Half whining, half polling?

Hey, folks!

So, as I’m pretty sure I’ve said…a few times…I’m in Cairo to study.  Study a lot, actually.  Study without having to worry about working, paying rent, or even really commuting (I go back and forth to the university and that’s pretty much it).  This is great, except that, well, I have no money.  This is no problem for approximately 75% of the year, as I’m, you know, studying – life in Cairo is pretty cheap and I can rely on my parents for living expenses, etc.  But then, well, there’s the summer.

Ahh, the summer, that endless dilemma.  Do you work?  Study?  Do a program?  Stay home and then have to try to explain on your next five applications why you didn’t do anything that summer?  I’m not a fan of that last option, and so had been planning to apply for a handful of summer programs, do one, and spend the rest of my time either in the States with the fam (also not spending money) or traveling in Greece with Aris (trying to spend as little money as possible, but I’ve been swearing for eons that we’d do that this summer).  But I’ve finally started looking at programs in earnest, and you guys, I can’t even afford to apply to most of these programs, let alone actually attend.  To apply:  application fee ($35-$50 at least), plus paper costs:  headshots, FedEx (a lot when you’re in Cairo), costs for recording time/space/equipment and an accompanist to make your audition recordings…  It adds up, especially considering the number of programs to which you need to apply.  And then the actual program:  tuition (most of the ones I’m looking at are at least $3k, if not closer to $4k), housing costs, food, transportation to/from (and within the city during the program, sometimes), costs of scores (don’t laugh, some of those scores are expensive), and on and on.  The cheapest option I’ve got would run me about $1500, not counting my airfare…even that’s out of reach.

I don’t have a job right now – I’m not actually allowed to work here (yay, student visa).  My parents, because they love me (and my brother) are busy paying off student loans undertaken to fund the “parent contribution” portions of our educations.  Paying for me to study in Cairo is one thing – I think it will literally cost about as much for me to be here for a semester as it would cost for me to live in New York for a month (food, transport, rent).  But they don’t have $6k+ lying around to fund summer studies.  I’d hoped to find a scholarship or five, or a grant, or something, but prospects along those lines are looking seriously slim.

So, what do I do?  I can’t work for the summer – I can’t get the right visa to work here (unless I have a job, but no one’s going to hire me for the summer unless I have the visa already, ugh), and I don’t have the resources to apply for summer jobs in the States (and in any case if I were working in Jerz or IL I’d need a car, which I don’t have).  I don’t have the money to fund summer studies.  I don’t have the money to travel.  And I can stay here, admittedly, but my voice teacher travels a lot in the summer and my dad’s going to be doing the ALI – not a lot of time for conducting work.  I could do the ALI again, I guess, but frankly, I want to be focused on music.

So, folks, the whining is done and it’s time for a poll:  what should I do with my summer?  All advice is welcome – please, y’all, I need all the help I can get.

Advertisement