一人きりじゃない

Same thing about the title as always. This time, the line from the song is “hitorikiri ja nai”, which, in the song, means “You’re not all alone.” But because the subject isn’t actually specified it could also be taken as “I am not alone.” or something like that. Which… Fits the situation pretty well.

That situation is~… I have a host family (again)! In an reply to an e-mail I had sent Mrs. Nelson she not only answered my question, but gave me a document with host family information!

Their last name is Kouyama (光山). My host father, Motoichi, is a sushi chef and is my real mom’s age. My host mother, Hiroko, is a stay at home mom, and is two years younger than my real mom. I have four host sisters. Erika, 18 years old, Rina (my ‘official’ host sister because she goes to my school, and is in the grade I’ll be in), 16 years old, Rei, 11 years old, and Nagisa, 5 years old.

 

Zoomed out far.

Zoomed in on my city.

I live in the Sakaishimofuchina area of Isesaki-shi (Isesaki city), Gunma-ken (prefecture). There’s a cool website where you can look up Japanese addresses, and it’ll give you maps. It’s http://diddlefinger.com. I took a few screen shots at different zoom levels. Thanks to Anje for the cool site. ^^ 

Zoomed in on my street.

I’ve e-mailed back and forth with Rina a few times, and she seems really nice, so I’m glad. It’ll be really cool to meet them in person in a month and a week or so. The time for me to leave has already gotten so close, but it still seems so far away at the same time. Some sort of vertigo or something. Haha. 

We sent off my visa papers two days ago, so all is well in that department.

Now for a song, like always!

Pre-Departure #1

I actually don’t have a song for this, it’s just going to be a basic update.

Right now my exchange has basically (possibly indirectly) driven a wedge in between my grandma and my mom, which means my little section of our family is isolated from the rest. Well, my grandma still tries coming over here, but my mom is really hating her right now. According to my mom, she had been holding the fact that she was going to help pay for my exchange over us. I’d get into it more, but I don’t feel like explaining it.

So my grandma is no longer going to help pay for my exchange (even though she’s still offering to help, my mom doesn’t want her to.) My mom and Kent, a family friend who’s paid for all of my Japanese lessons and also bought my plane tickets, are going to work together to pay the $3,000 tuition I have to pay for the school year.

We still need to send in the papers to get my student visa, to make it legal for me to stay in Japan for more than 15 days. It’s unknown how long it’ll take to get that sent and returned to me, so I really need to get the paperwork sent off ASAP. But because my mom is anti-grandma right now I’ve lost my main source of ‘Get-that-crap-sent-off’ transportation and help. I am doomed.

Apparently she was going to take me to get it done on last Thursday… Either I forgot or she didn’t tell me. So I went shopping with two friends of mine. What. the. heck?! Please, please, please tell me these things before I decide to go do something! I’d rather get stuff sent off that, if it’s not done in time, could prevent me from going on exchange than go shopping! And now my mom won’t say when we’re next able to do it. Hello~, Mom! Less than one and a half months left! Must get this done now!

Besides the visa paperwork, we still have to get me some form of credit/debit card that will function in Japan’s ATMs. We know the type, but she won’t take me to get it done. On top of that, we have to get me some form of international health insurance, because at the moment I have none whatsoever. Mom, I know you have work, but PLEASE. I’ve been way too persistant in trying to get this all to work to let it be ruined by crap like this.

Aside from major whines and such, oh my gosh less than a month and a half until I leave.

Wait, actually, I don’t think I’ve posted about my official flight date and time. My flight from the Kansas City International Airport leaves at 6:26am on August 18th! I then have a 1 hour-ish layover in Denver, Colorado. Then a flight to Vancouver, Canada, where I have a 3 hour-ish layover. After that is a 10 hour 10 minutes flight before I arive in Narita International Airport near Tokyo, Japan! (It’s actually in Chiba prefecture. xD)

It’s drawing closer and closer, I’m so excited! After I arrive in Japan (it’ll be 3:55pm Japan-time if everything stays on time) on August 19th, I’ll have around two weeks before my first day of school: September 1st!

At the moment I still don’t have a new host family. But… I’m patient. Really. I am. (What I really mean: Oh, jeez. Oh, jeez. Where’s my host family? What if I don’t get one? AHHHHH!) Though the contact that Mrs. Nelson has at Kyoai has said that I shouldn’t worry. So I assume they have a plan even if they don’t find me another host family.

All that’s left (besides what I’ve already mentioned) is to sit around and wait for the day to start packing. (Note to self: Still need suitcases. Tell mom that.) I wish I had more to do to keep myself busy and my mind off of things. Though I guess I can just work on studying Japanese. Kanji flashcards ahoy! At least when I’m bored and going to be awake for a while. Right now it’s almost 1am and I’ll be going to bed at some point soon. Haha.

Until my next rant/post… xD

行き先はどこでもいい

I haven’t posted in a lo~ng time. I suppose I’ll explain that in the post, but yeah. The title of this post says “ikisaki wa doko demo ii”, a line from the song later on in this post… It basically means “it doesn’t matter what [our] destination is”. So, made less literal, “It doesn’t matter where we’re going.” Yeah…

Good News? (And of course, some bad news, too.)

Good News?

A few days ago I got random stuff (more pictures, a school transcript, an occupation and income form) sent off to Mrs. Nelson so she can send it to Japan so they can get me my C.o.E. I e-mailed her saying that it had been sent, and asked a few questions. They were: How much will it cost all together and when is it due? Will we have to set up the flight or will we get help with it? and When do you think I’ll get a host family?

This is the response I got:

“1. I will check again, but I believe your cost will be $3,000. We can wire transfer it to Japan about 2 weeks before you depart for school.

2. You can purchase your tickets direct, and probably need to since you will be responsible for the cost. Here are the flights that our Japanese students used this spring when they returned home.
Northwest Flight 1528 10:55 a.m. to Narita, via Minneapolis. (If there is another flight number from Minneapolis to Narita, I don’t have that) But check it out at Northwest Airlines and see if all connections work for you.

3. Hide Murakami e-mailed me yesterday, asking for your information, so he can find a host family. That is being sent today and I hope to hear back soon.”

1. The cost is a lot cheaper than we had expected. Of course there’s going to be the price for the plane tickets and spending money, but in general it seems a lot cheaper than it could’ve been. Also the fact that it’s not due for a while is good, so I can possibly get a job this summer and save up a bit so I can help my mom/family pay for it.

2. It’s good to have some sort of a reference, and it’ll be easier to get tickets since I won’t have to try and coordinate with a certain flight over there. I mean, sure, I won’t have a ton of exchange students to be hyper with on the flight over, but I’m good at entertaining myself, and I’ll have the newest book in the Twilight series to (re-?)read, along with my laptop (possibly) and an iPod.

3. Soon. It says soon. O~h mah gawsh. Unless I’m completely off the mark, soon means soon which means I’ll most likely have a host family soon! I’m not with a big organization where I have to compete for spots with several different exchange students from all sorts of countries. And if I’m guessing right, they’ll probably search for someone within the school that would be willing to do it.

The Bad News?

Huge project due tomorrow. 500 points. I need to print around 50 pages. I have no printer. I will not come in contact with a printer before the class when it’s due. Right now I have maybe 50 points. 10%. I already have a bad grade in that class.

I need to come up with 3 characters that I can switch between freely for Theater Class.

I have a huge Biology project that was supposed to be due tomorrow that was moved to Monday (thank goodness), but I have to write a report on the Regal Moth as well as make an animation of it’s metamorphosis cycle. Not too fun.

I also have a book I want to finish reading. (The Host by Stephenie Meyer)

I also have math homework daily.

I’m aching and sore all over because of the constant switching from cold and rainy to hot and humid, which makes my arthritis act up. Not to mention that spring is making my asthma worse.

I also have 9 days of school left. And no camera. This is the last time I’ll see the majority of these people in my life and I lost my freaking camera. GAH. I swear, if my little brother took it and just isn’t telling me where it is…

A Big Surprise!

I would just blurt it out, but I feel like telling the story, first.

Just yesterday, after the Olathe City Track Meet, I was being taken home by my grandma. She used to be an ESL teacher, so she’s had quite a big of experience with foreigners, but finds my foreign exchange really interesting. We went to a Burger King and were eating and started talking about it. I explained how I still needed to get my CoE and my visa, and that I need my passport for both of those, and how I hoped it would come soon (though it’s only been 2~3 weeks since we re-sent in the application after getting my Dad’s signature, so my hopes weren’t too high.)

Then we come to today, and because track season is officially over I got to walk home. So on my walk (only 5~10 minutes) I started thinking about exchange, which of course brought me to thoughts about my passport, since ultimately that is what I need to keep moving forward in preparing for my exchange. Because I knew it would come through the mail, I thought: Oh, what the heck. It’s not going to be there, but I’ll check anyway.

So I got home, walked to the mailbox, opened it up and at the bottom of the pile there was a very official looking, cardboard-esque envelope, but it wasn’t very thick. I checked it and, What?, it was addressed to me, but it was flat. Oh, it can’t be my passport, it’s too thin… I continued looking at the envelope while walking up the stairs to my front door, wondering what it could be (and tripping because I was thinking so hard).

I got inside, walked up the split-level stairs in my house and hung my backpack on the top stair rail, went and sat in my mom’s computer chair and began opening up the envelope.

……… It IS my passport… It’s my passport. I got my passport!

I continued to frolic around the house for a few minutes, called my grandma and chattered excitedly, posted on CS, watched a random TV show, and now I’m here posting this.

Isn’t my life interesting? xD

Day of Chaos

Yes, that’s right. Today has officially been named the ‘Day of Chaos’ by me.