Sutorenjaa In Japan

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.

posted by KidBach @ 7:25 AM