The commencement of my year abroad

In exactly one week I will hopefully be flying over the Atlantic, approaching Iceland for my 8 hour layover on the way to Sweden. I'm sure that those 8 hours are going to be a bit rough, however I will be a happy camper if I am actually there; the processing of obtaining my UK visa (which requires my passport being with the UK consulate) in time for my departure has been a laborious and highly stressful task. I am sitting here awaiting my fate- my visa is currently at the embassy, hopefully being processed. I should find out first thing tomorrow morning.
Due to the quarter system at De Paul, graduation was not until June 14, and my degree did not get officially conferred until July 11. I had a conditional offer from LSE, on condition that I graduate and with a GPA of at least 3.5/4, and because of this my visa could not begin to get processed because all of the things the UK consulate needs that depended on me having an unconditional offer: official acceptance letter; visa letter; transcript; and most irksomely, proof of funds. When I booked my ticket to Sweden to depart the US on August 11 little did I think about the process of obtaining all these forms, getting them processed, dealing with [often idiotic] people, etc. etc. etc., and doing this in about five weeks, especially when they recommend sending in the visa application 6 weeks before departure. Due to me only having obtained all the various documentation a few days ago, I used an expediting service that expedites the passport in one day. So, fingers crossed, I will wake up to a nice little message from the expediters that my visa will be arriving tomorrow. My gracious and very patient mom, who has been more than helpful in this situation, has two bottles of champagne being chilled for celebration if/when I get the visa by this Tuesday.
Where a problem could arise with the visa is proof of funds. This was the last, and most annoying, piece of the puzzle. I won't go in to much detail about this here because it is complicated enough to keep me typing about it for the next 3 and a half hours, but let's just say that I did pretty much everything I was supposed to and when I was supposed to, but some things got delayed because some people basically did not scroll down the screen far enough and therefore did not approve certain things. Don't worry, LSE will soon be approving this loan (this year is putting me in a frightening amount of student loan debt, but it's okay because I am confident that my educational investment at LSE will have many many returns), but let's just say that I had to pull some tricks to show proof of funds. As of right now, it looks like the tricks have been successful, but I won't know for sure until that visa is in my hand.