Thursday, August 30, 2007

Last Day at Meijer




Today is my last day at Meijer. Last night I attended my very last team meeting and made cocoa merangue shells with coolwhip and raspberries as a treat. We also took a group pic of all of us so that made me happy. :) Unfortunately the second pic, which was a better shot of me didn't turn out because the flash went off and washed everybody out. :( I hope today goes well, I've been a bit depressed at work this past week because it seems like anything that can go wrong, does.

On to better news I got my blue tooth headset yesterday yeah! I synched the device with the bluetooth adaptor and my computer. It was really stupid because it told me to enter a pin, which I thought I needed to make up but was in actuality about 5 paragraphs down in the instructions for the headset after the 1st one which says 'follow your bluetooth device's instructions for set up' which i thought was really stupid. Well whatever.


::sigh:: well I've got to go and pack, we're leaving for my last trip to Luddington tonight for Labor Day weekend. I don't know yet if it'll be fun or just a lot of bother since my sister isn't going to be there to act as a buffer for me. I have to work until 8 so I hope my parents don't want me to drive myself and meet them up there, I don't want to spend a lot of $$ on gas to get there since I'm now out of a job and leaving the country.

*~*Update*~*

It ended up being a good day at work after all. I got there a bit late & couldn't find my name tag, but I got to see Chelsea (yeah!) for a couple of hours, and there wasn't anything horrible that occurred while I was there. Ended up running a checklane for 1 & 1/2 but that was ok because it helped the time go by faster, and I got to talk to a lot of people and have some good conversations with them about their plans for this weekend. Then Doris came in and brought me a card and a pretty bracelet which will go great with the necklace that Barb made for me last fall. :) I was happy to get to see her before I left. Mr. Sizer came in to make some photos and say goodbye to me. That really made my day, that somebody who comes in all the time, took the time out of their day to see me & tell me what a good job I had done while I was working for Meijer. I really appreciated that. Oh! And I got to see his new DSLR, 10.1 megapixels, a self cleaning CMOS sensor, and 6.5 fps. Pretty sweet. Wish I could afford one of those! Or I'd settle for an old Canon AE-1 off of ebay with a couple of lenses and stuff.

DSLRs are cool but I think as an old film SLR would be great to ween myself off of all the auto stuff. You can usually get an old SLR (depending on model and condition) for about $100 and it usually comes with a couple of lenses or filters at the least. Too much money to buy a DSLR I don't know how to operate, or know what features I really want on it you know? I could think I was getting a good deal and then never end up using the features. But it'll have to wait until I come back and graduate, and even then I'll probably be too broke to one.

So I guess for now I'm going to spend the last couple of weeks here in the US taking some pics with that old sears tower camera I got from my granny. Anybody (if anybody's reading this thing!) got any ideas as to what would make some good subjects to photograph? I've got about 5 rolls, 8 pics on each one that I need to use up because the film will expire while I'm in Japan and I don't even want to think about how expensive it'd be to get it developed over there. They need to be something I can use bright light on because I can't find any flash bulbs that'll work in that camera. Anywho that's all for now! Everybody have a great Labor Day Weekend!

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Last Week at Meijer

So today was my 5 year anniversary at Meijer, and I'm happy to say that I'll be done on Thursday for good. :) I can't wait to be done, mostly because I'm tired of being sweaty (they never have the air on in there) and I'm tired of wearing the red polos. Those things are not soft at all, they are kind of stiff and scratchy. I will miss all of the people that I worked with while I was there, and I will miss the feeling of satisfaction that I get when I help somebody with something that is difficult or nobody else can do. I think working at Meijer has helped me to be more of a people person, to come out of my shell and be more social than I was before I got the job there and had to deal with people every day.

I gave up on the $14.95 headset idea because I found a $20 bluetooth adaptor at walmart and dad agreed to pay for the cheap bluetooth headset for $18.88 ($25 with tax & shipping). So that should arrive sometime at the end of this week, and I ordered new shoes! Dad is paying for them tho' because I am broke. $78 from KSwiss and they are pink and black which is hott. Mom and I went shopping yesterday (and again today) and I bought some more stuff to go with me to Japan. At Biglots I bought a small 2 quart crock pot (Linds thinks I'm crazy but I like to cook dammit! and the parents are willing to ship it so why not?!), I also got another pair of sheets 200 thread count Utica sheets for $10, some folders and index cards, an organizer to put all my desk stuff in, and then at Walmart I got the bluetooth adapter of course. And then today I bought a nice terrycloth robe with a hood for $12.99 at Target. Mom and I are supposed to go clothes shopping next week for some stuff I need like underwear, socks, a couple pairs of jeans, etc. Well that's all for now!

Saturday, August 25, 2007



picture of me with new haircut

Friday, August 24, 2007

3 Weeks to Japan

First off, I got my hair colored on Monday. It looks ok, not the exact color I was thinking it would be but they're not hideous highlights or anything. Lol. Kim did them and it was really funny because I had to wear this stupid cap that looked like something out of an old lady's purse. Check out the pictures here:
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2400255310093406980lfBfHu

Next up I'm 3 weeks from Japan and I've started practicing my Japanese again. If I didn't spend the summer working/going to school I probably would've started studying earlier. Hopefully I don't completely flunk the kanji part of the placement test. I also signed up for Skype today so I can talk to my mom for like 2.3 cents a minute from Japan. Mwahahaha. Now all I need is a headset. I'd love to have a wireless one but you have to use bluetooth for that and my computer doesn't come with it so I'd have to buy an adaptor, the cheapest one I've found is $25 adn then I found a bluetooth headphone/microphone for $19 but that's like $45 and I can get a regular headset for like $14.95. So it won't be wireless which sucks a bunch because that means I'll be stuck to my computer while on the phone and I like to wander when I'm talking.

If you don't know what skype is and are traveling abroad I suggest you check it out. You can talk to other people on skype for free but you can also make phone calls to landlines as long as you have a headset or a microphone. Because it uses VoIP (voice data turned into digital signal data packets, sent over internet, and then reassembled into voice data again) it doesn't cost very much to use. You can even pay $30 a year and get unlimited calls to anywhere in the US or Canada. I think I'm also going to pay for the voicemail, so if people try to call me while I'm not online I'll know and can call them back. But maybe I won't, it's like $20 and they can send me an e-mail for free dammit. Lol.

I just need to finish my packing list, study some more, and buy some new clothes and shoes to take with me since everybody in japan is so small and skinny. :)

Monday, August 20, 2007

Reactions and Hair Dye

Well people seemed to look upon my new haircut favorably at work, and Amanda even liked it which was a suprise. She said it made me look older and more mature (I think it does the opposite but whatever). I talked to Kim at work yesterday and we're going to dye my hair tonight so yeah for red highlights. Lol. Hopefully it all goes well and I don't end up looking like a freak. I'm excited becaused I only have 2 weeks left to work but I'm also sad because that means I won't be getting a paycheck anymore. I've only got about $500 saved up for this trip, to spend on myself for non-bill items and Lindsay's like 'that's not nearly enough' but it isn't like I'm planning on running around and buying lots of manga or random stuff like she did. I know I've got to live very frugal, and I'd have more saved up but this summer has just sucked at work. I would go like a month with no money at all hardly because I wasn't working a lot and then I'd have $$ but I'd have to spend it on stuff I couldn't pay for while I wasn't getting any money. ::sigh::

If you're going to Japan to study start saving earlier than me! You want at least $2000-3000 just to spend on random stuff while you're there. Trust me, it'll be very hard to go there and have no money. :(

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Visas and Haircuts

So today I finished up my visa forms and sent them out in the mail while I was on my way out to town to meet Lindsay. She was getting a tattoo today on her 'bewb'. Lol. She ended up with a couple of sakura blossoms, a few petals and 'wind'. Then we headed over to the mall and I got a $13 haircut at Mastercuts.

The idea was to get my hair cut rather short so I wouldn't have to worry about it while I was in Japan (for awhile anyways). It ended up a little shorter than I had intended but it should be at the perfect length when I leave. You can check out the pics of my hair & Lindsay's tattoo on my webshots account. I still need to get the highlights put in (red ones! :) ) and that should be taken care of this next week. I bought the stuff to do it with, red (well burgundy technically) hair color and that stabilizer stuff and a cap to pull my hair through for the highlights.

Mom was a little shocked about how short it was and kept saying 'I just need time to get used to it' but I think it looks ok. I mean I completely freaked when they did it because I went from having hair past my breasts to suddenly having it barely brush my shoulders. I can't wait to see what people at work say about it. Haha. Probably they'll all freak out about it too.

With just a month left until I leave for Japan I'm starting to get a little antsy. I need to start reviewing all the japanese verbs and kanji that I learned this past year (the older stuff seems to have stuck with me), I still need to go to the doctor's and renew my prescription, figure out what I need to pack/buy over there, and start cleaning out my room of all the excess junk I don't need anymore so it'll be pristine when I come back. Lol. I'm still waiting for paperwork from Otaru, if it doesn't arrive soon I might just get there before it the paperwork gets here. Honestly I mean why can't they just send all this crap at the same time? It'd save them loads in mailing costs. Well that's all for now. Tootles!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

What you should know when you're applying for Japan

If you're applying through the study abroad department at WMU there are some important things that I can tell you through personal experience. The first of which is: expect a lot of uncertainty and anxiety.

The process basically goes like this:

1. You've learned about study abroad to Japan through a class, a friend, or gone to the study abroad fair. Great. They give you handouts about all the schools over there they are affiliated with and a run down of the program there. Bad thing: usually the costs haven't been updated for the year you'll be going so they've left the old costs from last year on the handouts. My costs went from around $14,000 to $20,000 when they finally made the switch.

2. You visit with the head of the Japanese department or you head over to Haenicke's Study Abroad office for more information and to talk to somebody about the program. They usually give you an application for the program and offer to give you more of those school sheets.

3. You have until December to get your paperwork in order (it's a bit earlier for summer program but I didn't do that so I don't remember the exact timeframe). You have to have 2 recommendations from faculty one is supposed to be from a japanese related class and the other SHOULD be somebody you took a major class from. You also have to have the completed application, pictures of yourself in passport size, and copies of your transcripts (yes that includes WMU transcripts!) from all colleges you've attended. If you've got your passport already they also want a copy of that.

4. Great you've scrambled around and gotten all your paperwork together, you go home for christmas break and come back in January wondering if you've gotten into the program or not. The school tells you that you should be notified if your application was accepted "sometime in January" let me tell you, it wasn't unil almost February for us. And all that means is that you've passed the first hurdle, do your grades, classes, and instructor recommendations qualify you for the program? If the answer is yes then you'll be granted an interview to determine which school you'll be going to. You're allowed to pick 3 that you'd LIKE to go to but that doesn't mean you'll end up there.

5. Expect to wait another 2 weeks or so to hear about the interview, then expect them to give you a random day and time to show up. If you can't make it you can try and reschedule but they like to have them all done in one day so don't plan on going out of town that week. The interview basically is a 'round table' of teachers from the japanese department, plus a religions teacher, and maybe a political scientist or sociologist that has a japanese background. They'll ask you questions based on your class level. My questions were about what I wanted to do while I was in Japan, what did I want to see, what did I want to eat, etc.

6. After that expect not to hear back from them again for a couple of weeks after that. The problem is that a lot of the scholarships you'll be interested in want you to be accepted to the program before applying and the due dates were all just a few days after we found out about our acceptances. So have those ready to go at a moments notice!

7. You'll be told a week or so before spring break to comeand pick up your application for the Japanese University that you've been chosen for. The applications are usually do about 3 weeks from then. The requirments of these schools vary depending on which one you're chosen for. A few schools require physicals and special immunizations or records of them, some of them want long essays in Japanese or English, others require more recommendations, etc. They also requre more photos of you, your passport number and other info. Otaru required pretty much nothing. I had to fill out a 3 page application of pretty standard stuff and put in a 'study plan' that could be written in english. No long essay or physical required.

8.If you've made it this far and are still in the running then don't expect to hear anything further from the department for about a month. You'll finish up your spring semester and head out to wherever you go for the summer. About mid-may you'll hear back from the university on whether or not the Japanese University accepted you. If they did they will tell you that more information is forthcoming and to wait. Again. In my case the university sent the information directly to me instead of to Western (where i would then have to come pick it up) and so I had to photocopy paperwork for Western to put in their files.

9. Now begins a waiting game, over the course of the summer you'll receive more papers from the university of your choice. Some schools send you tons of info right away, Otaru doesn't. I literally had to wait and wait, it was like pulling teeth. They would send me two pieces of info and then I'd have to wait another month to get more info. I had to wait until the beginning of July to get the information on when I HAD to be in Japan for school so I could buy my plane ticket! And I still haven't received information on classes and times yet.

(This will be updated when I've got more info to tell you!)

Welcome to my New Blog!

Hi! Welcome to my new blog! The purpose of this blog is record my experiences as I spend a year abroad in Otaru, Japan. With this blog I hope to keep my family and friends updated on how things are going here at Otaru and also leave a record of my journey for myself, and hopefully other Otaru-bound students in the future.

Be prepared for lots of pictures! I've worked in a photo lab for 4 years and I'm completely obsessed with taking and sharing photos. I'm probably going to come home with a million of them, plus lots of postcards and other memorobilia from my trip. Thanks for checking out my blog and please bear with me as I learn more about blogger's software and what I can do here. :)
 
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