Watch out for July — Leni on the Road

In another life, I would be enjoying a life as a hitched person to my partner in France. In a CoVid-19 free world, plans would have worked out from six months ago. But in this life, I am typing these words at 3am from our sofa because I slept “earlier than usual” and four hours of sleep is more than I need from my otherwise “maxed out” day of doing everything at a minimum. In this life, I have the luxury of time I could only dream of when I was working full time, juggling social and personal life I could barely make time for. I know I would still have it another way but this is a situation I have less of a choice of, so I try my best to make the most out of it.

I have had better and accepting thoughts from a month ago that I could only wish I wrote about. Today, as I am able to set aside a few minutes to do so, I will be talking about how I’m turning my otherwise boring, home (yet-can’t-complain-of-comfort) life into a spectacular one yet.

The big news

I got a(nother) scholarship. I will start online Portuguese classes this afternoon [that’s morning in Portugal] with the generosity of the Portuguese government, through the Camões Institute, as coordinated by the University of Porto.

How it started

In June, I received a notice from a colleague about the grant. I didn’t immediately get to it because the the process seemed confusing at first and I couldn’t wrap my head around which step to do first. Eventually, I did take the plunge and figured it out along the way.

How it almost didn’t happen

It did not get better. More questions arose, and ultimately, I got waitlisted for missing out on an apparently required document which was nowhere [I swear by it] mentioned nor demanded. In addition, sign up dates and deadlines were conflicting. Naturally, I clarified this with both institutions involved - the school and the scholarship grant - through writing, mustering up all that’s left with one semester of Portuguese class, in combination with the most amicable English email I coule write, and both assured me that they would take care of it.

How, eventually, it worked out

Just before the deadlines draw to a close, I’m thankful for the school for stepping up and resolving the issue in the last minute, because complaining to the jury about the injustice just made me look bitter and disrespectful.

Ultimately, the scholarship was granted [still on the last minute], with the school saving the day. To this hour, the scholarship grant has not informed me of my admission. Because of my resilient [read: denial] spirit, I did my own investigation and checked the scholarship website and found my name as part of the definitive list of scholarship recipients.

I am, of course, grateful. My wise colleague made me try to understand that none of what’s happening in the world today is making sense and we cannot expect everything to be delivered, and everyone to deliver perfectly. He’s probably right. That has calmed my perfectionist and demanding self.

I could only wish they could improve on their coordination and process. My advantage was I have applied to numerous programs before and have worked in this area so I knew which people to tap and how to go about it. Could you imagine a first timer applicant going through it? They would be devastated, maybe even discouraged.

On top of it all

At the same time, online access to multiple training modules I have signed up for from France will be made available today too. This is on top of my responsibilities at work.

It’s going to be such an eventful July, from the comfort of home. Who would’ve thought?