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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!