Things I want.....

I hate to do this to myself, in case things don't work out but.....these are a couple of things I'd like to buy for my trip.

• An awesome pair of water-proof boots, mid-calf, good for lots of walking. I remember one particularly frigid day in Leuven; I spent the night out bar-hopping in my Converse and by the time I got home, my toes where actually a light purple hue.
  

• A good backpack. The one I took to Leuven the first time around was perfect, but it was stolen in Mexico City. Something with more than 1 main compartment helps organize things better during daytrips, and side-compression straps are REALLY useful when your bag is filled with layers of clothes and you're moving in crowded places.  This Jansport "Merit" backpack looks like a perfect upgrade. The front pockets are great for smaller items that would otherwise accumulate in a mess at the bottom of larger compartments. This also helps distribute weight and volume.
  

• GoToob set for traveling. I LOVE this set, but frankly, it is way too expensive. I keep checking the site (reuseit.com) to see if it goes on sale but so far no luck. (-4% isn't much)

• DSLR camera....oh wait! I got that for Christmas! I got the Nikon D5000, and I highly recommend it. To avoid stressing myself out by reading the included manual, I bought Nikon D5000 for Dummies as well. Very accessible for beginners. I have a Canon Digital Elph SD790 IS, and I can't say this enough: Canon point-and-shoot cameras have an excellent range of colors and saturation, and great definition. Before visiting any museums or attending concerts, I always check online to make sure you can a) enter with a camera, b) take pictures, and c) enter with a backpack. If any of these points are a "no", I make sure the place I'm going has a bag check service that will accept valuables (camera, wallet, passport, iPod). Sometimes they don't, which is why it is a good idea to always travel with something roomy that will still pass as a purse. This takes me to my next point:
  

• I've always wanted a leather bag. This Fossil bag looks good enough to hold my wallet, camera, iPod, etc. And leather is forever! 
  

• As I mentioned in a previous post, surviving Leuven is all about layers. While I haven't found great thermal shirts yet, this past month at Charlotte Russe I finally found the perfect leggings. Seems they're all the rage this season. Basically they are footless, low-cut tights. Someone finally got it: low-cut jeans and regular tights are not nice. And at 2 for $12, they're an excellent buy.  As for shirts, I'll probably be ordering them from Chemisette, a Mexican company that specializes in microfiber thermal wear. I've never ordered clothes from a catalog but since this is stretchy material, I'm guessing ordering a Small will be just fine.
  

Application in Process!

So, the details of this post hail back to December 28. It was on this day that I was horrified to learn that the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations had already posted the Flemish Community Scholarship for Mexicans. Documents due on February 12. Panic ensues. I ran to my room, checked the interactive PDF one last time and hit submit. 

Then I waited, I waited two whole weeks before contacting KUL, again. The problem? Once you submit your PDF Application, your status on their web-based application procedure should change, enabling you to upload. Mine didn't. Since it was the holidays, I decided to give it two weeks to update. Turns out the system wasn't working too well and a simple e-mail would have solved it. Anyways, they enabled document uploads on my account and that was that. I uploaded all the so-called "core documents", sent physical copies of my "Diploma in Process" & transcript through DHL, and payed the 50€ fee through bank transfer (I e-mailed KBC to make sure the total amount transferred covered any overseas fees. For Mexico, this was 12.5%). 

Two days after sending the documents I got an e-mail confirming they'd been signed for, and a day after that my status changed to "Application in Process", indicating International Admissions had received my on-line form, uploaded documents, physical documents, and payment. So now, we wait. The first night, I dreamt I was rejected. I truly hope this is not the case.