So yeah, this is really happening! 🙂

So October marks a point of typical doctoral research challenges.  It seems I will need a little more time to coordinate my focus group.  September was a time of many days off, due to the Chilean Independence Day holiday and next Saturday is another holiday.    I planned to have my trial run for the focus group I will later conduct in Santiago, on tomorrow.  But, it appears I need a little more time to recruit student who meet my research criteria.  My committee told me that these types of unexpected things would occur but I’m always so organized.   I was sure they wouldn’t happen to me.  But here we are.

I refused to be discouraged because I know God has blessed me to be here for my research and I love all of the new relationships I am forming and grand experiences I am having in Chile.  I had hoped to hear back regarding my Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Award (DDRA) application by now.  I heard rumor that some folks had already received offers but our UGA project director hasn’t’ heard a peep about our campus applications.  She is of the position that we should assume the worst.  Nevertheless, at least with this particular application we will obtain scores and feedback from the International Educational Exchange (IEE) program committee.  I’ll use that information to apply for the Mellon International Dissertation Research Fellowship due in November.  So when handed lemons… make lemonade!!

So above is my new campus ID with my awesome classification of “ACADEMICA”, and it’s really just now starting to sink in for me what a wonderful opportunity this is to develop as a person and academic in this entirely new context.  I distorted the actual ID number to avoid identity theft.  You know the internet is cray cray.   God has so bless my family and me such that I have no anxiety being away from everyone back in the states.  Everyone is Chile is so helpful and people are starting to really warm up to me and make me feel like a part of the community.  I really like that. 🙂

So going into October my graduate assistantship work is picking up at the same time that my research is moving forward.  It’s also scholarship application time and trying to do the things I typically run around campus trying to complete (e.g., LORs) is tough.  However, I am so grateful for the course I took earlier this summer, EDIT 6150e Using Computers for Teaching.  That class was completely asynchronous and I had to basically learn to conduct all of my affairs in a virtual environment (i.e., online).  It’s always encouraging to realize how your education is starting to actually pay-off dividends for you!  Hah!!

UPDATE

This evening via email, Dr. Víctor San Martín Ramírez Director Académico Programa de Magíster en Educación informed me that we had 5 additional commitments for the focus group next week.  Seems like I’m going to have a good weekend after all.  🙂