grad school

I am a neurotic planner, so naturally I’ve been considering what grad school I should attend for several years now. I had finally decided I’d like to get my MSW (master of social work, with a focus on macro/public policy), but that I would like to study internationally, if possible. The problem now is that I’m not finding too many schools in Europe that offer an MSW in English. On the other hand, lots of them offer a masters of Public Policy in English. These programs, however, are two years long, while the MSW programs are only one year long (because I have  a BSW), thus saving me boatloads of money and work. What to do, what to do? Here is the list of possible schools I have compiled so far:
Columbia University, NYC: great program, $37,000 tuition (not including living expenses!)
Mcgill University, Montreal, CA: good program, great university, $16,000 tuition
Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, DU: MPP, program not exactly what I want but in Berlin, $31,612 tuition (total for two years)
University of Erfurt, Erfurt, DU: MPP, German lessons included, $7,587 tuition (total for two years)
University of Oxford, Oxford, UK: perfect program, one year, $18,379
Stockholm University, Stockholm, SW: website is hard to navigate
As you can see the schools abroad are significantly cheaper, and all of the schools are of a high caliber and are very competitive. I havn’t considered any back-up schools yet. Most application deadlines are in January, so I’d better get moving!

Otter Lake, NY

I spent most of the long 4th of July weekend at my friend’s sister’s cabin on Otter Lake. It is a small, beautiful lake. There are homes almost all the way around the lake, but they are back from the water and generally small, so it doesn’t feel like there’s been too much development. Also, most of the people who were there seemed to recognize each other, indicating that the homes are filled with long-term owners as opposed to a constant string on renters. I felt that this ownership may have had something to do with the fact that the lake is so clean, and why everyone is pretty friendly to one-another.
Each morning Erin and I took a kayak ride around the lake, and it was really serene and calming to be out so close to nature. Later in the day the motor boats and jet skis come out, which makes kayaking much less fun and lots more scary. I can’t say I’m innocent, though, because I went on lots of boat rides and water tubing, too. There were small firework shows each night that we watched from the dock while eating smores before going to bed around 10. It was the perfect way to spend some long summer days, and I hope I can enjoy lots more of them on lakes like this.