I am back here to tell you about the rather hectic end of the semester and where things are at right now. After going to Virginia and visiting some UWC friends my regular life at UNC continued, or at least I thought so…
I got back to classes and I spent a good amount of time studying or procrastinating to study while rock climbing. Little did I know that the rock climbing gym can serve as a place for socialization, workout, and so much fun at the same time. It really helped me to balance school and leisure activities and it allowed me to spend some time with friends. However, as the semester progressed I became busier, and I also got slightly injured and thus climbing had to be put aside for a brief period of time.
During that time graduate school applications kept me unexplainably busy. I was writing essays all the time. When I say all the time it really means all the time. After classes and homework, I was writing essays. During Thanksgiving break, I was writing essays. At 4 am in the morning, I was writing essays. I was very lucky and grateful because Lucy, the UNC Writing Center, some professors, and pretty much all of my friends supported me through these difficult times. They also spent an enormous amount of time fixing my commas and helping me make my essays flow better. Overall it was quite a challenging time with all of my final exams coming up as well. I am now debating whether I would like to start a second round of applications mainly for European master programs, however, this decision still awaits.
Now let me tell you another fantastic idea of mine. While I was writing all of my applications I got an e-m ail that an internship application at UNC was to close in a week. At that time I was convinced that writing one more application really would not make a difference, so I went ahead and started the application. After a mild mental breakdown and a pep talk from one of the most amazing human beings on Earth, I managed to hand in all the materials one day before the deadline. I was deeply surprised when they contacted me that I could progress to the second stage of the application and I was offered an interview. I thought the interview did not go fantastic, but to my biggest surprise I was offered a spot in the spring 2023 cohort, and if everything works out I will be joining another research laboratory for next semester.
Shortly after processing the amazing news, another shock hit me, when I saw my saving slowly decreasing due to paying all of the application fees. More than managing minor difficulties with the applications, such as misspelling my name, searching for a lost recommendation letter, and trying to get an English proficiency waiver I was also studying for final exams and was getting ready to come back to Hungary. The last couple of days in Chapel Hill were magical as usual. We celebrated Amy’s birthday, we had a movie afternoon with fantastic American-style (lots of butter and salt) popcorn, and hot chocolate. We also held our usual end-of-semester gathering at Supdogs and confirmed that their vegetarian food is truly amazing.
On December 10th I started my journey back to Hungary with Lucy. We got to the airport way too early, since UNC kicked us out at 10 am in the morning. Somehow (none of us know how) we ended up on the same flight to London at 6.30 pm, so we only had to spend a few extra hours at RDU airport. That flight went well, but once we landed in London I could see that it was a very foggy day. I was supposed to wait 6 hours for my second flight. As the hours flew by and I was writing university applications (not surprisingly) I noticed that my flight was delayed, and then canceled. British Airways canceled dozens of flights due to the weather. It was impossible to talk to anyone, and after extensive collaboration with my family members, the only solution was to stay in London for two more days. Lucky I was because my cousins live there and they could get me some clothes. It was also a great way to reunite with family, and I could even visit Brahm from UWCT. It was for sure an unexpected visit but I had a great time. I will never forget submitting my last application from a hotel room and having to reschedule some dental stuff. Two days later when I finally got home (after another 2-3 hours of delay on my flight) it was not even a surprise that my luggage has gone missing. It is still missing and there is pretty much no way to contact anyone at BUD airport or at British Airways. I am hoping one day my bag will make it back to me.
At this point, you may be thinking that at least I got home and could chill for a bit. Well, I think this is all up to perspective. I have been home for 10 hours (slept probably 3) when I was already at the dentist. After a consultation and getting a CT, I prepared (mentally and emotionally) for a dental surgery. I will not go into details on how that experience was but I do not wish for anybody to have to go through it. And now here I am, recovering from surgery, forbidden to eat chees or chocolate the ultimate solution to get through these incredibly stressful times…