venus in jorts

I was accepted as well!! Fulbright's ways are higher than mine - the email came when I was sleeping, i.e., not manically checking my inbox for once, and on the same day I turned in a paper and gave a presentation on Bulgarian folklore. What a way to start the day. Congratulations to my fellow Bulgarians!

Ahhhh, so it sounds like she's just waiting on the State Department. Come on, State Department, you got this, it's all you! I'm supposed to appear on a panel for potential applicants at my university on Thursday and if we don't hear by then things might not go well. "Don't do it to yourselves, kids! Fulbright is a cruel mistress!!" Ok, theatrics aside - thanks for emailing, rosecoyote. When did you hear back? And nice to meet you, persona_in_foro!

Your background is so ideal for an ETA in Bulgaria! If we both end up there I will definitely be hitting you up to talk about pedagogy and whatnot, and about your experiences getting an MFA; I'm seriously thinking about going in that direction myself eventually. And yes, I would love to collaborate on a creative writing program. Where did you hear about FISI being only for research grantees now? Looking at the participants from the current cycle I thought it included ETAs, too, but I could be mistaken. God, another week without hearing, though. I was really looking to celebrate tonight.

Hi there, good to see you too! Not a lot of insight in that email response, I know, but I've been feeling strangely better (a little) since I heard from her. I think the absolute silence was kind of spooking me. I was so sure about last week and now we've almost run out of this week, and knowing that this is the latest Bulgaria has notified in years (ever?), it's still not feeling good. The spreadsheet on here is a real blessing/curse kind of thing! I think I read on the Smith College informational site about the Fulbright (it looks like they have the most amazing support for their applicants, it's unreal) that for many, many ETA decisions, the most important overall factor is teaching experience and a demonstrated passion for engaging youth. So your classroom experience will probably serve you really well in the end! What do you teach and study? I'm graduating this May with an English degree and a minor in TESOL. My area of focus for English is multicultural American lit and for the past couple of years I've edited a multicultural lit journal (based on campus but publishing internationally, too). So I want to direct those interests towards a project about Bulgarian and Balkan literature and national identity; I'm thinking maybe a blog, updated all year, or one or two issues of a journal? I'd like to get my students involved, and hopefully I would be able to publish original work and interviews from contemporary writers. Maybe that's too ambitious. We'll see (I mean, I hope we will). Something I've been wondering about: what do you know about the Fulbright International Summer Institute? I know it takes place in Bulgaria, and it seems like a lot of grantees to Bulgaria go... but does Fulbright like, pay for us to attend?? Because it also looks kinda $$$. Great to see you on here, too! I'm sending out good thoughts for us

Hey, another Bulgaria ETA applicant here! I actually emailed Eileen O'Malley last week because I've been fully going up the wall about this. She responded with this on Tuesday: I have no update I’m afraid but am hopeful that it will be soon. Ha! She thinks ~she's~ hopeful...