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Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 11:13 pm
So I was closing in on the last word of the last chapter and I realized thagt these guys had been talking at each other for pages and pages and I was bored.

So I'm recasting the chapter: the same points get covered -- ick, how yucky it sounds to be talking about points that get covered -- anyway, over a longer chronology, but they do more stuff to get the points across, while talking a little bit less. But I haven't written it all yet.

Still, I expect Draft by the end of the weekend.

It's a water quality monitoring weekend, and also the Cabrillo Music Festival.

On another front, there was a young whale in the small craft harbor a couple days ago, and this guy went out on a jet ski in the middle of the night and herded it back out to sea. He may get into serious trouble for doing this -- legally you aren't supposed to go out on your own and do stuff to marine mammals even if it's well-meaning. It worked, which some people think trumps the law. Me, I don't know. But I do know of a case recently where a couple of people picked up two baby seals "abandoned" on the beach and the seals died. Scare quotes in this case because seals park their young: they probably weren't abandoned.

On still another front, Prague!!! And I can't figure out any of the visa stuff -- either he does or doesn't need a visa to take the test (he better not, there's no 90 days until the test), and the student visa, should he get in, requires him to arrange accomodations before he applies for the visa, and all documents, including his (non) criminal record and his health records, have to be presented in Czech.

But, Prague!!! If he gets in he needs $15,000 a year in tuition and fees -- if he spoke Czech he could do it for free! And then he needs living expenses. And I can't figure out how financial aid works if you're an American going to medical school in the Czech Republic. All the websites I visited that purported to deal with that actually didn't. But, Prague!

The Charles University was founded in 1348! Prague has been settled since Paleolithic times!

Shockers for the California boy, I bet: the summer is the rainy time, there is no ocean, and no salsa. But, Prague!

Actually, a suburban part of Prague called Motol. Green, it says, with public transport to the city center, and a huge hospital.
Friday, August 3rd, 2007 08:17 am (UTC)
Do they have a test to take to prove fluency? When must a student have taken it to qualify for freebie tuition?

How =well= does Frank need to speak Czech? Wouldn't speaking Czech be better for him in the long run anyway?

Can you track down a Czech speaker in your ville who might be available to tutor? Someone at UCSC maybe? Surely someone there would have the answers (Sal sez hopefully).

http://www.bohemica.com/index.php (http://www.bohemica.com/index.php)

Rosetta Stone doesn't do Czech: waaaah!

http://www.locallingo.com/ (http://www.locallingo.com/)

(Oh, great. I tried searching "Czech" (and "Czech language" and whatever) on craigslist and the first item that popped up was labeled "friendly orgy group".

Um. No. I don't think that will help your springoff with his med school ambitions.
Friday, August 3rd, 2007 02:45 pm (UTC)
I'm going to get him a phrasebook or more, but he doesn't have long to achieve it. Anyway, medicine is complicated enough to study in a language you already know very well, so I don't mind that he has to come up with some money. US medical schools are a lot more expensive than that, and the living in Prague is pretty cheap (and Frank's a thrifty guy). Also, it turns out, he can in fact get US financial aid to go to Charles University. There are copies of the letters the medical faculty got from the US department,etc, on the site.

I;m totally baffled about the visa process, which I think he ought to have initiated even though he can't finish it unless and until he gets accepted and assigned to housing. I think I'm going to be an interfering mother and start gathering materials.

You're right, I think that friendly orgies are not petinent.
Friday, August 3rd, 2007 05:25 pm (UTC)
I haven't had a chance yet to ask my parents for possible contacts in Prague. I'll probably send an e-mail copied to all of you as an introduction and then see where it goes. But I haven't forgotten.
Friday, August 3rd, 2007 08:49 pm (UTC)
I thought you guys might know each other from fandom, but [livejournal.com profile] stevendj (Steven DesJardins), hasn't posted here yet. Steven was in Praque recently and spent some time there in the past (I think some postgrad work). He's going to be away this weekend, but he's quite conscientious about resopnding to posts on his LJ.