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Oh yeah!

I checked my TOEFL profile every day last week. Of course, the results came only today, just like they said. But when I could finally see them, it was good! Yeah baby, yeah! I think I REALLY did good. I don’t actually understand the grading related to the level they give to it, but hell, what do I care!

Here some paragraphs out of the score report.

Reading Skills (26/30)
Level: High
You have a very good command of academic vocabulary and grammatical structure; you can understand and connect information, make appropriate inferences, and synthesize ideas, even when the text is conceptually dense and the language is complex; you can recognize the expository organization of a text and the role that specific information serves within the larger text, even when the text is conceptually dense; and you can abstract major ideas from a text, even when the text is conceptually dense and contains complex language.

Listening Skills (26/30)
Level: High
You understand main ideas and important details, whether they are stated or implied; you distinguish more important ideas from less important ones; you understand how information is being used (for example, to provide evidence for a claim or describe a step in a complex process); you recognize how pieces of information are connected (for example, in a cause-and-effect relationship); you understand many different ways that speakers use language for purposes other than to give information (for example, to emphasize a point, express agreement or disagreement, or convey intentions indirectly); and you synthesize information, even when it is not presented in sequence, and make correct inferences on the basis of that information.

Speaking Skills (28/30)
Speaking about familiar topics
Level: Good
Your responses indicate an ability to communicate your personal experiences and opinions effectively in English. Overall, your speech is clear and fluent. Your use of vocabulary and grammar is effective with only minor errors. Your ideas are generally well developed and expressed coherently.
Speaking about campus situations
Level: Good
Your responses indicate an ability to speak effectively in English about reading material and conversations typically encountered by university students. Overall, your responses are clear and coherent, with only occasional errors of pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary.
Speaking about academic course content
Level: Good
Your responses demonstrate an ability to communicate effectively in English about academic topics typical of first-year university studies. Your speech is mostly clear and fluent. You are able to use appropriate vocabulary and grammar to explain concepts and ideas from reading or lecture material. You are able to talk about key information and relevant details with only minor inaccuracies.

Writing Skills (24/30)
Writing based on reading and listening
Level: Fair
You responded to the task, relating the lecture to the reading, but your response indicates weaknesses such as: an important idea or ideas may be missing, unclear, or inaccurate; there may be unclarity in how the lecture and the reading passage are related; and/or grammatical mistakes or vague/incorrect uses of words may make the writing difficult to understand.
Writing based on knowledge and experience
Level: Good
You responded with a well-organized and developed essay. Weaknesses, if you have any, might have to do with: use of English that is occasionally ungrammatical, unclear, or unidiomatic and/or elaboration of ideas or connection of ideas that could have been stronger.

So here I go, with a major cold and a red eye. Off to Amsterdam! When I arrive, I’m the first. A nice jug with water and a little pile of plastic cups already stand in the middle of the table.

We’re with four, the fifth person doesn’t show up. It appears that we’re the only five persons who did apply. So all my worries about maybe not being chosen weren’t necessary. What a disappointment!

Also, I was afraid that it would be a disadvantage that I only did my TOEFL test at the deadline day, so that my results would be send to the US three weeks late. But I was the only one who actually did the test! Ofcourse, it will be in THEIR disadvantage, because their scores will REALLY be too late, but it’s proven again that I worry way too much!

Anyway, so we’re selected, that was step one. Now our stuff has been sent to the US and they will have a great job to place people from all over the world to all over the US. It will be about half to end October when we hear where we’re placed. When the University of Amsterdam accepts our placements, we have to get a US Health Insurance, and then we finally get a confirmational yes-you-are-placed-welcome-package and the whole carrousel of filling in forms and paying things will start again.

So, in a month I will know where I will head to in January. Will it be happy Jersey, freezing Washington or countryside Illinios. Exciting!