So much for not having winter. It snowed for 3 days straight but it was so cold that it was just dry and powdery. It glistens like diamond dust in the streetlights and blows all over the place. Tonight the moon was huge and round and hanging white in a pale blue evening sky. When I drove home I passed a huge snowy field covered in resting geese, their bodies black and plump against the whiteness. It’s a photo opportunity I’ve missed twice: too cold to stop and I’m pretty sure I’d scare the geese if I started walking towards them, even slowly, with my phone extended. Ah well.
I haven’t written in ages because I’ve been really having issues with my shoulder and sitting down to work at the computer makes it flare up painfully almost immediately. Work has been hell lately, what with the amount of work and having chronic pain every day. I’m living on Advil and tiger balm, with the occasional massage thrown in for good measure.
In much more exciting news: Martin got in to his first choice university! YAY! I am very proud of him, but OMG that means he is moving to America THIS SUMMER.
That is, if we can figure out how he is going to afford it. I went, within the space of 12 hours, from being really excited and happy for him, to completely freaked out and panicking, and that is not even factoring in the fact that my baby is going to move halfway around the world. I know, I know, I did it to my mom and now it’s come back to bite us in the ass. Dammit.
It’s the College for Creative Studies and it’s smack in the middle of downtown Detroit (which is apparently such a hip, up-and-coming place to be that it was listed a top place to visit last year. Okaaaay. It’s a least a little comforting to know it’s not the derelict horror-city of yore that will eat him alive. It’s also comforting to know that my mom is only an hour away and that my cousin and her kids are close, as well as several friends.
He received a scholarship from the school that will cover about a quarter of the cost for a year’s tuition, but that still leaves us to figure out where we’re going to find nearly $30,000 a year. He’s applied for financial aid in the US and CSN here in Sweden but we haven’t gotten the decision on either one yet. He is also still waiting to hear from the two other universities (both also in Michigan) that he’s applied to, but this one is really the one he wants to go to. He’s had no luck finding scholarships and many of them have already passed their deadlines. I warned him to get started on that last fall, but he didn’t listen and now he’s going to literally pay the price. UGH.
There is a summer program for international students that runs from July 9-29 and the official move-in date if he doesn’t do that (which he probably will) is August 27. Classes start September 5. So, as soon as we figure out all the monetary logistics and get deposits taken care of, our next step will be also figuring out how to pay to get him there. *freaked out look*
I can’t believe that I’m going to be the mother of a college student, for real. EEK.