God to Stephanie: "Surprise! You're going to Bangladesh."

This post is a brief explanation of the whole "I'm going to Bangladesh now kthxbi" thing. Feel free to skip it.

In December, I applied for a Critical Language Scholarship to study Bangla in Bangladesh for the summer. Though it was something I certainly had planned on applying for since my sophomore year at IWU (thanks, Kara Lutzow!), I didn't think I would actually get the scholarship. In fact, I originally planned on applying for Hindi, but switched last minute because a) I like Bangla waaaaaaaaaay more than Hindi and was really only applying for Hindi because I thought it would be more practical and b) I figured Bangla would be less competitive. I finished the essays (please let me learn Bangla so I can legitimately communicate with the girls I'm trying to prevent from being trafficked), filled out all the forms, and hit "submit" from my Nana's house in Vegas with about 20 minutes to spare.

In March, I received an email saying I was an alternate, and they'd probably let me know by mid-April whether I was going. In April, that did not happen. I made two slightly frantic phone calls to a very patient man who explained (twice) how the alternate list worked and told me he really couldn't tell me whether or not I was going, but I probably wasn't. But there was always a chance. Having no clue how to plan for the next few months, I talked for a long time with a fantastic professor who reassured me that taking nursing classes, volunteering, and waitressing over the summer were really good uses of my time. In the next week, I applied for classes which were already filled up. I emailed volunteer organizations that never wrote back. I sent my resume to an internship that never called. My summer, contrary to how I tried to plan it, was completely empty.

At the beginning of May, the night before my May Term class began, I got an email from CLS that began with "congratulations." Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. I mean, of course. Of course I would try to plan an entire summer and God would have a better plan. Bangladesh. What.

I'm going to Bangladesh?

AAAAAH!

A few notes about the program:

1. It's funded by the Department of State. That means your tax dollars are sending me to Bangladesh. Thanks!
2. I'm going with 14 other American undergraduate and graduate students, who all want to learn Bangla for different reasons.
3. I'll be studying at Independent University, Bangladesh.
4. I'll be living in an apartment with two other students. So, no more sharing a room with middle-aged Japanese women with sharp knives who stare at me while I sleep.
5. I'll be in Dhaka from June 5 - August 7, then in Kolkata for a week.

Okee! There are some details.

More will come later. :-)

Love,
Stephanie