Pre-Departure Orientation
Ok so I forgot to note that I went to an optional pre-departure orientation put on by the members of the JET SoCal alumn assoc. It was way the hell out in CSULA. Well, far enough for me coming from Simi on 4 hours of sleep! It was good and informative. I think the most important thing is that they took my visa app and passport and I guess will give it back at the next meeting in July (really? They have to keep it that long?! what if I want to leave the country? Flee?). Also they wanted some form saying that we had graduated or completed all the requirements to graduate. Dumb UCLA gets out latest so none of the 40 UCLA JETs had their graduation forms. I got my last grad turned in on Friday morning so I was able to get a copy of the graduation form sent on Monday. Such a pain but at least it is done now.
The rest of the orientation consised of panels of alumns that talked about their experience in certain aspects of the JET experience. They had speakers about what and what not to bring, housing, getting involved in the community, teaching, taxes and the actual travel arrangements. It was OK but I was tired and didn't really want to be there on that day so it was average for me.
One thing that was supposed to happen was that you could meet other JETs or people that are going to your same area. I met all of 3 people. Yay. Friends forever. Not really. But I will give it a chance. It was kind of weird to me because a lot of the people there seemed to already know each other. I guess most of the Japanese club kids or Japanaphiles know each other at their schools and apply together. Interesting. Well, I'm guessing that most of the people are going to be pretty nice and maybe we just need to be together a bit more to get to know one another. Something to look forward to. It'll be an interesting 14 hour plane ride. Woo hoo.
What to do... what to do...
Post Graduation. Week 2. Living at home and babysitting a 1 year old. Over the course of 1 week I have suddenly become (gasp!) DOMESTICATED! Gone are my beloved Margarita Mondays, Happy hour Tuesdays & Wednesdays, Thursday night lounges and weekend lollygaging. I must put out the disclaimer though, I LOVE my niecy. She's a cutie pie and fun when she's a-smilin, but this babysitting stuff is rough. Props to my mom and sister. So now here is the big BUT... I CAN"T WAIT TO LEAVE!!!!
Though the probability of living in an expensive shoebox for the next year is significantly high, I think I really enjoy having the time and space to myself. Now if only I knew where exactly I will be... again, it's the waiting game with my prefecture and predecessor about where exactly I will be. They claim to have sent out the placement packages on Monday so joy of joys when I finally get mine. Maybe then I will actually start to pack stuff. For now, its all "in transition" aka in boxes around the house and cluttering up my current living space.
I suppose instead of griping about what I don't know I should be trying to continue learning a little Japanese. Eek! So scary!
So much to do, so little time...
Wow. So, the end is near... of school, that is. So all of this STUFF is hitting like a ton of bricks. All of a sudden its the end of week 9 and week 10 is this Monday! Gad! 2 exams, a paper and a presentation, oh my. Where does the time go?! I seriously hope that I can pull it all togeter when I get to Japan. I have a slight feeling that my wicked procrastinatin' ways will not quite cut it over there. I will have to look into alarm clocks and day planners. *mental note for everyone to read*
So, in addition to all that school jazz, I have forms to fill out. Kalu-Kalee. FORMS, FORMS, FORMS! Wonderful visa applications, airline ticket info, tax forms (personal fave)... they keep you busy. I think tax forms will be especially exciting. I suppose that this is the less galmorous part of the process but it must be done. The silverlining to all this STUFF is that I had my 2nd Japanese lesson E-VER! and I think it was pretty good. I am learning a lot... "Konichiwa! Watashi wa Tina desu. Eego no kyoshi desu." --> "Good afternoon. I'm Tina. I'm an English teacher." Yay. Now in case they didn't know who the new, weird
sutorenjaa in the town was, her name is Tina and she teaches English. Well, maybe "a lot" is an overstatement. But I think that its a decent start (coming from NADA!) so cheers to that!
