*Sigh* I've spent much of my weekend doing paperwork - a necessary evil you say? In this case, NO. An evil, yes; necessary, no.

I've been trying to get a hold of my loan money since the beginning of the month. I have a loan from a private lender (one of the only lenders who will provide loans to Canadians studying abroad) that is supposed to be disbursed to the University at the beginning of each term. Each term so far I've had to usually wait for a couple of weeks before the University pushes enough paper around to satisfy the whim of some paper-eating demigod - hidden in the basement of the library most likely - before they credit my tuition account and then I can request a cheque for any positive balance in my account. The loan I am awaiting is private - did I mention that? - and has NOTHING to do with the University. This is how I pay my rent, since the stipend - there's an understatement of the term! - barely covers groceries, insurance, utilities etc.

But as of Friday it still wasn't in my account, and I'm starting to run out of cash. I've been calling & leaving messages for people all over the place, but not getting responses. Finally on Friday morning, I got one of my calls returned...

Well, it seems that the University is always looking out for its students, making sure they don't fall down elevator shafts while in custody oops, registered, or spend their money unwisely on healthy food at a non-university eatery, or just plain don't have too much money. Yes, the university has a budget line for me - and I am not to have too much money it seems. Being in the home of capitalism, it's fine for me to work 50+ hours a week outside the university and make what paltry money one can as a student (not me of course since they hate us here), BUT they cannot handle more money for me than they deem appropriate for a student. If they give me my loan, they will be giving me $4000 more than they think appropriate. ("Give" is the wrong word, since they only "give" me the stipend and the rest is loan - which incidentally is accruing interest at this moment and will ALL need to be paid back - no student loan forgiveness here!)

I told her I could not support a family of five on the paltry figure she quoted (I have a hard enough time with the little bit more that I do survive on and even then, they are reluctant to give that to me). The long & short of it is that I have to submit a budget, bills (thank god I've been anal about actually keeping receipts), credit card receipts etc. to prove that it does take more than $23000 a year to support a family of 5 in Boston! No shit - my rent is $18,000 a year - you do the math...

So, I have to prove that is costs more than that to live here, and then MAYBE they'll increase my budget line to allow me to get all the loan money that the private loan company HAS ALREADY APPROVED ME FOR AND DOES NOT COME OUT OF THE UNIVERSITY COFFERS in any way shape or form.

Does this system strike anyone else as asinine?