• a degree certificate, original or certified copy + extra copy
• a transcript of courses taken and credits earned, certified copy + extra copy
• a photograph of the first page of the passport + copy
• application form completed + copy
• two passport photographs
• proof of anticipated degree, certified document
• two letters of reference
• certified copy of secondary education diploma
• certified copy of transcript from secondary education
• proof of adequate financial resources
• residence permit if required
• proof of English language proficiency (see "IELTS hoopla")
• letter of motivation
• proof of payment made to process application
• police track record
• chess club membership card
• your grandmother's valuable pre-WW2 ear rings

The above x5.

I should be admitted if only on account on what a pain in the ass it is to obtain all these documents. :lazy:

Ps. For the daft crowd.. the last 3 are fictional :redface::P

There is one concept I associate with new year's eve far and away above any other: loneliness. What better occasion to remind yourself that you're alone and not by choice. I have never had an enjoyable new year's eve in my life, they've all been crap ever since I came to think that it might be wonderful to not be alone on this celebrated evening. It is the epitome of loneliness, each year I dread it, knowing it will replay the events seen a bunch of times in the past. This year was actually a bit different, a new air of optimism had come over me, I told myself it wasn't gonna be like all those other times.

The funny thing is, I felt it since the moment I woke up, this is going to be a shitty day. Funny I should feel that at 10am with a full day ahead before the festivities kick in. Nevertheless, the discontent was not long kept waiting, might as well roll out the carpet in the morning to walk on all day. The day was indeed uneventful and quite dull, without any upsets. Then tickets to the threatre to see a tango concert, not my first choice by any stretch of the imagination but it was that evening or none at all. Fair enough, wasn't too bad. The epitome would not be let down, however. 11pm is too late for buses and trams so why not walk from the center of Łódź back home to the suburbs? Just follow the tram lines, no biggie. It's a great shame I did not happen to carry my camera with me at the time to document just how butt ugly Łódź really is. It's like a gray planet, no better way to take in the experience than by walking. If there was an award for the ugliest city, I would nominate Łódź in a heartbeat. It's a bunch of streets with dirty, uglyass buildings, billboards and adverts plastered all over any wall that will serve the purpose, f. up sidewalks you can't walk on without looking where you step cause you'll trip it's so uneven and a general aura of destruction and decay. Actually "decay" would probably best summarize this city in one term. Not that there was much grandeur to fall into decay to begin with, it's always been a gray and dirty city since its foundation in the industrial revolution. I wonder what Bruce Springsteen was looking at when he wrote "My hometown" but I suspect had I written it, it would be less positive.

But I digress, walking home in an ugly city (or any city for that matter, Łódź just happens to put a better spin on the atmosphere) at 11pm on new year's eve, alone, is the epitome brought to life. This time was supposed to be different, sitting at home doing some reading or anything else to take the mind off the moment in progress. And it was different, but not as I imagined. It was one of those glorious "I don't give a fuck" moments. Walking alone instead of sitting home with family, yearning for something more. Pity swapped with aggression, yearning with arrogance. Walking and almost enjoying the lack of enjoyment. Did not manage to reach the house before midnight kicked in, after all it does take an hour and a half to get there so I got a free ticket to witness the fireworks weee. And what a pathetic display it was I start by saying, started at 10 to midnight, over in 30 minutes. Not that people don't make anything out of it, quite the contrary. My warmest regards, first of all, to all those who permanently damaged their hearing in the proceedings tonight. You really have to see it to believe it, not unlike any other city, Łódź suburbia is an array of uglyass apartment buildings, which on new year's is useful as it compels people to aim their fireworks at the opposite building facing their own. They probably aim for the living room, thou few projectiles actually assume the intended course. About 100m from myself was a group of half a dozen people, one of them lit a projectile right where they were standing but it failed to launch and blew up in the middle of them, raining the resulting lights on them from 4m up. Quite a funny sight it was, thou I was less amused to breathe the smoke from the fireworks as it was inevitable walking in suburbia. As far as smog goes, it doesn't really do much cause you can't see the sky anyway.

On this wonderful of nights when people live life to the fullest, my greetings go out to all those who contract hiv tonight. Hell, why discriminate, all those who contract any sexually transmitted disease. Optimism? Got bucket loads but new year's eve invariably sucks. I really need to find something to do with this dreadful day.

Can you guess what it is? Shoveling snow. It falls to begin with, you get rid of it. Then it comes again, you get rid of it. An infinite struggle it is and it's quite pointless too. Because it goes away on its own, if you do nothing, it will still disappear. So just as well to leave it alone and have a little patience.

Of course, if you have a mailman that won't deliver your mail if you don't shovel the driveway, you still gotta do it. :wallbang:

What to do when a once incredibly meaningful relationship becomes a struggle? Do you perservere or do you crumble once you realize you're banging your head agaist the wall no matter what you do? What's worse, it could all have been prevented had you not been so dumb to begin with. Yes Martin, you're not a kid anymore, what you do affects people and that's why you can't sleep right now. What do you do when you deserve nothing and you're also incredibly pissed for not being able to fix what you f. up in the first place? Do you stay cool and hope (not hope, believe) everything will work out fine? I did that for a while. Then I had a little bump of heads with reality and it dawned on me that things in life are not gonna be fine just through hoping. So then it started getting to me and it's been almost a week and I'm still stuck. That's right, I'm back to doing what I do best, obsessing about it. :wallbang::wallbang::wallbang:

But back to the original question, what to do when it becomes a struggle? Do you just let it go? Give up on that relationship? Accept that it may never be what it once was and that you should maybe start looking around for some new people? It's not an obvious choice because once you resign from it, you know the odds are very slim that it's ever gonna feel the same. I wish I could distract myself so I didn't have to make this decision. But I know if not know, sooner or later I will have to. F. it.

More than anything, what do you say when you know you've given it your best shot and then some and you still failed? Someone should kick my ass.

Waking up, the first thing I see is the amount on snow on the balcony railing.. :(

• can't play soccer, pitch covered in snow :lazy:
• walking is about 2/3 normal speed thanks to the lameass friction of snow :rolleyes:
• biking is out, lock frozen, no friction, snow way too soft :wallbang:
• driving is stoopid, snow way too soft and slippery :mad:
• can't wait till my driving exam next week, no doubt on snowey/icey roads :wth:

And the dumbass award of the day goes to yours truly for trying to debug a dvd drive that wouldn't burn dvd-rw media for 2 hours only to realize that it's a dvd+rw drive that only accepts dvd+rw media... :wallbang: