"I am pleased to inform you. . .

. . .that the National Screening Committee of the Institute of International Education (IIE) has recommended you for a grant under the Fulbright U.S. Student Program for the academic year 2008-09."

Ayeee!! I MADE THE FIRST CUT!!

And that explains the recent demons (this one in particular only shows up when I am on the brink of big, positive things in my life), which have instantly been quieted. I was all jittery today b/c Clover had mentioned in a recent email that she was pulling for me since notification was going out this week. Then today I looked on the Fulbright site, and sure enough, they said everyone would find out TODAY.

I proceeded to run all over my home, start eating and stop eating random food, look for a pencil for half an hour, curse myself for not being able to locate my wood engraving tools, and just generally be crazy. I finally forced myself to do an hour of yoga right after eating an entire pot of soup. I got the email less than an hour before I had to run out the door to see Ching-In read. Barely any time to contact people! So a lot of people 1. don't know 2. have garbled phone messages 3. have missed calls.

The hard thing now is more waiting - they send my app to Korea and then back here for final selection. They nominate twice the number of people that they have grants for in each country, so I have to wait another few months to see if I make the final cuts. But for now, it feels good to still be in consideration.