does anyone have a stress ball?

...or 10 of them? I think stress accounts for about 85% of my emotions right now. I took some time to organize everything I've been working on though, and made some wonderful lists as we all know I love to do, so I'm feeling a little better about everything now. I'm basically trying to juggle working towards my Spanish student visa (getting all my materials together is harder than it may seem!), finding a place to live once I get to Madrid, and applying for grad schools for the fall! As far as the grad school thing is concerned, most applications for the fall term aren't due until at least the middle of March, but my own deadline is before I leave for Spain, because I know I won't want to be worrying about all of that once I'm abroad!

So here's an update on my progress:

--Deposit for TEFL certification is paid for. I'm officially registered in the Jan 5 program.
--Plane ticket is purchased! This is new as of this past Thursday. I discovered that it was much cheaper in the end to set a return date rather than purchasing a January or February return date (and hence a cheaper ticket than a return date in the summer) and then paying $200 + the difference in ticket to change my return date once I was in Spain. That sounds confusing but basically I booked my entire flight as follows: January 1 - July 29. Shorter than originally planned but I have my reasons...the main one being grad school!

Other than those two, I am just in the process of, like I mentioned, collecting everything for my student visa. I think all I have left really is the police report/certificate and passport photos. As far as grad schools, I'm looking in and around the city... so anyone who has suggestions about a great Education program anywhere around here, let me know!!!