Working in Germany

While Davan is in Germany for the second part of her European adventure, one of the things she's doing is going to work with her Oma (my mom - Oma is German for Grandma and the name we picked for my mom when I was pregnant with Davan, having all spent some time in Germany).

My mom works for a contractor to the military.  She trains and supports medical personal in the use of the computer based charting program they use.

Here are a couple of pictures of Davan at work in Germany:

I'm told they are doing other fun things together, like climbing the hill to the local castle and such, but these are the only pictures I've received thus far.  Ahem.

I have, though, on a couple of occasions, Face Timed with Davan, which has been lovely to see her and hear her.  One thing I've learned from her in our conversations is that she's been invited to teach in the language camp that Karin runs when she's old enough (17 or 18), which is an exciting opportunity.  It would mean more time in Europe for my poor child.

What has been more challenging for her is managing the various scholarship application processes from overseas.  She's heard from two programs now.  One was for Germany and she appears to be out of the running now due to not being able to attend the Oregon and Washington in person interview weekend.  Just this week there was a call from a local volunteer for Youth for Understanding, wanting to set up an interview with her for the Vietnam scholarship.  He's said that it's time sensitive.  Davan has both emailed him and called him in an attempt to work it out, Vietnam being near the top of her list for country choice for next year, but, to my knowledge, hasn't heard back yet.  Yikes!

Davan expects to hear today about if she's a semi-finalist for the YES Abroad scholarship, which is kind of nerve racking.  She says that they say they'll tell people mid to late February and all the blogs of scholarship recipients she's been reading say that they heard on the last day of February (the 29th last year).  If she is a semi-finalist, she'll need to see the dentist pretty much as soon as she gets home in order to fill out health forms.  Her most recent doctor's visit was recent enough that we'll just use that, but I'll still have to get the form to them for her so it will be back in time to take to the dentist.  Whew.

Additionally, we're starting the process of applying to En Famille as another option for next year.  Davan says this program is really exciting her and is thinking it would maybe be near the top of her list.  Currently, to the best of my knowledge, that list is looking something like this:  Ghana, Oman, Vietnam, France with En Famille.  Others are good, too, and would certainly be accepted by her if it worked out, but not ultra top choices.

I feel a little mixed about it.  En Famille would mean I'd get to have Davan home for 6 of 12 months, as the program is a match for 12 months with a child from France (or Spain or Germany, but Davan really wants France for language purposes), wherein both kids spend 6 months with one family and 6 months with the other family.  I think this would be great fun!  The down side is that we'd actually have to, you know, pay, as opposed to these scholarship situations.  At any rate, to keep them in the running, we've got more applications to fill out and a trip to California next month to take for an in person family interview.

What all this means is that, while, right at this moment I'm doing very little about it, things are about to get very busy.  I'm working extra next week, doing some filling in at the office for Do Jump in the mornings before going to work in the afternoons, getting this En Famille application filled out, working on the medical part of YES Abroad for Davan, scheduling trips and then Davan comes home and things will really pick up.  Whew again.