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So this year Frank has to start taking the long-acronym licensing exam for US physicians, in order to be licensed in the US and countries which recognize a US license as well as being licensed in the Eurozone and countries which recognize the Eurozone license. We went through a lot of twists and turns in the spring to find out what he needed to do and what he needed to get other people to do. I spent half a month's wages on his application. He did what he had to do. He got the form to the office at Charles University with plenty of time. There he had to sign the form in person in the presence of the Czech administrator who then had to stamp it with a particular stamp which the University had designated to the test agency as their one and only official stamp for this purpose and then mail it to the test agency in time for them to process it and give Frank a US test location and test date.
You can see where this is going, can't you?
Charles University told the test agency that they would use the dean's stamp to authenticate the forms when they came in. But they used the vice-dean's stamp. My first reaction was that the test agency was the villain here for not recognizing the vice-dean's stamp, but then I thought about it -- the University said the only stamp they would use would be the dean's stamp, and then the University did something else. In any case, no test for Frank this summer.
The next step is to do the form signing and stamping all over again when he gets back to Prague and to pay the test agency another hundred fifty to take the test somewhere in the Eurozone during the school year -- remember that Frank has to do his part of the form wrangling in the presence of the Charles University administration. Then he gets to buy train tickets to wherever the test is given -- I believe we noticed that the closest place was somewhere in Germany. So altogether, it's going to cost nearly another week's wages for me (his school loans do not cover this: for some reason they will only loan him approximately five thousand dollars less than he actually needs to go to school, live, and travel back and forth once a year. It has to do with him being at a foreign school. And talk about predatory lending practices! Sallie Mae keeps sending him these come-ons for variable-rate loans that he would have to start paying off immediately -- necessitating higher loans, naturally).
I am a literary trope, aren't I -- widow with a low-paid service job trying to get a kid through medical school. All I need is a ragged shawl and an excessively deferent attitude.
On the other hand, I have a working car again, I'm signed up for the early literacy class that will be taught in Spanish, I have canned tomatoes, made wild plum jam, dried plums, and the construction project is moving forward. More about that when we finalize the plans.
You can see where this is going, can't you?
Charles University told the test agency that they would use the dean's stamp to authenticate the forms when they came in. But they used the vice-dean's stamp. My first reaction was that the test agency was the villain here for not recognizing the vice-dean's stamp, but then I thought about it -- the University said the only stamp they would use would be the dean's stamp, and then the University did something else. In any case, no test for Frank this summer.
The next step is to do the form signing and stamping all over again when he gets back to Prague and to pay the test agency another hundred fifty to take the test somewhere in the Eurozone during the school year -- remember that Frank has to do his part of the form wrangling in the presence of the Charles University administration. Then he gets to buy train tickets to wherever the test is given -- I believe we noticed that the closest place was somewhere in Germany. So altogether, it's going to cost nearly another week's wages for me (his school loans do not cover this: for some reason they will only loan him approximately five thousand dollars less than he actually needs to go to school, live, and travel back and forth once a year. It has to do with him being at a foreign school. And talk about predatory lending practices! Sallie Mae keeps sending him these come-ons for variable-rate loans that he would have to start paying off immediately -- necessitating higher loans, naturally).
I am a literary trope, aren't I -- widow with a low-paid service job trying to get a kid through medical school. All I need is a ragged shawl and an excessively deferent attitude.
On the other hand, I have a working car again, I'm signed up for the early literacy class that will be taught in Spanish, I have canned tomatoes, made wild plum jam, dried plums, and the construction project is moving forward. More about that when we finalize the plans.
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