing, outlining, and writing my paper, I also spent half of Tuesday doing the same and REWRITING it. All of Monday and half of Tuesday was also dedicated to listening to over 10 hours of lecture over production and perception of speech sounds, courtesy of my Linguistics course.

And as if Finals week wasn't stressful enough as is, my apartment complex decided this was the perfect time to do a check that all of the fire alarms in the building were working properly. Which meant that on Tuesday, from 11:00a to 3:00p - while people (and by people, I include myself) mind you are studying - the fire alarms were being intentionally set off in intervals of about 20 minutes. Trying to study a whole semester worth of material is hard enough as is, but add in loud beeping and the distraction level on a scale of 1-10 jumps to about a 17. I've never played music in my headphones SO LOUDLY in my life.

That was only the tip of the iceberg with the fire alarms on that day. That night, my roommate and I were awoken by fire alarms in our apartment at 3 in the morning because our heater decided that it wanted to smell like burnt hair and smoke. Needless to say, after 20 minutes of trying to get the fire alarms off by fanning them with our notes, and the assistance of one of our neighbors from two floors below to turn them off, we were both up and ready to study for the final we had 6 hours later. Did I mention I got a 64 on that final? Yeah - I can blame it all on the fire alarms all I want to, but the fact of the matter is, that class was harder than I was letting on all semester, and by the end of it, recollection of the material was just not happening. Praise Jesus that I got a B in that class, though. By the  grace of God, I'm pretty sure.

So after a week of studying for my Phonetics final, which I bombed in an epic fashion, and writing and rewriting my paper, which I managed to get an A- on, I realized that I had less than 12 hours to study for an Italian final that I hadn't even begun revision for. Now this has no dramatic story linked to it aside from arriving at the building 2 hours early, the lights turning on by themselves, and the creepy feeling you get when you're alone in a large empty building. Despite my lack of confidence in my performance on the exam, I pulled a 95 on the final! Which gave me a 94 in the course - equating to an A!

As previously mentioned, I got a B in my fiction writing class, which means - as long as my GPA calculation is correct, and I am pretty positive that it is - I got the necessary 3.0 GPA to apply to Sussex meeting all of the requirements.

Shall we all breathe a sigh of relief together? Breathe in....release....siiiiiiigh. Yes, I can breathe again.

So, what exactly does this mean? Well, it means a few things:

1. My semester is over and I can stop stressing! Well...for a month before I start classes again for the Spring.
2. I am beginning my application this weekend! Officially! I'm so absolutely excited!!
3. Saving money is going to have to kick into super mega high gear.
4. I'm just really happy and doing little happy dances that are adorable and dorky. You can't see them, but you'll just have to take my word for that one.

And on that super duper happy note, I'm going to close this out. But the next post is going to have all the information that I have about the program and funding and financial things, so if you're reading, definitely keep an eye out for that!

Also - my cousin, Cheryl-Ann, is currently in South Africa!! She's going to be there for the next 6 weeks saving souls and bringing people to Jesus Christ, so if you could pray for her and her team while they are over there, I would be ever so thankful, and I know she would be, too!

Alright, lovelies - until next time!

Keep Calm and Brighton On!

-Tayma xx

Wowza, that is a lot of exclamation points up there.

One Must Work and Dare if One Really Wants to Live

"One must work and dare if one really wants to live."

-Vincent Van Gogh

For me, Vincent Van Gogh is quite possibly one of the most brilliant painters of all time. For the world, really, he's one of the most revered artists that we have, and he's extremely well known for his art. In fact, his painting, Starry Night over the Rhone is my favorite painting, and it is also my desktop background (the more you know!). But beyond art, Van Gogh was really wise, and he said some pretty brilliant things. Among them was the quote above, which I've also chosen as the title for this post.

"One must work and dare if one really wants to live." I think this is probably one of those things that as you get older, you get more meaning out of it. Life experiences and tragedies and joys make these sort of things more relevant and deep, I think, but at the moment, I think I am gaining a pretty good understanding of this. Especially the whole 'work' part. I seem to be doing nothing but working my cutie patootie off to reach dreams and become "successful." Whatever successful really means. After taking my literature class this year, I believe Dickens would argue that successfulness and happiness is born from one's usefulness to society. Personally, I think that being "successful" is looking at your life and realizing that you're happy and content with where you are, where you've been, and where you're going. As far as I'm concerned, up until this point in my life, I've been a very successful person, and I believe that I will continue to be so.

That is, if I can figure out what classes to write down on my application for Sussex, so that I may be happy with where I'm going.

I think I've determined that selecting courses is the most difficult thing in the universe. With the semester coming to a close, I'm just days away from starting my application for the program, which means selecting the courses I want to take while abroad. At UT, we have all these courses that seem to go on for pages and pages with so many options! At Sussex, they have just one page of courses, and two sections of modules that I can select from, with about ten courses per semester in the school of English. Somehow, having fewer choices is far more overwhelming than having what seems like endless choices at the tips of my fingers.

I guess that's the sort of thing that changes when going from a university with a population of over 51,000 students to a university with 13,000. It's sort of crazy and makes my jaw drop a bit. That sounds so tiny! I have no idea how large the campus is, but my current campus is 40 acres. I'm curious as to the size of the University of Sussex, which is located in the Downs National Park. I'm sorry, but a national park? How cool!

Speaking of courses, today, mine came to a close for this fall semester at UT. So of course, my answer to the last day of classes and start of dead week is not "Well, Tayma, get to studying!" it's "Let's procrastinate and make a blog post!" Sigh. Luckily, all that's left for me are two finals (one in Phonetics and one in Italian), and a paper for my 19th Century Literature class. It doesn't sound like much, but I have over 10 hours of lecture to listen to, 10 chapters to master, and a 5-6 page paper discussing different discourses present in Middlemarch and Mayor of Casterbridge. Why am I studying English again? If you can figure it out, please let me know.

I'm actually pretty thrilled for the end of this semester, and - I can't believe I am saying this - but the start of next semester. I'm so stoked to be taking Art History (Neal Caffrey, anyone?) and I'm pretty pumped for my two lit classes. It's going to be another busy semester, but I guess being in school is more productive than sitting on my behind watching White Collar  and Glee, right? Unless White Collar can teach me all that I need to know about being an upstanding citizen, rather than a conman turned upstanding citizen while wearing an ankle bracelet and working as a consultant for the FBI. Which it can't. So alas, university for me.

Alright, pulling my head out of the clouds now, and grounding myself firmly back on Earth...ish.

In other news, my fiction writing class ended on Wednesday, and I have to say I'm relieved. I ended the class with a B+, which is pretty damn good in my opinion, but still I am so glad that class is finished with. I walked into that class firmly believing that one day I could be a writer who changes lives and writes something with immense meaning. I walked out of that class wondering if maybe I should leave the life-changing novels to J.K. Rowling and John Green (still haven't read his books, but from what I hear, they've got a pretty great impact). We'll see. Maybe I just haven't found the right story to tell yet...

So I know in my last post, I promised information about the cost of the program, as well as donations and sponsors and all of that, and it's still coming! I've messaged my adviser, but she's out of the office and hopefully I'll be hearing back from her soon. Once I have all the information, you'll have the information, and we'll see how God works from there.

Alright, well I think that I should probably cut this off now before I start rambling off some sort of nonsense. I know that my posting has been a bit widespread, but with finals ending next week, that will all change - instead of 12 days between posts, I'm hoping to post weekly at a minimum. I hope you all have a marvelous weekend, and if you have finals next week, best of luck to you! Or, in bocca al lupo, amici! (There's a little Italian for you ;) ) Until next time!

Keep Calm and Brighton on!

-Tayma xx

P.S. Hi, Dad! Yes, guys, my dad reads my blog. Cool status right there. He was a drummer and stuff.

Starships Were Meant To Fly

So this week has been a little bit crazy, to say the least. On Monday night, I left Washington state at about 8 pm and I didn't get home to Austin until 9:30 am the following day. I had very little sleep, and as a result, this entire week, I've been completely exhausted and time has been passing so quickly and slowly at the same time. It's been a little maddening.

Then on top of all the sleep deprivation, I had to finish up a 12 page paper Tuesday night that was due on Wednesday, and then I found out that I had an oral Italian exam today, November 30, when I was under the impression that it was on December 7. To top ALL of that off, yesterday, I managed to set off my fire alarms in a sorry attempt to cook one of the three things I know how to make: noodles. There must have been something on the burner, but before I knew it, the alarms were going off for FORTY MINUTES. I had the worst headache of my life yesterday, and I am still sort of dealing with the ringing in my ears from it.

And you know, timing is a funny thing. I ended up sleeping in as late as possible yesterday in an attempt to catch up on all that I had missed this weekend, which meant that I started making my lunch half an hour later than usual. Which resulted in me almost missing what I consider to be one of the most important meetings of my life: my meeting with Bryn Cain, the amazing Study Abroad Adviser for the students interested in UK Study Abroad here at UT. As it turns out, the alarms were turned off with ten minutes for me to get to my meeting. I've never walked so fast in my life, and managed to somehow make a ten minute walk fit into eight minutes, arriving with a few minutes to spare and collect myself before meeting with the adviser.

Finally, we arrive at the main purpose of this post: my meeting with Bryn about studying abroad in Brighton at University of Sussex.

So in case you're wondering, here's an image of the school and the pier:

Pretty beautiful place to study, right?

The main part of the meeting was discussing the application process and what all of that entails. I have to apply to the Study Abroad program here at UT and with that, I have to write two essays, approximately 250 words each. In addition to that, I have to apply to the actual University of Sussex. Now, can someone please explain to me WHY on Earth I'm more nervous applying to the University of Sussex than I was about applying to Yale? Because I legitimately am so nervous, but I think it's because I want this SO BADLY and I know that it's a legitimate option. With Yale and Dartmouth, the chances of me attending were so slim, but if I get this, I can go. It makes me nervous and giddy. 

When I asked my adviser how likely it was that I would be going if I applied, and she said that if I meet all the requirements, I'm going. And there's NO WAY I will allow myself to not meet these requirements. No way on the Lord's green Earth. Not when He's handing me such a great opportunity on a silver platter. I honestly feel like God is holding this chance out to me and telling me to take it.

In addition to all of that, I also have to apply for as many scholarships and loans as I can. However, I can also fund my way through donations and sponsorship. I haven't figured out exactly how to work that out or how I'm going to go about sponsorship and everything, so when I do know all of that and when I do know about how much it's going to cost me per semester, I'll have a post all dedicated to that.

Did I mention I'd be studying at Sussex for a year? Even if I did, I'll say it again. A year. 

And there's the joke, you know, that I'm so excited about this and so looking forward to it that I'll hate it once I get there, but I don't think so. I really think that I'll enjoy this opportunity, and I can't wait to get my application underway! I'll definitely keep y'all up on the whole process and how that's going.

So like last time, until next time!

Keep Calm and Brighton On!

-Tayma xx

P.S. A little shout out to my beautiful Auntie Terrie who commented on my last post, as well as my wonderful cousin, Cheryl-Ann. I love you, guys! <3

WAITING FOR NOW

Where to begin? Well, for starters, I’ve been trying to actually get this blog started for about two weeks now, but the words wouldn’t come to me. I just sat at the open word document, staring like a moron while words for stories and papers and other assignments came flooding to mind.

But of course, now that the weekend is here and I am supposed to be revising a paper, the words come to me.

Alright, so basically, if you know me in person, you more than likely know my cousin, Cheryl-ann – or you at least have heard of her since I talk about her more than any one person should be discussed. But she’s one of my best friends, so what can I say? Anyways – that is beside the point. The point is, it seems that when one of us does something, the other is not very far behind in doing the same – or something very close to it. In this case? Starting a blog. Coincidentally? Both blogs are sort of centered around these big, life-changing travels we are either making or hoping to make. Her travels, she is in the middle of now and you can read about it HERE.

But this blog isn't about travels that I am currently doing. This blog is about the traveling that I am hoping to take part in next year.

Currently, I attend the University of Texas in Austin. I'm a pretty good student and I study more than any one person probably should being an English major, but I can't help it. Studying is what I do. It's what I know without a doubt that I'm good at. I work my behind off and I get good results. Unless we're discussing science classes. Science is my greatest weakness and core requirements making me take science classes (and a couple of history classes) have killed my GPA. I accept that it is partially my fault that I am riding at a 2.8 GPA when I need a 3.0 to apply to my preferred program, but I'm trying to fix that by working my behind off. It's all I do anymore: go to school. I've focused on school so much that I've had to cancel plans on one of my friends three times to accommodate my educational needs. Perhaps that makes me a bad friend, but chasing dreams has to take priority sometimes.

So now that I've rambled off to left field (something I have a tendency of doing), I guess I should actually explain what all this is about. My university has some amazing Study Abroad programs. All my life I've wanted to go to England and experience life there, or go to Oxford, even if that just meant standing outside of the building and getting an Oxford sweatshirt to pretend like I went there. But the point is, with the Study Abroad program at my school, I can go to England and I can study there. Not at Oxford, but at an equally awesome university. 

I'm hoping to study at the University of Sussex in Brighton. It's right on the coast and it's beautiful and when I think about studying there, I just can't stop smiling. It's a dream that I could get to go, especially when I didn't really think that studying in England could be a possibility. Now it is.

In eleven days, I have a meeting to speak with a counselor about the possibility of studying in England, hopefully for a year, but if I can only go for a semester, it's a semester more than I had before and I'll be happy to take what I can get. I honestly feel like I am going to be studying in England next year. There's not very much doubt that I'll be there, following my dream finally.

To motivate me, I've started this blog. I'll be writing about a lot of things: life in general, things that frustrate me, things that happen...but I'll also be using it to talk about trying to get to Brighton and what that means and how I can reach that goal definitely. Something tells me that I'll definitely be in Brighton this time next year; its just a matter of how badly I want it and how hard I continue to work. 

Let's just say I want it pretty badly.

So, until next time: Keep Calm and Brighton On.

Or in the words of my cousin, "Keep Calm and Brighton On! For Narnia and the North!"