Be willing to let the squirrels gather...

So a few years ago I nearing a dream. I was going to spend a year on study abroad in England.
I'd wanted to study in England since, well, I could remember.  It was the reason I'd come to ISU.
Since I'd missed the official "study abroad" application deadline, I'd applied to Lancaster University and been accepted! The plan was simple, go live in England for a year, come back, apply for my credits to transfer and then graduate.
The end was a bit fuzzy, but the whole point was that I'd spend a year in England.
At the end of the Spring semester, I'd quit my campus job, got a passport, said goodbye to my flatmates for the last two years and moved home for the summer until I left in September.
Then in July I got a letter from the lovely US government. According to their data, I had too many credits and should have graduated. Therefore I would not be getting my Pell Grants or any such other funds until I had submitted a petition. So I trekked back down to Pocatello, met with a professor, got my petition signed and mailed it in.
Now, and this is key, I only had one semester of classes left to graduate with my BA degree from ISU.
Which meant the government decided to only give me the funds for one semester. Half of what I needed to attend Lancaster. There were no scholarships (funding for US students is still sparse) and so... I couldn't go. I couldn't go!
It was a tad heart-wrending.

I had to head back to Pocatello and try to find another place to live (my old flat was full), and try to get my job back.
Well, I managed to get my old job again and found a house to rent. However, the house wasn't available until Labor Day weekend. A week after classes started.
Instead of flying out to England, I spent the first week of the semester sleeping on the floor of my friends' apartment. I applied for graduation only to find out I was 3 credits short, so I had to rearrange my class schedule to fit in another class. Then, on the move down, a box of my stuff blew off the truck and we had to stop and catch clothes along the Interstate. Henceforth,  I had a pair of silk pajamas with tire tracks on one leg.
So one day, in the middle of that week (before the pajama incident), I was walking back to my temporary home feeling depressed and slightly upset at life in general. When the thought came into my head that Jesus Christ knew exactly what I was going through. Well, being cynical, I thought, "I don't recall reading that Jesus was a university student." Well, I was immediately struck by lightening.
Ha ha.
Life went on and that year was really hard, but it led to me returning to BYU-I and that led to the Brit Lit Tour and that led, over various scenic routes, to me being back in Edinburgh.

Do you notice any similarities?
Here I am, a few years later, living in a friend's house, only it's lasting longer than a week. I just found out that the wait for my loans is going to be even longer. Basically, there has been no progress... who knows how long it will take. At least I have plenty of places to live.

So I had to borrow some money from my bro and it's doubtful when I'll be able to have my own flat or go on fun things, like The Burn and NS Freshers Weekend. Aurgh!
There is added stress. Which made this weekend a bit hard.
My mum was trying to tell me that everything would be okay and I was a bit snippy.
There are times when comforting words about the future do not help.

However, yesterday I was watching Neil Oliver's A History of Scotland in which he was wandering around Edinburgh and there were some fantastic shots of the skyline. 
My beautiful city.
I am back in my beautiful city.

Watching Merlin last night helped and today was really nice.
The only hard part was FINALLY talking to W and my bro back in Allentown! W! I haven't seen him in almost three weeks. How I miss him and I really want to hold him. J was asleep, so I didn't get to see him. W talked and talked to me. No words, just sounds, but they were wonderful sounds. Oh, I miss my boys.
So it was a good and a hard conversation. If only they could move here, life would be perfect.
Thank heaven for pictures!
Skype is a wonderful invention.

The evening has ended with some Sainsbury's Rocky  Road and now it's off to sleep.
It's good to be home.


BTW: The title of the blog comes from a poem I wrote during that lovely post-Lancaster time. Hopefully, it still applies.