More Dissapointment

Today I received a letter from CDS International which is the organization which administers the much coveted Congress-Bundestag Exchange. In true fashion, I was not selected for an interview, however they believe I demonstrate "much promise" in my field.

Their primary reasoning for my none selection was that I hadn't had enough experience in my field. However, I thought this program was for recent college graduates who were going to Germany to gain experience. On top of that, I participated in Florida State's Beyond Borders Cross-Cultural Exchange program in 2005 and in 2006 was the lead student coordinator for the program. I have significant strengths in cross-cultural competencies and I'm already versed in the language. Apparently however there were significant application in the field that I applied for in International Relations so it must have been slim pickings. Either way, I am dissapointed but that is life. I'm still awaiting to hear back from the Fulbright program. If that doesn't fall through, I'll be out of my academic options and will be forced to seriously look for a job.

So this week I'll make an appointment at my universities career center, refurbish the resume and start sending it out. I very much want a job in Europe but I know those are hard to come by which is why I was relying heavily on CBYX and now Fulbright.

This whole college-senior graduation business is tiresome, stressful and quite unpredictable. I'm afraid I'm going to end up living in my Mother's basement working at a grocery store for years on end. Let's hope that doesn't come true.

Last Christmas Break

I just had the pleasure of completing my seventh semester of my university studies. It sucked and I'm glad finals week is over. Now I'm about to experience my last "Winter Break" as I know it as an undergrad. This means that *hopefully* next year I"ll have to beg and plead to get time off to fly to my family's home for the holidays. Let's see how that works out.

Since this is my first post, I'll give some background about who I am.

My name is Christopher, I'm a 21 year old Senior at The Florida State University. I'm a B.A. Candidate in International Affairs & Political Science. My emphasis' within that are German & Public Administration. Currently I am a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Candidate and should find out in February whether or not I got that. I've also applied for the Congress-Bundestag Exchange Program. In April, I will take, for the second time, the Foreign Service Exam. I took it last year, without really studying just to see what is was like. As expected, I didn't pass but that didn't really deter me. The FSWE is hands-down the hardest test within the U.S. Government to pass and besides, I was only a junior in college who didn't study as much. I wanted to take it to see what it was like and for the first time, I didn't do too bad. I made a 142.33 out of 170. I figure another year of university and more German skills will increase my score this time around

However, to my understanding, the State Department is changing the exam to include more of your personal qualifications rather than your test score. Interesting to see how that pans out this year.

I'm hoping to move overseas for a few years (ideally- any metropolitan German city, Austria, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Benelux countries or London) if I don't get accepted for Fulbright or CBX program. Stateside, I'm looking at Washington, D.C. or San Francisco. If anyone has any job/career suggestions or looking for resumes let me know, my resume' isn't too bad at all. =)