nonduos

If I were you, I wouldn't worry as much about the particular project. Interests shift over time and what you think you want to do now may not be what you will want to do in 2-3 years. I think more important questions are whether you generally like the program and whether you got along with the PI. Having an advisor you get along with is SO much more important than having a project that is the perfect fit. I would choose a better advisor over the better project any day of the week. I wouldn't recommend choosing a project you're completely uninterested in, but as long as you find it at least somewhat exciting, I would give more weight to these other considerations. Another question you might want to ask is about placement records for recent alums. If this is a Canadian school, how does it do with placement in the US, assuming that's whether you want to end up (and more specifically, if you are looking to go back into industry, do companies generally know and respect this school?). Good luck with your other applications!

I beg to differ. Do NOT accept an unfunded offer in linguistics EVER. It's not worth it. Living expenses are high, tuition is expensive, you'll end up with a ridiculous amount of debt and/or you'll spend your time working a second job and won't be able to concentrate on your studies. Your first job(s) are unlikely to pay you well enough to justify the debt. What's more, even students from top schools who are fully funded and well supported and do nothing other than brilliant linguistics for 5-6 full years often have trouble finding a job these days, so coming from a school that didn't even like you enough to fund you isn't going to look good. This is not to say it is impossible, but assuming that you will be the exception that beats the odds is never a good idea when we are talking about a significant amount of debt and years of your life that may not lead to a (good) job.
If you are set on applying to grad school and didn't receive the offers you were hoping for this year, you will be better served taking a break, improving your application, and reapplying again in a year or two. 
OP, you have nothing to lose by following up, reiterating your interest in the program, and asking again if there is any update to their funding decisions timeline. I would suggest doing that and then waiting it out. Please do NOT accept an unfunded offer, it will not be good for you and it will not make you more attractive to the program or more likely to receive funding. 

I do what GeoDUDE! does and use Mendeley for reading my papers. I mostly do this to use Mendeley's excellent methods for keeping track of citations (I export BibTeX files).
 
I understand what you mean about highlighting with a mouse though. My solution is actually I rarely mark up PDFs anymore. Instead, I just read them and don't make any annotations. This is obviously not a good way to retain information but I already have over 100 papers in my collection for my current project and I don't expect myself to know every detail of every single paper. Instead, I read the paper and I find that I do pretty good at remembering the main points. In the future, I just skim the abstract again and I remember what the paper was generally about. Mendeley has a box for you to type in whatever you want for each paper and I use this to make notes to myself, e.g. "Cite this for Method X!!" etc.
 
The above is for the lowest level of paper. For papers that are more critical to my work, I keep notes for them in a separate notebook. I read the paper on the screen and then I write summary notes for each one. Maybe summarize the paper in one page of notes or something (i.e. longer than I would want to store in the Mendeley text box). Because I can write on a physical piece of paper, this makes noting down important figures or equations much easier. Sometimes, I would sparingly use the Mendeley built-in highlighter tool so that when I skim through the PDF again in the future, I know where the *really* important stuff is. With the "Find" function, I never have to highlight or otherwise annotate lesser details though.
 
Finally, for the absolute critical papers to my work (i.e. <10 or so), I print out physical copies and keep them in my filing cabinet. These are the papers that I really want to know backwards and forwards and I write on them, draw things, take them with me while commuting etc. Since it's just a small number, having physical copies is very manageable.
 
So, actually, I think the clunkiness of an electronic highlighter tool is a blessing. It makes me want to use it less, which means I only highlight things I really really want to remember. Many of my articles do not even have highlighter marks at all. In the past, with paper copies, I might want to highlight smaller references to keywords but now I can just use Mendeley's "find" function to search for keywords in all of my papers at once! 

^ This. 
I've ranted about perceived shininess (I like that word!) and reality many times, so I'll keep it short. Everyone might seem shiny from the outside, but I guarantee you even the shiniest ones look at others and feel insecure about something. You are there just as they are, and you have just as much the potential to succeed. Some of this feeling of inadequacy will pass away with time, and hopefully as you interact more with others you'll discover that everyone shares a version of this feeling. 
As for talking in class, I don't know what you're doing at the moment but maybe it'd help to both print out and bring with you a copy of your blog entries, and also create bullet points in case you're called on in class. It's easy to get flustered or confused, and bullet points should help you get your main points across. This, too, is something that should improve with time. I also support the suggestion to talk to your professors about this. Most of them will be very understanding. I don't think you need to talk at all about feeling inadequate or tell them your life story, it's enough to just explain that your mind goes blank and you feel anxious. You are not the first or only one that this has happened to, it's a common issue with lots of students (for one, I can tell you that a version of this happened to pretty much every international (non-native speaker) student I know, and to lots of North American ones as well). 

First, stop worrying about being "shiny." There will always be someone shinier, no matter how awesome something thinks they are. Chances are that some of these really shiny people feel very insecure, too. This perceived shininess is also pretty irrelevant... you were accepted to the same school as these people, so clearly you have something to offer and you belong there just as much as your peers. Just because someone has traveled internationally, had the opportunity to read seemingly endless numbers of books, and speaks well doesn't equate to being a better student than you. Moving up from a state school to an Ivy is also irrelevant. You are the same person. You might get challenged differently, but no one expects you to magically be transformed into some kind of super student because of a jump in prestige. This relates back to shininess being irrelevant... you shouldn't be judging yourself by how you perceive others to be. 
Now that I got that out of the way, my first question for you is: do you bring any type of notes with you to seminar? You might have lots to say, but it's easy to forget things, especially if you're nervous. Having some concrete thoughts written down is really quite helpful when your head empties itself. I've also found that when I suddenly forget what I'm saying, it helps to try to keep talking, because it's easy for the thought to come back.
My next question is: do you interact with your classmates outside of class at all? If you don't get to know these people beyond classroom interactions, you're going to put them up on a pedestal and it's going to make you feel even more inadequate. If you talk with them outside of class, you'll probably start to feel more comfortable around them and that will probably help with some of the anxiety. Getting to know your professors a bit helps, too. Especially when you find out about some of the dumb things they've done, or the time they almost failed a class, or that you're both into early Metallica but can't stand their newer stuff.
I think talking to your professors about your concerns is always a good thing. Professors usually understand this sort of stuff. I had a wonderful professor who taught using the Socratic method, and he knew that students' minds often went empty when put on the spot. So he gently tried to lead them in the right direction by asking more questions. If your professor knows you need help articulating yourself, he/she might be willing to help pull it out of you. Whether or not you want to share your life history with them is your business, but just talking with them about your struggles in class can only help you.
 

This one is completely true: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1047
Also, this one took me a very long time to figure out. When I did, that's when I felt that I was ready to graduate: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1518
 
Other than that, it depends. You go through all of the stages that are depicted in the PhD comics, but not all the time. There will be some friction with your advisor, frustrations with writing, sneaking into colloquia just for the food, etc. But unless you are in a toxic environment, it won't be what most of your time is like. 

if your only source of income is a stipend, you probably won't be able to own in the immediate area. biking is certainly a possibility and umd has a shuttle bus, so depending on where you live, not having a car isn't a big deal. althpough i have a car, i generally use the metro to get to downtown dc - i am a big fan of the metro system, though it won't go everywhere you might want to go in the burbs.

like every other area, some places are safer than others. i am a woman and i frequently walk around by myself at night. i'm sure others would tell me i am being stupid, but in all the time i have lived here nothing has happened to me. you just need to be aware of your surroundings.

re: farmer's markets and natural food stores. i don't currently live in college park, and i have never been to any farmer's markets near cp, but i found this online: http://www.localharvest.org/farmers-markets/M2419 there certainly are a lot in the greater dc area http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... May11.html and there are also a few whole foods around.