Hurrah!

So my G's, call Operation: Change Jen's Seat a success. I will be in 40G now. It was so fun/cute clicking on the empty seat because I saw the little people in the diagram in the 2 seats next to it and I totally envisioned Greg and Natalie there and giggled.

Let me know if you do want to stay at my house the night before our flight and head out from there or if you're going to Dulles directly. And if that's the case, we should plan out when exactly we'll meet, as the time nears.

Visa : filed :: Citibank : shitty bank

I'm not sure if that's the correct set up for an analogy or whatever you call it but those two things are what this post is all about. Do not get an account at Citibank. They're downsizing because they're not doing so well financially and there are fees for opening accounts and every time you withdraw from one of their own ATMs in Japan they charge you 1% of the withdrawal. WTF. I don't know if this is uncommon but I rather just keep the two accounts I have now and not get a third.
As for the visa. Filing for your visa is super easy. Just bring all of the proper docs, hand it over and you're good to go. It was cool to run into you at the embassy Greg, I thought you'd have gotten there before me, but it's always good to see a familiar face.

Going to get my Visa

Hey all,

So tomorrow I'm going to put in the papers for my visa. I've already faxed all the housing and airport pickup stuff to DK and Sophia but I totally forgot about the language bit (bad sign) until I read Teresa's post. So thanks T for reminding me, haha.

Oh and Mia I just linked your blog to the destination: Asia website. It was so completely helpful! It makes me really excited to see all of the blog posts everyone's going to have in the future, yay :)

Ok, so I'll post tomorrow and tell you all how it went. BTDubs, I'm also going to open a CitiBank account tomorrow. When I went to Bank of America to transfer my funds for DK my dad and I asked the lady who was helping us about banks in Japan. She said I could use my B of Am debit card with any ATM but there would be a fee. She then advised to get the CitiBank account as those ATM fees will add up. Think about it: Say I withdraw money once a week, that's 2 or 3 dollars every time. Hmm, roughly 16 weeks, times 2 or 3 dollars. It may not seem like a lot but I think going to an ATM once a week is a conservative estimate.

That's my two cents. I'll be posting soon!

COE + Whaaaaaaa?!?!

KOOOON CHI WA!!!

I am completely and utterly jet lagged and I need to drive back to Charlottesville tonight, bah! I ended up passing out yesterday after breakfast and slept from 8am til 5pm. Grossness.

Well, to the main point of this post, I've been trying to sort through all this getting a visa nonsense and I just wanted to make sure I was wading through properly.

1 - GETTING A VISA

Thanks to jen jen for her awesome linkage, I filled out the form, have extra copies of ole passport photos and think I am kind of set. Does the person whose getting the visa have to show up in person or can't I just ship my mom off to do it for me? She's the one who got my China visa for me, which allows me to enter and leave the country as much as I please for the space of 1 year. I'm also going to photocopy all of the forms just to make sure I have something to fall back on in case life gets wacky.

2 - THE FORMS THAT NEED TO BE MAILED BACK PRONTO TO SOPHIA

Okay, the first form pertains to whether or not I want to be language intensive. I think I do, but I'm not sure if that's what I want to do. I feel like just by being in Japan and taking regular classes, I'll be learning plenty plenty of Japanese. Also, when they ask you how many kanji have you learned, how many am I supposed to put down? I don't know how many I know. I can read tons but writing them out is a problem I will have for the rest of ever. Plus, we stopped with chapter 9 last semester, right? I'm still in Springfield and have none of my materials with me, so I'm just trying to fill out forms as much as I can.

3- AIRPLANE GOODNESS

Are we ALL going to be flying United? I know the Ninja-3 are riding in on UA803 departing on 2/25 from IAD. Me, too. What abouts Mia, Jeanette, + Sehyun bka Sean? Apparently, it's going to be a lovely 14 hours of fun at 36,000 feet for the majority of us. Remember to bring muchos distractions and lovely delicious Unisom to knock you OUT! I'm almost wishing that I am at DK now because of the whole letting you move in early and all that. I'll be crashing at the Yayogi Hostel. I am begging you now, please let hugabug you in Japan! The Hostel has a majorly weirdo rule that says I need to be out of the place between the hours of 9am to 5pm. That means I either live out my days at random cafes studying Japanese *yawn* or I play play play with you all. Because I totally *heart* the Ninja-3 and know the feeling is most mutual, OSEWA ni NARUUUUUU~ *grins*

4- GOLDEN WEEK AND RANDOM VACATION FUN
I know this is a bit early and all, but since we all will be enjoying the most lovely Golden Week and perhaps any other random bits of fun while we're in Japan. Do you guys have any activities you absolutely want to try? I for one kind of want to see the whole Mikoshi thing live and in the flesh. Men in sumo like thongs running around the seats with a thing on their shoulders and all that. Good fun for all in my opinion. I also want to take TONS of purikura! I don't care if it's not so in anymore, I want HUNDREDS!!! How about you all?

5- I'M JUST ADDING THIS HERE BECAUSE 5 IS MY FAVORITE NUMBER
Random, yes, I know, but who cares? I am beyond caring right now. Careless, schmereless.

*flies off to pack the rest of her stuff away*

T

P.S. Should we start discussing luggage nows or later? How does laundry work in Japan? I remember from my previous jaunt there that they hang dry all their clothes. How about coping with the rainy season? Humidity? A.C.? Does internet come with where we're all going? I bought a international cell phone and just need to get a SIM card for it. Where to?

If any of you have answers to the above, most appreciated!!!!!!!

El SCCCCORCHOOOO!

     Whew, so last week was pretty crazy busy... this Saturday was the concert that I've been traveling up to UVA for, so, needless to say, with all the concert coming up and the guest artist coming in town (... and all of the social calls I had to make) I was constantly on the run. Tuesday I got into town a little early to see if I could get a little instruction on the bass clarinet from my teacher, but in the end it wasn't too helpful as I didn't have much time to work on it from Tuesday to Saturday. Lesse... the rest of Tuesday wasn't too exciting... Wednesday... Wednesday I practiced for a while... I don't know... then had dinner with first-year friends... but hey! I played trivia at Mellow Mushroom for the first time with some of my bus friends, and even almost got a question right! Wooooo! I had to ditch a little early to see the lunar eclipse with Julie Slater (and to eat her brownies... yum!).

     Thursday was the first rehearsal with the guest artist, who supposedly exclaimed afterwards: "John... are you sure you want to have this concert?" Luckily, he changed his mind after Friday's rehearsal XD (the music was REALLY hard!!!) Also on Thursday I drove a Late Night, which was were I had a lot of my fun time last semester, and traveled to iHop with the crew. We went up to pay at like, 3am, when pretty much a WHOLE Asian student group split us in half. Which means, three paid and then the Asian group jumped in while the other two were getting a problem fixed with their checks. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! They tried to say "Hey, you know, we're with them... and are only two people..." but the lady at the register ignored them so they just threw the money on the table and we left (I think they may have been short changed a little, but whatever, she was being a bitch by not even responding).
     Friday held some master classes and the rehearsal... a couple of parties... blah blah... Oh yeah, that morning I was on 106.1 The Corner advertising the jazz ensemble concert! And boy do I sound stupid on the radio! Maybe I always sound stupid, but good LORD...! I guess it worked, though, since supposedly this concert showed the highest attendance in 5 years or something. Craaaazy!

     On Saturday I had 9000 training (9000s are the new buses). Everyone had to train on them because they're 6 inches wider than all of the other buses we have. Why? I don't have a fucking clue. But that's the standard now, supposedly. They smell and handle nicely, but I still don't like the extra width. Hopefully I won't be forced to drive one anytime soon.
     I must have eaten at Bodo's seven times in a 5 day span. It was nuts. All of my orders had the Cinnamon Sugar and Butter on Plain included, too, which isn't too healthy. And I spent the last $3.50 in my wallet (seriously, I was scavenging for the dough) on Samoas. Curse you, Girl Scouts!

     I'm kind of afraid of my money situation in Japan because I'm becoming increasingly "aaahhh, what's $10?", 'cause I spent $10 on two things of popcorn from Great Scott's! Gourmet Popcorn (what an awesome name, huh???). They have cherry, vanilla, peppermint, caramel, butterscotch, banana, pizza, ranch, jalepino, etc. etc. etc. POPCORN! It was so awesome.

I'm falling asleep. Later!<>
- Greg

Plane Crazy!

Everyone still go back and comment on Teresa's post! My mom just won't get off my back about this and it's starting to worry me too, so I gotta write about it x_x


Tomorrow's gonna be the one month mark from when we're trying to leave (less than one month with February and all), and we all know that's when plane tickets start to disappear and go up in price. Greg, is there any way you could try and call Chris directly tomorrow about if he's heard from Sophia/DK yet about if it's cool if you guys aren't there for the April 1st greet and pickup? I need to decide soon if I should go ahead with the D.C. flight and get a flight to VA also before that, or if I should try and fly out of St. Louis instead. My mom wanted me to make my decision and buy the ticket today, but I said let's give it one more weekday so Chris can get back to the office and respond if maybe he heard something over the weekend. She's just really worried we're gonna end up not being able to get a good flight, or it's gonna end up being way more expensive if we wait any longer, and I'm starting to worry too. I also need the itinerary to send to that scholarship so they'll send me my money and I can send financial aid their refund check.. sigh -_-;

Anyway, that's all for today's post! Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Greetings and LOVE from CHINA

Hey guys!

Sorry it's been so majorly long since I've posted anything. Internet in Asia with Vista is iffy at best and in China, proper, there's major blocking of all blogs and even wiki!

My brother got the lovely Fedex box from Chris and while back and was even kind enough to nag the freak out of my Dad to wire transfer the money over for me while I was in another country.

I'm flying back to America tomorrow, through *dun dun dun* UNITED. It turns out that their Mileage Plus progam is pretty damn sweet and nice to live with. By the end of the year, I'll have earned enough miles to be a freakin' Premier member so that means free extra inches and all that, but I seriously digress. China has been an experience. I'm kind of regretting not choosing to study abroad here rather than in Japan because as everybody I've met thus far has been quick to remark, life in Japan is hella freakin' expensive. In Beijing, I went out with my little brother and all his Beijing University friends and we got teetotaled for under $10 or 70 kuai. But, I met this one Japanese guy here and he said that Japan is fun, majorly so, you just need to know where to look. He also mentioned something about having a friend of a relative that teaches at Sophia, which I called Jyouriku Uni as opposed to Jyoichi Uni because let's face it, I haven't spoken any Japanese in months.

I'm pretty positive I'll be put into the Japanese for Beginners class, and I'm also sure that I wouldn't mind it. ^^

Now, my only worries from living in Asia as a result of my time in China is this:

- manners? do people have them?

- money? where does it all go?

- bathrooms? no, really... need I go there?

Apparently, from my brother's 1 month stay in China thus far, he has become a rampant nationalist. I can't wait to see what Japan does to the lot of us. For better or worse, yeah?

KK, I need to pack up my suitcase and prep for a huge, blowout, final hot pot dinner.

I hope everybody's break has been awesomely amazingly aaaaaan-believable (i ran out of adjectives starting with a *shrug*)

Love love,

Teresa

- random update -

I just flipped through some previous posts and saw that jen is going to try for UA803 +804 for return flight. I think that's the same one I'm one. When you're booking through student tickets they don't tend to let you pick a seat, but you can get around that quite easily.

Oh, and the flight out of Dulles is run by ANA, so Greg! Don't pay extra for ANA! United and ANA are teamed up for certain flights and you save a ton by booking by way of United.

And back to the way around getting the seats you want. After you get your tickets bought and credit card charged, hop on over to United.com and check your itenenarary through the website. It'll let you secure the seats you want for free. No extra charge needed. No stress induced as to the uncertain nature of nefarious airline seat masters.

I hope that helps!

Hate to do this but...

...it's time to move on to the 51st! Haha, I just hate to see Natalie's beautiful post complete with a celebratory picture get moved down.

Anyway I wanted to let you know that I will be trying to do the visa thing next week, and hopefully write about how that goes. Although I do already have some information: Visa applications (though available on the site, you can do at the embassy in person anyway) are only taken from 9:30am-12:30pm Monday through Friday, though when it's ready, you can pick it up outside of that time frame. 3-4 day turnaround time. Be sure to have the address of where you'll be staying in Japan on hand (I'm probably just going to bring my entire Sophia packet just in case I need other information)....or just fill out the application form ahead of time :) And of course whatever else the Sophia packet lists, though the site says we only need one 2x2 picture for the application form (I guess since one is on the COE already). Anyway, guess that means I gotta go take one...I hope it's okay if the picture's different from the COE one...

Check out the link here: Visa goodness!

50th Post!! And an important message..

Sorry Greg! I have important information I need to post. We can delete this post and move it to 51 later on if you like =) But Happy 50th Post! We're pretty amazing at blogging..

So I just got back from wiring my first month of rent and guaranty money to Mr. DK House (he has informed me that normally, Sophia kids will pay all 4 months at once, but it's cool for me to pay one month at a time), and I was thinking "Hey I wonder if my Sophia Tomodachi know the ins and outs of wire transfer?" I'm not sure if you guys have had to pay any entry fees or application fees or all that jazz, so I'll tell you how it goes down! Without further ado, I present to you..

5 Important Rules of International Wire Transfer
or, Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I Tried To Do An International Wire Transfer
by Natalie N. Wilson

1. Make sure you have the money you need in your bank account!! This is the number one important thing!! You can't just go in the bank with some cash and say "I wanna wire this to Japan." You need to have an account with the bank you'll be wiring from, and make sure you have enough money to cover the wire as well as any bank fees (usually $25-$50) in your checking account or savings account there. Also, the yen/dollar conversion rates you get off the internet aren't always accurate, so try and have some extra money to cover that. My first transfer ended up being about $50 more than I expected.
   
2. Make sure the money is in that account BEFORE you go to the bank! This equally as important as number 1!! If you go to a bank and put cash into your account, it takes at least 24 hours to show up and be usable. If you do it online, it can take up to three days! Personal experience: I tried to wire some money on a Friday, so I put the cash into my checking account there at the bank. Then they said "Oh, it won't be available for 24 hours." And the bank is closed on Saturday... so I went back on Monday, and they said "Oh, since you deposited that money after 2:00 on Friday, it won't be available until Tuesday." What?! So also if you deposit money into your account on a Friday, do it before 2:00pm! They were able to transfer money from my savings account to my checking account of the same bank instantaneously though, so that's a good route!
   
3. Don't try and get more than several hundred dollars out of your ATM account in one day. So the first part of that last anecdote goes like this: I needed to wire the money, but the money was in my local bank account and I was in NYC. So I tried to get a ton of money out of my local account using an ATM. First of all, they only let you take out maybe $300 dollars at a time, and after about $700 or $800, they say you've reached your daily limit and your bank freezes your card and starts calling you... so... just have that money!
4. Make sure you have all the information for the Japanese bank and person you're paying. I'm guessing they probably sent this with your housing/billing info, but you're gonna need the Japanese bank's name and address, account number, swift code, any other codes they might give you, as well as the beneficiary/payee's name and address. Bring these to the bank, and be prepared to explain stupid Japanese addresses... lol.
5. Receipts usually aren't available until hours after you've completed the wire process with your bank! Pretty much every transfer I've done, the people I've sent the money to have wanted a receipt faxed or e-mailed to them so they know the money is on its way. I think what happens at the bank is that they fill out all the forms for the wire transfer and then they fax it somewhere for processing, or it somehow takes longer to process. When I wired from Bank of America in C'ville, the lady I was working with offered to fax the receipt herself from the bank once it was available. Working with my local bank here, they've had me come back in about an hour or more to pick up the receipt. So allow for extra receipt-acquiring time!

I think that covers the most important stuff. It's really an easy process if you have all your bases covered, but it can be really annoying and stressful if you don't know what you're doing. But now you know! Just go find one of the bank people at the actual desk places and say you'd like to do an international wire transfer to Japan! I've found bank people to be exceptionally nice and helpful. Do your best not to wait until the last minute to transfer money or go do the wire transfer. If you have anymore questions, just ask!

Hoos in Flight

Ok kids, I say we buy these tickets before they're gone. Greg, were you still looking into whether or not you'll need to be there on the 31st before we decide? There's some similar flights (although some of them have stops) if we wanted to play it safe and return August 1st instead of July 31st (the identical flight as the one for the 31st is actually cheaper, but only has 1 seat left). I really don't care one way or the other, since we won't have that much to pack to return so it shouldn't get in the way of finals too bad, but it might be nice to have an extra day not to have to rush. Don't forget to ask Chris if he knows/can find out if DK House would let you guys move in early like I am. I just found this site on Sophia's page that has some more info on Mr. DK. Check it out.

It looks like for individual days, if you're not staying for another full month, it's 2000 yen (about $18) a day, which is exactly how much our monthly rent divided by 30 is, so that's a pretty sweet deal =) Also, notice in the corner of one of the pictures... that's definitely a bed! This page also says payment/deposit must be made a month in advance, so I guess we need to get on that. But that was probably all in your handy housing materials I didn't get =P And guys, I don't wanna hear any laud voice during nighttime, you'll be nuisance to other tenants and neighbors. Come on.

Anyway, let's figure out what we're doing for serious on this flight and figure out a time maybe we can all meet up on aim or the phone and buy them at the same time so we're all on the same page and getting the right seats and all that jazz. Let's get this taken care of yo!

In other news, I'm in love with the dance crew Jabbawockeez. They're pretty much the coolest crew ever. I'm going to post their videos at the end of this, and you're all required to watch. The MTV page has full episodes! And Jen, if you search "Sophia University" in YouTube, there's aalll these hip hop dance groups performing at Sophia Fest (which unfortunately seems to be in the fall semester). Hopefully since there's a lot of foreign students in and out of there, we can join any club or circle we want? haha. I need to get flexible.

Jabbawockeez this week:

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

Jabawockeez last week:

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

Oh yeah.

WWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

NO CURFEW IN THE DK HOUSE, BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Natalie and Gregory

Hey guys, so incredibly I think I can use my United frequent flyer miles for my ticket. Right now I am looking at a nonstop flight (United 803, returning flight 804) from Dulles to Narita leaving March 25th (arriving 26th) and coming home July 31st. How does that sound to you guys? I know Greg wants to take ANA, but I'm definitely leaning towards this since I have the miles for it, why not? However, I don't know what the normal cost of this ticket is, so I don't know if it's within reason for you. But another bonus is, there are tons of seats open right now, including bunches next to each other (they have our names on them I swear)

Okay, I am going to look up the price of this flight normally.

Oh, crap. So prices for this and others like this are around $1921 and up. Which is pricey. Yikes.

So....I can't say that I will be booking with you guys, if you're looking for something else, because I know this is a lot to pay, but it works out best for me to use my miles since I've been saving them up for forever.

Wait, but that was on the United site, let me check student ticket cost...

Okay, student price is $1217...which may actually be comparable to ANA or something. So not as bad, but also not the $875 and $966 prices I've found for these dates as well (flying Northwest mainly though).

So alright, let me know what you guys think. Thanks for sticking through my whole thought/search process here haha. I'm still willing to work with you all because it'd be awesome to all travel together, but now my preference is United. But I guess my travel dates are also more flexible now since it probably won't make a huge price difference for me.

FedEx package arrived!

(see title) I got me my Sophia infoooo! And boy, is there a bunch of stuff to go over...but this is exciting!

Natalie and Greg, shall we get on with the ticket-purchasing process? I don't know about GREG (ahem) but I'm going for inexpensive...

Do we set up another chat date or what? Cuz um...SOMEONE pooped out on it last time...

Link It

http://gregintokyo.blogspot.com


Hopefully the title is adequate, unlike the URL (but I had to make it easy for my folks to remember!)

Make that one of three

Hey all:

Like Natalie and Greg, I too have been working, reading, watching a lot of T.V. and not studying. I've read a couple of great books that I completely reccomed: Boomsday, Out Stealing Horses and Mysterious Skin. Top notch, all of them. When I'm not reading or sleeping I'm working. I work at this retail store called Charlotte Russe. It's pretty snazzy, my coworkers are cool if sometimes lazy and I get a 40% discount. I was going to get a second job working for this funeral parlor and the D.C./metro police to "remove" bodies, you know, to sort of put it on my resume as an example of someone who's not afraid to try new things or get her hands dirty. But, after watching a ton of Paranormal State on A&E, I decided against that. No need to bring the ghost of some murder victim home with me. Completely unnecessary.

Not much else to report. I do have a question though. What's the weather going to be like when we get to Japan? What kind of clothes should I pack, that is, spring clothes, or winter clothes or all summer wear? Will it really be the rainy season? Do I need Wellies? Plus, DK house: I don't know if you guys have looked at the pictures but there are conspicuously no beds in those pictures. Are we going to have fold out beds that you take out and put away? Thoughts?

And I did want to answer Jen's question about the blog project. You can definitely start your blogs now if you'd like, but a week or two before we leave is probably better since you'd have more to say about packing and such. As far as content goes, if you could focus on the process at first, the nitty gritty things that are tedious but need to get done (i.e. booking flights, packing, etc.) that would be good. Really, the blog should be a space where you can discuss any worries you have about the study abroad trip before we leave, problems you encounter when you get there and then awesome things you experience once there.

Hope everyone is enjoying their extended vay-kay.

I guess I'll make Natalie's bandwagon one of two

     I decided I've give a little update on my life since last time I posted... sooo here goes:


     Mostly, I've been trying to earn money. I work about 6/7 days a week, substitute teaching on the weekdays and cashiering at Farm Fresh on the weekends. Recently, this schedule has deviated a bit due to me going up to Charlottesville Tuesday-Thursday two weeks ago, and for three weeks starting this week. And well, I guess it hasn't deviated too much as I have been picking up UTS blocks while I'm there, but really, that just pays for the gas to get there and the food that I have to buy if no one swipes me in. Still, I'm subbing Mondays and Fridays and am doing the Farm Fresh thing on weekends.


     Substituting can be really fun. Take for example, today, where two out of my three classes for the day had to act out a pretty hilarious play from their lit book, and where I just finished Dance, Dance, Dance some 3-4 months after we were supposed to for the JPTR Modern Cannon class. Also, you too can have mentally-handicapped middle school girls give you love notes (I'll tell anyone that story who wants to hear it in person).

     
Cashiering can also be really fun. I think I've said that I'm the fastest cashier at Farm Fresh before, but I'll reiterate that last week I was the fastest out of all the Farm Freshes worldwide. Granted, they only exist in Virginia and northern NC, but whatever. Worldwide is worldwide, baby!

     
Otherwise I've just been chilling, playing Rock Band and watching Arrested Development... and Lost. And American Gladiators (SOOO funny). And Terminator, and American Idol, and House.........

     
And finally, I'm going to Seven Springs Ski Resort in Pennsylvania to snowboard with my Boy Scout troop this weekend! It should be awesome as long as my body remembers how to snowboard after two years of not doing it. But, I figure I'll be alright.

     
I haven't been studying.

     
Now let's hear from the rest of you guys, yeah...?

Here it is!

I said I'd do it and I'm doing it, darnit. I thought about just editing the old post, but I decided it'd be funnier to keep that one on there XD


So first I'll update y'all on what I've been up to as of late. I can't remember who all I mentioned the guarantor situation to, but I found one! So I don't have to pay Sophia a $5,000 just-in-case-something-bad-happens-to-me deposit! Cool! Over the past 3 weeks I've been working at the office for the mine where my dad works. They like to do big, over-the-top stuff for their employees, so I made all the Easter baskets, which go to all the employees' kids age 12 and under. But these aren't your normal Easter baskets, folks. This is.. Santa hijacked Easter and decided every kid needed $40-$50 dollars worth of toys for Easter...... wait, what? It was a little ridiculous and a lot excessive. Especially the part where I had to go buy the second round of toys (Did I mention there are 125 kids? 3 and a half shopping carts worth of stuff into my tiny '88 Mustang... by myself.. shopping blows).

Then I made some bags of Valentine's Day candy for the miners, and now I'm working on these really silly cards to go on the Easter baskets. You see, the ladies at the office are all really into stamping, like, using rubber stamp kits and paper and markers and pencils all from this one company to make cutesy cards and things. So I'm making 125 cutesy cards with little baby chickens on the front and blah blah blah it's dumb. But it beats flipping burgers! And it's sort of artsy craftsy and I like that sort of thing. I'm just not a fan of excess, extravagance, wastefulness, throwing money and time and craft paper around, etc.

Here, watch this video to break up this post a little bit, cause it's getting long. It's weird but talented pop/rock/former visual kei sensation, Miyavi, singing "Hit the Road Jack!" Check out some of his other videos for some guitar slapping coolness, and more Engrish covers!


Blogging will now recommence..

I've also been listening to some Japanesepod101.com podcasts on the way to and from work lately! They're really good and I highly recommend them! We super need to start studying and reviewing so we don't get put in the dumb class.. Which brings me to my next topic/first question: Did anyone else get an email from Sophia a few weeks ago with a survey about your Japanese experience, and asking if you wanted to take the regular classes or the intensive classes? I'm thinking of taking the intensive classes.. They're two 90-minute sessions a day, 5 days a week, but it's for 8 credits. And I need at least 12 credits for my financial aid to be valid, so I'd have to spend those credits somewhere! Anybody else get that email?

To Greg and Jen: We all need to make our flights for serious I think.. Let's have one of those webmeetings and definitely get this all sorted out, when we're leaving, if we're flying together or not, etc etc etc and buy these puppies! I was thinking, as far as getting there early, when you guys get your DK House housing materials or whatever Chris said you'd get, you might wanna see about contacting the DK and asking about arriving early. When I signed up I just put that I'd be there on the 25th and they were like, ok cool. I'm assuming if/when I stay later than July 25th but leave before August 25th (the next full month), they would have some sort of alternative payment process maybe so you don't have to pay a full month for a few days? That's what my mom thought maybe... I better email them.

Is that all I had to say in this blog? Really? Hmm.. I think we should all blog more often again, yes, that would be good. I still check the blog like 3 times a day, so the only thing that's really changed is frequency of posts, mine included mos def. Oh yeah, Jen I was gonna ask you to persuade Andreano-san to make a guest blog post here on our blog, maybe closer to time to start packing and leaving, with like.... a list of all the things he thinks we might like to know before we go to Sophia, or things to bring/not to bring, and then we can all annoyingly post comments asking things like "Does Sophia have a cafeteria? Is it any good? Like.. Newcomb good or O'Hill good? Ok but like.. on a Monday, or more like Thursday where they start putting a chicken patty on top of a bowl of pasta and giving it a foreign sounding name?" I think this is a great idea, and I'm suggesting it here.

I was going to sew a whole bunch of cute new summer clothes to take to Japan but...alas.. I've only gotten through about a fourth of a purse and gotten totally unmotivated! Work needs to.. not make a person feel totally drained for the rest of their free evening! On an ending note, let's all watch America's Best Dance Crew tomorrow night, because I like those kinds of shows and they're great, and who knows. Maybe we'll all fall on hard times someday, abandon our college educations, take to the streets and start our own Dance Crew. And then win that show. Somebody come up with a kickin' name for our crew.

This blog is too long now! I'd put some pics in but I'm feeling preettty lazy. Maybe another day. Goooooodnight!

Wait for it..

I am so blogging tonight.