Argh, decisions...

Ug. So, I have to figure out what I'm going to do with my financial assistance / tuition support while I'm in Paris. The easiest thing to do (administratively speaking) is take a leave of absence for a year, but that nulls my full-time student status, which in turn makes my student visa to the US (F-1) possibly invalid and definitely makes my application for a french student visa problematic. I can also just swallow a year's worth of tuition support (in other words, waste it on a year that I won't even be here) and put the stipend portion of my financial package into some sort of investment until I need it in later years. The third and preferable option is to take a Pro Forma, which is designed for students who need to do research away from campus, but need to keep full-time status. The big bonus is that my tuition support is deferred for a year, rather than lost (so I have financial support for an additional year) and the Pro Forma costs about $200 / quarter instead of $12435234564356145123 (it's actually about 40k a year). But there are a few catches. Technically, I need to be ABD to get a Pro Forma, or I need a special dispensation by my department chair that says that I am effectively a PhD candidate. Thankfully, my coursework and comprehensive exams are behind me, but I still have one more language exam (German) and a few practica (keyboard sight-reading, transcription) to do. Also, I really should have already done my special fields oral exam and my proposal, but one of the reasons for me going to Paris was to do some preliminary field work (i.e. pre-proposal). I think I can convince the chair of my dept to make an exception, but there's another catch that I'm still pondering: you're only supposed to take one year of Pro Forma, and you can sometimes get another year by special request. In other words, if I want to take another year off to do research afterwards, I would have to write a letter to the dean explaining why my first year wasn't enough. And if I need anything after that, I'm screwed. I don't think I'll need more than one year of research in addition to this one (I better not!). What to do? Also, I need to figure out what I'm doing for August. I need to be in London, Ontario for my brother's engagement party (or my mom will kill me), and I need to drop off my car there at some point. I'm planning on hosting a good-bye party at my place in August, I need to start moving my stuff into storage at some point as well. Also, a friend is going to borrow a lot of my large furniture and turntables while I'm away, but he's not getting into town until late Aug/ early September. Meanwhile, I need to be out of my apartment by Aug 31st, so I haven't figured out how I'm going to make that work. Oy, my head....