Goodness. You can tell it's been a really long time since I updated everything...I will be in Munich next year--I'm leaving August 15, 2001 and will be back in US July 15, 2001. Long time, eh? But before I received notice of my Fulbright thing...I turned in my Senior Independent Study, entitled AUDITORY-VERBAL GRADUATES: RATIONALES FOR COCHLEAR IMPLANTS AND THEIR LISTENING ABILITIES. I got an honors on this research project, in spite of everything. Somehow this seems a little like a dream.

During the next year, I will be studying the educational and social support for the oral hearing impaired in Germany. In order to do this, I will be all over the country interviewing people auf deutsch (in German) so I am absolutely terrified at this prospect. 

Funny things about the Fulbright stuff...I turned in my Independent Study project on I.S. Monday (March 26, 2001), and at the I.S. pizza party, I spoke with Dr. McConnell, who was the campus head of the Watson selection committee, and he went on and on about how bad he felt about me not getting the Watson fellowship. But he wished me luck on the Fulbright and said that he thought I would get it. Prophetic man, wasn't he? it was the following day, March 27, that I received The Letter from the Fulbright-Kommission in Berlin, Germany. Of course, I had to do clinical practicum -- I got the letter right before lunch, so I ate in 5 minutes, still completely numb with shock...jotted off a quick e-mail to Ben, who is on a Watson right now, and Norm, who is on a Fulbright. Then I went to clinic, where I did my work and did my Teaching Apprenticeship stuff, which meant I did not get to tell my parents till 7 PM that night! I can safely tell you that all of this was dreamlike, I did not quite believe all of this happening...and had to keep reading The Letter to confirm the reality. It's only now that I KNOW it's really happening, that I will be gone for a year on a fellowship, pursuing something I love.

The Fulbright has made me into an absolute celebrity. Stan Hales, the president of Wooster, now knows my name after my being there for four years.

But the Fulbright also has lots of red tape. That meant getting a COMPLETE physical, including PAP smear....ugh. And lots of forms. If I forget everything about the Fulbright, I'll certainly remember "Circular 1, 2, and 3" and the multiple forms I had to fill out or sign, or both. That and the anxiety over not yet having a place to live in Munich, but I have faith!

My graduation was May 14, 2001. The following day, The Plain Dealer ran an article about me, and it was such a glowing article, which made me laugh and feel all good and everything. It even made the front page! I became an instant celebrity, and to me, it's absolutely hilarious that the articles is still  making waves or ripples or something like that.

Oh, and Seven and Nine are still alive. I'm not sure that they will be when I come back next year.

My adviser sent in my thesis to Auditory-Verbal International as a poster session topic at the AVI convention, which is in Denver this year. I'm very nervous about this because although I've gotten positive response on my research, I am terrified to meet another person like the person who sent me an e-mail saying that my study was not valid, even though  she had never read my study--merely an abstract and a summary of my findings. Good gad. I hate it when people do that. But my adviser is going to talk to her, so I am hoping that it will help, since she is a really annoying person (and that's not just my opinion).