Moving, moped, money stress

This week has been really stressful. There’s the normal stress of moving – getting everything packed and stuff, but there’s also a few other things – I can’t my moped’s broken, and my financial aid isn’t going through. Let’s first talk about the moped.

With the one year warranty on my moped running out, I took my moped in for repairs on Monday. They were really busy that day and said they couldn’t fix it, but they could on Tuesday.

So, I brought it in on Tuesday, and said that four things needed to be fixed: the headlight, the odometer, the center stand (it had clean-away fallen off), and a severed air intake tube. They said they’d have it done that afternoon. I waited for their call both Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Thursday, a little before noon, I called to see when they’d be done. They said they were just then putting the center stand on, and that it would be done by the time I got there. When I picked it up that afternoon, though, I found out that the odometer was still broken. However, because SY had class that evening, I decided to wait until Friday to take it in again. Though I hadn’t brought it up before, she convinced me I should also have them fix the starting problem (it would have a hard time starting while the engine was warm – a problem when I needed to do quick errands).

But, later that night, after a quick stop for some essentials, it wouldn’t even start at all. I had to push it down to the Kaimuki Foodland to lock it up safely, and then meet SY. So much for our ride home.

On Friday I went down to Foodland and pushed it over to the shop on Kapahulu Avenue. They said they’d fix the odometer and that the engine probably needed a tune-up. They said I have the record for mileage at 5224.4 miles. I told that it’s probably a couple hundred more than that, considering it’s been broken for a while. They said they finish it that afternoon. Yeah, OK.
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Financial aid is also a problem, mostly because the CHEMBA program’s schedule doesn’t match with the UH schedule very nicely. I thought that wouldn’t be a problem, though, because we had two sources of funding lined up: a $10,000 private loan that I saw was going to come in on July 14, and Stafford Loans that I expected we’d be able to receive shortly after the semester started.

Alas, neither is working out. The private loan’s terms stipulated it had to be considered under my spring 2006 budget, which only had about $2000 left below the financial aid cap (apparently, students are only allowed to borrow up to a certain maximum per year). It had been sent for the spring semester, but according to the lender, the university “didn’t receive it.” I have no idea why.

Right now the student loan check for $10,000 is being sent back to the lender. After it arrives, they’ll have to cut a new check for $2000 and send it to the university, who will send it on to my P.O. mailbox; from there it will get forwarded to me in China, where I’ll put it in an envelope with a deposit slip and send it back to Hawaii. My guess is that the process is going to take a while.

The Stafford loans, too, are held up because I was one of the 30 percent of applicants who were selected to complete a verification process. UH, however, never notified me by either letter or email; instead, the financial aid office said that because they’re doing everthing electronically, the notification was in the “Financial Aid” section of my MyUHportal account. I’m in the same boat as many other “30 percent-ers” who have the same problem, which has created a backlog of student aid applications. Their best estimate is that it will take six to eight weeks for these checks to go through, by which time I’ll be in the second half of my stay.

Reluctantly, I had to call my parents, who generously set me up with some working capital while I wait for the system to process my money. So rather than focus on the problems and get all worked up again, the only thing I’ll say is this: TGFP.
Thank God for parents.