Sorry for no Updates

It has been busy here for awhile now. Any time I become free, I also become lazy. This week is test week, so I can’t update now. But, after test week I may be able to get some posted. If not, wait till the beginning of January, and I will post everything. I am going to Tokyo from the 27th to the 31st for an anime convention, Comiket. After that, I will start posting more. I will try to build up a habit so it doesn’t get backed up like this again.

Osaka Castle

A bunch of British girls came to the hostel we were staying in. We thought it wouldn’t be that bad. They went out drinking Thursday night, and came back. 1 of them snores really loud, and she knew that. She didn’t want to sleep with the rest of the girls that night because she didn’t want to wake them up, but decided it was alright to wake me up and keep me up all night…

Japan – Exploring Osaka

The first days before they allowed us in the dorms (4 nights in the hostel, only 10,000 yen ($100…about…)) all we did was explore Osaka. The girl I came with went exploring on her own, and so I decided to as well. I went outside the hostel and walked straight for about 1 hour. I saw a lot, but all there was was a city, nothing that felt like Japan, ignoring the Kanji at least.

Japan – First Day

Words of advice, never bring over 100 pounds of stuff to Japan. Way to hard to drag around.

Well, it has been about 3 weeks since I left for Japan and I haven’t posted a damn thing… Why? You go to a foreign country and try to take time out of exploring to post… But, I found time I guess… This post will be about my first experiences.

Last Day Here

This is the last day I will be in Utah. I land in Japan on the 25th. I will make a post when I have the internet.

I finished everything that I remember I need to do. I got travel insurance and canceled my car insurance and put my sister on my bank. All is good.

There is no way in hell I am going to be able to sleep well tonight. Lets hope these sleeping pills work.

No more school, about 1 more week till departure!!!

I finished school on the 15th. Thank god. Now I have 1 more week to do everything I need to do before I leave.

I received the Certificate of Eligibility and had that sent in to get my Visa. I received that back as well, so all set there.

I have transfered all the bills into my friends name, and we signed me off the lease to our apartment. Everything in that area is taken care of.

I bought a years worth of cat food so the people taking care of them doesn’t have to go to the vet and buy them since it is a special kind I have to feed them that you can only get at the vet.

The only thing I really need to do now is think about what type of insurance to get. I can just get the National Japanese insurance and pay about $18 a month. If something happens (not including a traffic accident, which they don’t cover) they will only pay 70% though. I can find better coverage for about $200 – $300, which I am going to look into tomorrow.

Oh, I also have to cancel my car insurance.

Our speaking partner got assigned to us as well. I thought they would match gender, but they didn’t for me. I got a girl (not that I am complaining. I am actually happy about that).

Can’t wait to go!!! So damn close!

Update

It has been awhile since I have made a post here. A few things have passed so far.

-I received my passport in the mail.

-I am still waiting on the Certificates of Eligibility, the thing I need to get my Visa. We were going to drive up there, but since the other girl I am going with got hers first, she sent it through the mail. I hope I get it soon (they sent an email saying they will probably receive it at the end of July). If I get it at least 2 weeks before I have to go, I will send it through FedEx or whatever, overnight shipping. And do whatever it takes to get it back ASAP. If I don’t get it 2 weeks before the 24th of August, I have to drive up there. I doubt my piece of shit car will make it, but it will be the only thing I can do…

-I went to the dentist. I had 5 cavities since I haven’t been there for about 4 – 6 years. 4 of the cavities were right next to each other on the right side, and they drilled a canal, basically, through my teeth. Luckily he used a lot of the numbing stuff…

-I can’t get the scratches out of my glasses, which doesn’t make since… Maybe I will check how much new lenses will be.

-I bought a years worth of contacts, and a lot of contact solution. I plan on using Japanese kind once I get there, but I will need some time before I get settled in.

A while ago, I also received an email (as I suspect everyone else did too) about the homestay program and how too many students want to be in it. They asked people to confirm they wanted to be in it. I, of course, confirmed that I want to. Today I received an email saying I got accepted into it, so that makes me happy.

I think the next most important thing is to get international insurance.

Laptop and Other

I bought my laptop, and boy if it isn’t beautiful. I bought it from Newegg.com, where I buy most of my other computer parts. Here is a link to it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220525. I also got a $100 backpack for it. It is a strong and big backpack. I don’t know if I should have spent $100 on it though. But, to protect my laptop, I guess it is one of the best to do so.

I needed a laptop, so why not buy one that will last a long time without going out of date? So I did, and boy is it strong. That thing is better then my computer I made and am currently using, which is a decent computer. Of course, buying a laptop has its problems, like having vista and a bunch of other shitty software installed. If it was 64bit vista, it would be better, but it isn’t. But I am keeping it vista anyway, because the programs I use have some known faults with Wine on a Linux based system.

At any rate, I also got my $5000 from the school today for summer semester. I also looked today on my account for Weber, and I apparently got a Tier State Grant of $1000. Hell, I am happy. I am also being afford $5000 for a Federal Work Study, whatever that is, but I have to accept that one. I am not going to accept it until I figure out what it is.

Loans and Everything else

Quite a lot of things have happened since my last post.
1) Got my birth certificate (lost it) and applied for my passport (luckily they are in the same parking lot). Should receive it in July.
2) Completed the loan process for the $12000. A funny story behind this…
I went to the school to talk to a counselor to make sure they were not going to decline a loan that big. The counselor told me that they won’t decline it, but I could only get so much of financial aid. She estimated my needs at about $16000. Now that wouldn’t due. I need about $23000 (I managed to cut that down to about $21000). So she told me to apply for a loan of $3500 and ask for another $2000 for summer classes. So I have to take summer classes. I already applied for the (what i thought was $4500 but the school said $3500) before hand, and all it needed was to be accepted. So we accepted that. I signed up for 2 summer online classes 3 credits each, some botany class, and some family human development class. Neither of which will help me, but needed to sign up for something and all the useful classes were taken.

I checked my email today and it said that I was approved for the $12000 and it was being disbursed. So I was thinking they must be sending it to the school… but when I got home and checked the mail…
3)Got my $12000 loan.

Now wait…this doesn’t count towards my $16000 does it? If it did, the school would have been the ones to receive it right??? Lol…

Now, I also got other mail today…
4)Got approved the $4500 + $2000. Now wait… so i get 4.5K instead of 3.5k? Weber is stupid…but i am not complaining… I should be getting this in the mail in the next couple of days (with summer tuition taken out)

5)Got my official acceptance email today as well. Now I am waiting to get my Certificate of Eligibility in the mail so I can get my student visa.
6)Send my address form that is needed to make sure the Certificate of Eligibility is sent to the right place.

I am happy and relieved that I am going to have no financial problems when I am there. Maybe when I get back, but will deal with that then.

Bought the Plane ticket to Japan

At first, I was kind of nervous thinking about where I am going to get the money for a plane ticket. The longer I wait the more expensive it is going to be. I didn’t want to wait for my loans to come in because there is a good chance that it would be full or crappy seats and really expensive. We found one for about $600 on Expidea, but I don’t really have that money at the moment considering I have to pay for a passport, dentist and contacts before I go. One of my friends had money sitting in his account that he isn’t going to use tell next school year. So he bought my ticket. I will be paying him back once the loans come through.

Expedia offered a ticket from SLC to KIX for $603 on August 24th at 6:00AM. It has 2 stops which is why it is so cheap. It goes from Salt Lake City to Texas (complete opposite direction), then to Tokyo then to Osaka. The flight is going to be a total of 21hr 5mn with connections. I CAN’T WAIT!