Tuesday, July 20, 2010
It's Officially Official!
We received our visas in the mail yesterday. Once we turned in our forms it only took 10 days to send in and receive our visas. Everything worked out very well.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Its Official!!
Good news everyone...After a very tedious process, checking, double checking, and triple checking our forms, and $622 later, our visas have been approved! We are officially moving to Scotland on August 28th. We are so very excited, even if we have to arrive in Edinburgh at 7:45 in the morning after 16 hours of flying. Our visas should be at our house in about a week or so, and then it will officially be official, but we are in! The next month and a half will be quite an interesting one. Time will surely fly by as we spend the rest of our time with our family and friends. We hope to be able to see everyone who wants to see us before we leave. If we are unsuccessful at seeing you, feel free to come and visit. We will keep you updated more as Brandlyn will be registering with the University and learn more about exactly what she will be doing there. As for John, his goal is to get a job. Our visas will only allow both of us to work only 20 hours a week. If however, John is able to get a sponsor, then he will be able to fill out a different visa so that he can work full time. In the meantime, we look forward to the next month and a half in America!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
The TESOL Programme
Well, first things first, the Scottish spell "program" much differently than we do here. So, some of our upcoming posts may have words that are spelled a bit differently. We might as well get a jump start on things with "programme."
I have found out some interesting information about my TESOL programme. The professors have sent their students a syllabus of the programme and it explains not only what my classes are about, but it also gives me the list of books that I need to read (over 50 recommended) and 2009/2010's class schedule so I can get a rough idea of what the schedule will be while I am there.
The good news: According the the schedule in place this year, my classes won't begin until 10:00 am. I am loving this. I will also only have four classes for the first semester and then 2 classes and my dissertation for the second semester. I have a lot of free time in my schedule during the week. I have many afternoons off as well as all day on Friday. Although I don't have classes during this time, I am pretty sure I will be spending much of this time either in Edinburgh's schools or in the library reading my over 50 recommended books. The yearly schedule was also included in this syllabus, but it was very unclear as to when my vacations are. I know that I have about 2 1/2 weeks during Christmas off, but I am unclear on the rest. Irregardless, feel free to come visit anytime!
The bad news: Well, there really isn't any. I do not have tests, just major papers that I have to write including my dissertation. I wrote an almost 50 page paper to graduate from NMSU, so I am not too worried. The programme also gives me a tutor. I do not know if I share this tutor or not, but this person will know everything about me academically and will be there to help me and support me when I need it. I do not know if a tutor is a grad student or not, but I am assuming it will be. I also have an advisor who will be a professor of mine who will help me with everything from school to housing to international questions to whatever I need in Edinburgh. It just seems like I have a lot of support from the people there and that is very nice to think about.
As for our visas, we are clearing up the little details, getting all of our supporting documents together, and will send in our online applications on July 6th. Once we submit them, we print it off, get biometric fingerprints taken and mail in all of our supporting documents including our passport. Depending on when our fingerprinting appointment will be, we hope to have our visas successfully returned to us by the end of July.
Those are our updates for now. We will keep you informed as new information comes to us!
I have found out some interesting information about my TESOL programme. The professors have sent their students a syllabus of the programme and it explains not only what my classes are about, but it also gives me the list of books that I need to read (over 50 recommended) and 2009/2010's class schedule so I can get a rough idea of what the schedule will be while I am there.
The good news: According the the schedule in place this year, my classes won't begin until 10:00 am. I am loving this. I will also only have four classes for the first semester and then 2 classes and my dissertation for the second semester. I have a lot of free time in my schedule during the week. I have many afternoons off as well as all day on Friday. Although I don't have classes during this time, I am pretty sure I will be spending much of this time either in Edinburgh's schools or in the library reading my over 50 recommended books. The yearly schedule was also included in this syllabus, but it was very unclear as to when my vacations are. I know that I have about 2 1/2 weeks during Christmas off, but I am unclear on the rest. Irregardless, feel free to come visit anytime!
The bad news: Well, there really isn't any. I do not have tests, just major papers that I have to write including my dissertation. I wrote an almost 50 page paper to graduate from NMSU, so I am not too worried. The programme also gives me a tutor. I do not know if I share this tutor or not, but this person will know everything about me academically and will be there to help me and support me when I need it. I do not know if a tutor is a grad student or not, but I am assuming it will be. I also have an advisor who will be a professor of mine who will help me with everything from school to housing to international questions to whatever I need in Edinburgh. It just seems like I have a lot of support from the people there and that is very nice to think about.
As for our visas, we are clearing up the little details, getting all of our supporting documents together, and will send in our online applications on July 6th. Once we submit them, we print it off, get biometric fingerprints taken and mail in all of our supporting documents including our passport. Depending on when our fingerprinting appointment will be, we hope to have our visas successfully returned to us by the end of July.
Those are our updates for now. We will keep you informed as new information comes to us!
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