So on the 16th of July, University Health Services sent out a serious toned email stating that the last day to cancel Student Health Insurance (SHIP) *will be* the 15th of July (everyone got that?) or fines would be incurred. This understandably made some people a little confused and concerned. One of the incoming fall graduate students asked our student advisor about whether we have to pay for health insurance ourselves.

To which our student advisor replied:

We cover it. Silly university always sends out vaguely threatening emails. We’ll be paying for that until you graduate.

[Student Advisor]

Hehe… well, at least I thought it was funny. >_>

I took a look at the UHS SHIP web page after the vaguely threatening email was released, and noticed that filing fee students have to pay way more per year (people who are done with all classes and research, and only have their final dissertation/thesis to write). I guess it encourages them to finish quickly.

UCB undergraduates $610 per semester
UCB graduate and international students $805 per semester
Filing Fee Students (out of Bay Area) $1,255 per semester
Filing Fee Students (in Bay Area) $1,510 per semester
Mills undergraduate $1,146 per semester
Mills graduate and international students $1,237 per semester

(Mike made me include a picture. Apparently he deems my posts too pictureless. And I do believe this picture of the envelope is larger than the envelope itself)

Yay! I finally received my letter from the department of Plant Biology at Berkeley! I’ve been looking in my mailbox every single day for the past week and a half to no avail. But today, I opened my mailbox, and there was a little envelope from the PMB department. Now, if I hadn’t been contacted by the admissions professor beforehand, I would have assumed this was a rejection. Yay yay yay~!!!!! I’m so excited. And this time around, I don’t even have to pay for tuition, and they are paying me a stipend to do something I really want to do. How completely awesome is that???!!!

Now just waiting for the acceptance letter from the University. This one I assume will come in a big envelope.

[out]

Wahh, mike is getting a little crazy with his posting. Must be the new format.

Today’s topics of discussion:

1. I got accepted into the department of Plant and Microbial Biology at Berkeley for graduate school! Wahooo! I would hazard to say that I am the most excited person to hear this news (in this case, sent by email). I should be receiving an official letter through snail mail in a few days. It is such a relief to know that I got in. I’ve been stewing in anxiety ever since submitting my apps. Now it’s time to call up Davis and see if I can pressure them to hurry up their admissions process. But considering that they recently asked my boss to resend her rec because they lost it again, I don’t know that my efforts will speed the process up much. Yay to having no monies again. And cheers to another five+ years of schooling.

2. To celebrate, mike and I went to Mijori’s to eat sushi. We ordered mike’s requisite rainbow roll, and miscellany including oyako donburi (eggs, chickens, onions and sweet sauce over sticky rice) and it was quite tasty. Mmmmm… chicken rice… and forgot about buying ice cream, which was our original celebratory feast goal. Ah well, I left full and happy.

3. I have worked an insane amount of hours at work due to a meltdown emergency at work. To date, no less than 11 hours per day since monday. Whew. Almost to the homestretch. But at least I get to enjoy the three day weekend. I think I would have gone crazy if I had needed to work through the weekend. I also took a walk around the work campus, which I haven’t done for awhile. It was really beautiful, with the sun, the breeze, and the bay. Hopefully I won’t dream any more disturbing lab dreams (last night, I dreamt that I spilled acetic acid all over myself while trying to making a dilute solution to stop a protein silver stain reaction. It’s no good when dreams about work invade my off time. Must relax!)

4. I watched nacho libre tonight, which was actually kind of entertaining, though I think Jack Black a complete doofus.

5. Mike is currently wrestling with the “New” Super Mario Bros for DS.

6. And now I am sleepy. Time for bed. Goodnight!