10 October 2012

Until Departure. Answering Questions.

My last day in Japan in June, I went to a temple (forgot the name) with my host family.
no one's very happy i was leaving lol
OK, so I've decided to be more clear with what's been going on. Although, it super sucks.
Basically, some things went down that I don't really want to get into on the internet, only my personal friends know what's been going on, because it's super huge and super sucks. But being Japan, JFIE was really big on the whole "you need to be with your family at this time" and made me go home until August. And, they made me take the more expensive flight... (I had to buy this one to ensure I could come back)
Basically, I hadn't heard anything from JFIE or ASSE until I emailed them in August.
To me, going back seemed.. well. I didn't have any money from the $2000 plane ticket back, and then they were basically waiting until last minute again, so it would have been ANOTHER $2000 plane ticket rather than like $1300. (Or letting me have bought a roundtrip ticket before...)
I could have probably scraped by with.. not buying much of anything while there (seriously I had $1700 left) and borrowing money from my parents, but they were making me switch schools and I hadn't heard anything. So I just emailed and said I didn't want to go back this time (because I also have university coming up..).
But, that's definitely not the end of Japan to me.
I have a plane ticket to go back in February( Feb 5th) and have a blasty-blast in Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Tokyo... Everywhere.
I do want to apologize for the taking so long to make it clear... The situation has made me very upset that I've been crying almost everyday up until recently, I really didn't want to think about it until I kind of got okay with it recently.

Up until February, I'll be posting about things I didn't post before and when that runs out... I'll answer any questions anyone has about being an exchange student/JFIE/ASSE ect.

And to the question about how much it is to go with ASSE - It cost me $8450 CAD. They have prices listed on their website every year.

03 July 2012

Just a small bump in the road.

I've been avoiding making this post, lol.

At the end of May, nothing special really happened other than my birthday. I got a LOT of cake. Cake from my friend, cake from my family, cake from my teachers. It was all delicious cake, though.
cake from host family

cake from teachers
It was exam week, so I only had to go to school for three hours. I got TONS of presents. Presents from people I barely talked to! Lots of scrunchies, some Arashi's Nino pictures, a necklace, a handkerchief, Oda got me a giant stuffed Boo, host sister got me an eyebrow plucker thing (can't remember the word right now -.- ) and a hair.. thing. I dunno. It like swallows your head for when you're in the shower...? Haha. And I got cute PJs from my host parents, and a nice card from obaachan. It was quite fun.  That was the 23rd.
The next day after the exam, I was only there for 2 hours, and I went with my friend Hisashi to the aquarium!
I love this picture. Lol, it's face.
We got a picture done at the aquarium too, he was like "put on this hat!" and I was like "Wha- oka- where's your hat? fkdjfuidf" It was a cute octopus hat though.

After we went to the aquarium, we went to shijo kawaramachi for a bit and went to the arcade and he beat me at everything, the little bastard >.>
And he wrote "best friends" on our purikura, I was super happy. xD But he asked me if the kanji was correct, and I was like "LOL why are you asking me?" I knew the 友 was correct but I didn't know the first one. xD Probably asking me because all of our mails are kanji-filled :P
After Kawaramachi, we went to Kyoto Station to eat some ramen. x3  It was fairly delicious ramen, and there was a LOT of stairs, so I told him we should race up them and he kinda looked at me like "wtf?" and said let's just take the escalators. XD
Then we talked for like, half an hour or 45 minutes and we were like okay, let's go to Kyoto Tower! So we did, and it was beautiful. Except, right when we went, an out of town class (probably 30-40 people) of middle schoolers were doing a field trip
hoorraaay, shaky picture. x3
And after that he was taking me back to the station to catch me bus, we found a light show on the way, see above picture. lol.  Then we ran to catch the bus and I got on and he was waiting and I was like laughing and theeeen we saw all the middle schoolers come and start getting on the bus, so I was like ._____________________________.'' and he just laughed.

Then, the next Saturday I went to meet his parents because they're having an exchange student stay with them, but Hisashi had club so he was... absent. That was really, really awkward. But his parents were nice. We went and toured the beer factory, but being 18 and not 20, I could only have juice. : <
Then we went to their house and made gyoza, and then Hisashi came home at like 7:00pm with Gen and Hori.
Was quite delicious.

Alright, so stay with me from this point onward, please.

Due to certain circumstances, I have returned to Canada for a short while.
I've been here since the 5th of June, and I'll be here until August because JFIE and the school both feel that because I'm leaving partway through, when I return I should go to a different school. Dunno why. But I will be going back around the 23rd of August.
When I know where and which school and such, I'll let you know.
Before I left though, the teacher told me that my Japanese is as good as the people who have been there for 10 months, so I'm kinda bummed now because I wanted to get really, really proficient. I'll just work harder when I go back, but I hope it's Kansai because I speak Kansaiben.... and that would be awkward in other regions if it comes out. xD

Anyways, yeah, I'll be back in Japan in the end of August, so just sit tight and I'll update as soon as I can.

21 May 2012

May! ..Kind of

Hello :3

I love my second host family! They're lovely. Obaachan is hard to understand, but mama and papa are funny, and Risa is really nice!!

Everyone's studying for tests so... I haven't been doing much. I hung out with Oda, the exchange student from Norway a few times. We had a fat day and ate too much McDonalds. ;;
And before that, I hadn't gone for McDonalds for a long time, and the ONE TIME I DO, and get a big mac, there's three guys from my class sitting at the table across from us... That was just embarrassing. ;~;

I got my class picture yesterday!
Yay :3

So.. I don't have much to say because I've had no cheer practice or no friends for the past week and a half due to tests, so.... this will be short, but tomorrow is my birthday and the next day I'm going to the Kyoto Aquarium with a guy in my class so it should be interesting so I will update then! :3

Thanks for reading!

03 May 2012

Updating, sir. ._.

Hello hello.

Up until now nothing much exciting has happened, just went to school and to cheer... man cheer was tough! >< First we do about 15~20 minutes of stretches, then help the other person stretch. Then first year students get to go running, and do physical training like 60 sit ups, 60 push ups, 60 jumps, and a bunch of other stuff. At first it really tired everyone out, but lately everyone's been getting a lot better... including me! :) We learned a lot of new cheers, and I've missed four practices (three due to being an exchange student and having to do stuff like go to the ESS club which was asked for their Welcome Party, which was fun, we played hangman and no one could guess my word, giraffe.   One being due to the fact that school was done for me at 1ish one day, and the other because I switched host families. ><) , but I learned all the cheers just in time, because Sunday we're all going to cheer on the football team.

 School is pretty good, other than I can't understand Contemporary Japanese at all. That's okay, Japanese students can't, either. :)
Really weird thing happened though - I was eating a banana, and like, 10 girls took my picture. Apparently I'm cute when I eat bananas. So I called Oda over and told her, so she took my picture with the banana too.
Just amazing, amiright?


I switched host families last Saturday.
I share a room with my new host sister, Risa. There's Obaachan, papa, and mama as well. It's a thin house but three stories tall. It's closer to the school than the last one! :)

I was supposed to switch on the 30th, but... I bought tickets to a Morning Musume concert in Hiroshima for the 29th so my new host sister took me. We got on the bus the night of the 28th, and arrived at like 6:00 am on the 29th. God that was awful. Nothing was open, so I got to eat delicious McDonald's breakfast.
There was some time before the concert, so we went to Miyajima on the ferry... after waiting a few hours, anyways. Took the ferry at like 9:10.
Leaving for Miyajima~
We got to Miyajima and the first thing I saw was lots and lots of deer. I was happy.
I got pictures of the deer, pictures with the deer, and pet the deer.
And watched the deer eat some lady's handkerchief. ^^
 After the deer, we ate some shaved ice and went to the shrine which name I have sadly forgotten. ><
We didn't go in though, we walked around and then walked around more parts of the islands, then I had some corn and we went back to Hiroshima Station. (ferry - walk - train) And went to starbucks for a snack.
After Starbucks, we took a taxi to Alsok Hall. We arrived at like 1, and there was already soo many people! So we quickly got in line for goods, but when the hall opened at 2:30 we still hadn't made it to the front of the line, but we were close, so when we entered the building we got to go to the one inside. I got a Niigaki Risa shirt, a NR fan, NR picture and a Tanaka Reina picture, and then two green glowsticks. It was kind of funny, after buying everything Niigaki "and two glowsticks, please"
The girl at the counter was like "....Green?" I was like, LOL.

So after that we had to ask a nice "Onii-san"(as said by staff member, LOL) how to use it because it said don't snap it but you had to snap it anyways so.... yeah.

The concert was epic! Everyone's faces were really small, but you could tell who Tanaka was! :)
I was on the second floor, in the back... kinda sucks but, whatever. :)

We went back to Kyoto by shinkansen, which was nice. We ate first, though.

Since then I've just been going to school, my friend's birthday's coming up so I'mma bake him cookies.  Then my birthday is coming up too!! May 23rd. x3 I'm super excited! But I feel really old ;~;

That's all for nows~

12 April 2012

Cheer!

Hello! So today was the first official day of school. I already went before for class photo (I don't remember if I said that..) and that was pretty fun.

Today I had a cell phone(bought it yesterday), so everyone was asking to exchange mail addresses and stuff. :) I switch classes a couple times... I was in the wrong math class (not my fault :P ) and I took notes and everything ;~; Oh well. XD

I like the English classes, they're fun lolol. I introduced myself in the Oral Communications class, in English and in Japanese.

Oh yeah, I'm in year 1, which is grade 10, but the year 2 students are all going to like Australia and stuff, so... but Takemi-sensei said that because I can speak Japanese well, I might be bumped up to year 2 or year 3. :)

There's another exchange student at my school, Oda-Victoria. Just Oda is fine. She's from Norway. o:


So, after school we went to see Takemi-sensei, and we got talked through some stuff (all in JP. ), and then we went to see the ESS (English) club, and introduced ourselves in English. Or.... Japanese.. Or both.. I don't remember. xp

After that, we went to see the Cheerleaders practicing. OMG THEY ARE WONDERFUL.
I joined the club.
I start going tomorrow.
Everyday. :D
I have to ask about weekends...

I became a bunny. I'm so happy. They're so cute. x3


Well, that's all for now~

08 April 2012

It's been a while!

Hello!

It's been a while since I've updated...

On the 31st of March, Moe's friend Hii-chan came over and we made dinner and baked a cake. It looked like a delicious cake, but it was not a delicious cake ;~;

Then on the first of April, we went to a brass band concert. It was actually really cute. The second act was a play of Aladdin, and they sang "what time is it?" at the end, and made high school musical sound cute. Right after that we ran to the taxi and went to Kyoto Station, and got on the shinkansen heading for Tokyo. Mama, Shin, and Onee were already there (they went on the 29th). We got to papa's house around midnight, and fell asleep around 1, but we had to wake up at 6:30 to get ready and go to Disneyland. I was completely happy with the wizard hat I found.
Disneyland was exhausting. I had no idea what was going on at first but apparently we were getting fastpasses for rides, lol. We waited for like three hours to go on Splash Mountain, and then after that we ran to Space Mountain and got in like nothing (fast pass!). We went on more things like Pooh's Honey House thing, and It's a Small World... We watched the night parade, and after that papa went back home, Onee went to sit in the warm place, Moe and Mama went to Big Thunder Mountain, and me and Shin went back to Space mountain and waited in line for like two hours. It was fun though. xD

The next day we went to Shibuya, and we went to Forever 21 for like ever >.< But after that, Shin, mama, and Onee left and went back to Tokyo, so it was just me and Moe. We checked out a few other shops but the weather was getting pretty bad(Typhoon after all), and then Moe's umbrella broke, so we were going to head home, but then we accidentally found Shibuya 109 so we went in there for like, not even 20 minutes. But when we came out the weather was a lot worse so we ran to the train station and it's a good thing we got there when we did, because shortly after that all of the trains stopped running. The rest of the night, we just stayed at Papa's.  (Got home around 5:30.)

The day after that was the last day in Tokyo. In the morning we went to Akihabara, but nothing was open when we went so we just went to Mr. Donuts for a little bit and chatted. When we left, stores
were starting to open up so we went around and I found Morning Musume's DVD concert "Ai Believe". I was quite happy. x3 After that, for lunch we ate at a maid cafe(lolz), and then we went to Harajuku. It was PACKED with people ;; but we managed to get some pretty awesome clothes and deals. x3
After Harajuku, we went to Tokyo station and got on the train to go back to Kyoto. We arrived back at the house at around 8 or 9 at night.





It's now the 9th of April, and today I get to go to school for orientation (So I will probably post about it later today or tomorrow). I'm super nervous, because there's a new school ceremony for all of the first year students(Shin is going :3 ), and the school might be busy but.. I guess I can handle it. Haha, first day of school for everyone else is the 10th, and for me, it's the 12th... I'm super nervous. I wanna buy more clothes before then, because my school doesn't have a uniform(unfortunately). There will also be another exchange student, Victoria, at my school. Hmm. x3

That's all for now~!

Thanks for reading

26 March 2012

Quick update.

Hi-lo.

I was at orientation until about 11:00 on the 24th. I made lots of friends, especially a girl from New Zealand and a girl from Australia. We laughed at our different ways to say things, like jaggers or.. something..
Then, we all went to the train station and caught a shinkansen, except for the people who flew and a few people took trains. A lot of people took the shinkansen to Kansai, including me. It was about 13:03 when the shinkansen left, and it was 16:03 when it arrived at Shin-Osaka station. I got off the station and said good-bye to everyone and met Moe and Keiko-neechan (aunt.)
We took some trains and got to the circus, where I met Yocchan(aunt), Otabechan(uncle), Onee(Rina), Obaasan(grandma) and Ojiisan(grandpa). Mama and Shin were at home because Shin wasn't feeling well.

After the circus, we dropped my stuff off at Yocchan's and went out to eat delicious, delicious ramen. I have pictures but I don't have a camera cord so I can't update them :(
Then we went to Keikoneechan's, after I got my stuff, and she had two cats. It was awesome. I had a bath for the first time, you go into the room and shower, then you enter the bathtub. It's awesome, baths feel so good. Haha. Yocchan and Otabechan went home and I went to bed right away and woke up around 6:00. I helped Keiko-neechan make tamagoyaki and cut strawberries, and obaasan made omiso soup and gave me two sweaters, and told me to come back anytime. I was so happy! :)

Took about an hour and a half taking trains and shinkansen to get to Kyoto, but Mama was waiting at the station for us. Shin didn't arrive til later at night.
I walked in to find a huge sign that said "Wellcome to Fujino Family" (welcome spelt wrong, so cute) and other stuff written all over it. :)

Yesterday, I helped make dinner and every morning I help Moe hang the laundry outside. It's pretty fun here. We went and took purikura yesterday.

Today I'm going to the movies and probably just studying. I don't start school until April 12th.

Thanks for reading!

22 March 2012

I have arrived!

Hello all!

Daniel and I arrived about 20 minutes earlier than our scheduled time, so we only had to sit on the plane for 11 hours. Only...


But I'm here! We arrived at the hotel and met some other exchange students, and then went to our rooms. We were given packets by JFIE, as well as meal coupons and a t-shirt. I went to bed around 20 after 10 after taking a shower and doing the homework. It's currently 4:55 and I've been awake for roughly 40 minutes, not tired at all. Today we have breakfast at 7:00 and I am going to tell them I am not a beginner at Japanese, because I looked over the things... hiragana charts, telling time, greetings, introducing yourself.... uh huh... lol. xD

My roommate is a girl from Saskatchewan, we're province neighbours! There is a lot of exchange students from Australia here.

I'll update in a bit!

20 March 2012

Almost There...

Hey guys!

Where I am it is currently 7:19PM as I am writing this. Where am I, you ask? Los Angeles, of course!
I left for Winnipeg on Monday morning and spent the day there, then woke up at 3:00AM local time to get ready, left for the airport at 4, and caught a plane to Denver, Colorado at 6:00AM. We had a 2 1/2 hour layover in Denver, but at 10:03 local time the plane took off for Los Angeles. We arrived a bit early, too :)
LAX was kind of confusing(getting a free shuttle thing), but we found our way and all is well :)

I got to touch the ocean, ya~y! We went on a bus tour that went around LA. We went to this marketplace, and then drove to Hollywood and we got off for 45 minutes at Hollywood Blvd., and then we drove through Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, and we got off again for 40 minutes at Venice Beach and I got to play in the ocean, woot ! Haha, I like the ocean. Although it's rather cold :(


I leave tomorrow at 3:15pm LA time, but I'm going to be at the airport meeting Daniel, another exchange student(American) from ASSE, at some... gateway place? My mom's still going to talk to his dad. And we're meeting at 11:30AM. So about four hours after meeting Daniel, our plane will take off and almost 11 hours later we will be in Narita, Japan! :)

I hope the plane ride goes fast... 11 hours is horrible >.< I hope I can sleep for like, 9. :) Maybe 10... hehehe.

I'm super nervous and all of this is coming so quickly... but I'm really excited, too.

05 March 2012

Just General-ness.

Hello :3

First off, here are the two photos I got of my host family from the last post that I was too lazy to edit in.

Just the five of them~ :)




Everyone!!


I also recieved an e-mail address so I sent an e-mail, and apparently on the 24th we're going to the circus! (Everyone, like grandma and all! :D ) I'm so excited!! This is my first host family, until the end of April. Although, Myrna(area rep) said that she was going to take a look into it, because she thought I would only have one host family. Also, there's no orientation, but I go to my host family on the 24th, but they're supposed to pick me up at the airport apparently..? But I arrive on the 22nd... lol... I have no idea what's going on. Okay, scratch that, there is a 3-day orientation, but I don't have to go for the first day apparently because I arrive like at the very end of the first day, lol





On another note, I've started packing! I have my one suitcase with a few things in it, a few things in my carry-on bag from ASSE... I'll take my purse on, and my laptop in a laptop bag, too. Also, I'm probably bringing one more piece of luggage, although my second-biggest one is too big, so I'll just bring the smaller one... can probably fit a lot of clothes in there! :) When I come back, anyways~. I also bought a lot of the stuff that I'll need to take for the first few days, and lots of socks haha. Couple new shirts, and capris. I need new shoes. I just have one pair of boots here, which is good... for Canada, haha.

I only have two weeks left until I leave my city... I still need my visa, they should be processing that this week, and it should arrive next week.. I need to book my flight to LA still, should be done.. soonish. I only have two more Saturday late nights dealing with drunk people! o.O It's going to be weird, haha. I'll probably cry on my last day of work. >~< Time is going by really fast. It feels like I have so much to do but I can't do a lot yet, but I still don't have enough time.. if that makes sense.

I have been slacking on Japanese lately, been so crazy at work and trying to hang out with friends as much as possible (o^^o) oops. Well, I'll be okay. x3 I hope ><;;

Thanks for reading!
~Ashley

03 March 2012

More Information!

Hello~

Recently, I've been getting more information about my host family from Moe, and I received a form from my area rep.

So, turns out the family I have is only hosting me for a month :( So sad. They seem like such nice people!! Makes bringing gifts harder, lol.
I also found out that school starts on the 9th of April, and it starts at 8:45AM and goes until 4:10PM, and then club activities. There's no classes on Saturday, only if I have club would I have to go to school then. I will go to school by bicycle, and it takes about 20~30 minutes.

In my first host family's house, I have my own bedroom. I got a picture with all of the 5 family members, then another picture with all of them plus grandma, grandpa, uncle, and two aunts. :)
Maybe I'll edit them in later...

I sent an e-mail to the e-mail listed in the form, since the only person I've been communicating with is Moe... It's 10:20PM here now, and like, 1:20PM in Japan so... hopefully I'll get a reply soon. :)

I think that's all for now~

Thanks for reading!

Ashley.

25 February 2012

A wild host sister has appeared~!

Hey guys!

So I got home from work this morning, opened my computer and checked my e-mail to find one entitled "hello ashley. i am your host sister"
I swear I heard bells.

We've only e-mailed a few times, but her name is Moe and we go to the same school. I found out that unfortunately they don't have their own uniform so I would have to go out and buy my own (probably from eastboy, and that's really expensive... ;; We'll see what I have when I leave.)

I have a host father, Fumio (50), a host mother, Mitsuyo(47), an older sister, Rina(21), Moe is 18(close to my age!), and a younger brother,  Shinsei(15).
Edited in: This is my host family! :)

I'm super happy right now! I'll keep talking to my host sister and hopefully the rest of the family. x3
It's a big family! Going to be weird.. I'm so used to it just being my mom and me, and sometimes my brother when he's home....

I'm so excited! x.x <3 ^^ o.o

Thanks for reading!
Ashley

23 February 2012

Less than a month.

Hey guys!

So, after tons of fighting with this blog's look I think I've got it.. I liked the dolls one I had, but no one could comment...
I also made the banner with my non-existent skill of Photoshop. I hate Photoshop. ;; And I wrote /some/ CSS code....

Anyways!
Less than a month until my arrival!! I know that I'm leaving Brandon on the 19th of March (after saying my good-byes ;; ), and then leave to LA on the 20th (we were looking at a departure time of around 7A.M.). I already posted my LA->NRT itinerary in another post. So it's an 8 hourish journey to LA, then an 11 hour flight from LA to Japan. x.x I'm going to be so bored...

Regarding a visa... I haven't been able to send my application in yet.. I need my host family information and a guarantor information I think.. I'm going to call the consulate-general of Japan tomorrow.

I have my school, which is in Kyoto, but I don't have any host family information yet. I did, however, get an e-mail entitled "Host Family in Japan" from my area co-coordinator. It said that a potential host family has been found, but they had a concern, because shortly after my arrival, they're traveling to Tokyo to visit the host father, who is working on business there. (On March 31~April 3). They will be going to Tokyo DISNEYLAND♥. They said that they would gladly take me, however it'll cost me 30,000~40,000JPY. I am completely OK with this. So, I'm not sure what they're doing now - I already confirmed that I was OK with that on Sunday (then Monday was a holiday so I'm not sure if anything was done about it then from the Quebec office), and it is now Thursday night. I hope I get their information soon~ Gotta work a little more hours to help cover the small setback.. but it's worth it! Tokyo & Tokyo Disneyland was the place I really wanted to go, but wasn't sure on how I was going to get there and do it.. and now I do! xD ...If this is my host family ;; Still only potential.

I'm really scared, and nervous to go.. but I'm really excited. I'm having a going away party on March 10th and trying to fill up my time either working, sleeping, studying, or spending time with friends before I leave.... hey, at least I'll have 19 hours available to study on the plane! I hope I sleep most of it, but... yeah. x3

I'll make another post when I know who my family is!!! 

Thanks for reading!
Ashley

10 February 2012

KYOTO! School information!!

 Hello!
I received some information from ASSE in the mail today!
I'm still waiting for my host family information, but I got my school information today!
I'll be going to MURASAKINO! In Kyoto! 
I wanted to go to Tokyo, because I have a lot of friends there, but in Kyoto I can practice kansaiben... >;3
This is the cover of the booklet I got of Murasakino.
It's located in school. THERE'S A FRIGGIN CHEERLEADER CLUB! Starting today, I'm going to run everyday, and get flexible. Maybe I can join... ;D
Or if not, there's more traditional clubs.. I can't read /all/ of them, but there's various sports clubs, too...

But there's one thing... NO UNIFORM D:
But there's some girls on the cover wearing uniforms, so I think they're just optional. I hope so. I shall wear that uniform proud, man.

I can't wait til I receive information about my host family... only a month and a half now until I arrive... I'm so nervous.

Also, I went to the bank on Monday and ordered some Japanese yen (2万) so they said it should be in on Monday! ^^;

Thanks for reading!!

02 February 2012

Intinerary... x3

Hey guys!

I have my flight itinerary now! For when I leave and for when I get back!
Departs: LA - LOS ANGELES INTL 3:15PM March 21, 2012
Arrives: NRT - NARITA - JAPAN 7:05PM March 22, 2012

Departs: NRT - NARITA - JAPAN 6:50PM January 12, 2013
Arrives: LA - LOS ANGELES INTL 11:50AM January ??, 2013
I think maybe it'll still be the 12th. Time travel FTW!

Now I just need to book my plane to LA and I'll have all my travel dates set! :)
I still don't know who my host family is, though. ;~; Soon as I know that, I need to start getting my visa~!
But I received my travel bag and tags from ASSE!
I wonder what to pack..? When should I start packing? I kind of have a list started... I should go into more detail with that, maybe. x3 I can't buy gifts until later.. I know I'm going to get candy, but other than that, until I know my host family I can't buy specific gifts... and I want to clean up my room before I buy other random gifts, lol. I still don't know what to buy. ;~;

I've been speaking in & practicing Japanese like, every night.. but I should probably start studying grammar again now that school's out and I have more time. Well, kind of more time... I'll probably be working a lot, and my teacher wants me to go help them out whenever I can at school... and maybe I'll have one more bake sale.. if my friends will help, anyways... doing the last one alone kind of failed. ><;; Lots to do, not a lot of time to do it!

I added a countdown to the blog as well, under the ticker. It's to the exact time I should be arriving in Narita. (7:05PM in Japan, or 4:05AM central time.) I'm getting super pumped!

17 January 2012

Just some ramblings & updates

Hey!

I haven't updated my blog since the end November... wow, time flies!!
I have an arrival date!! I arrive in Narita airport on March 22nd! 
I added a ticker so I can keep track of how much longer I have to wait! It's set to the twenty-second, but I think my arrival time is Japanese, so I might be there sooner than that... and leaving even sooner! Super excited!!

There's less than two weeks of school left now, and then I'm working full time to save money. I've paid for this entire program myself so far... it's been really hard, waking up and going to school at 7:00am, then working til 11pm or 12am... ><;; but it's worth it!!

I've already started about thinking about what to pack... maybe I could sell some things and get some extra money! Like books or clothes or something... I need to buy gifts for my host family and friends, too... I can't wait to figure our where I'm going and who I'll be staying with... I've been checking my e-mail daily, anticipating it. lol

I've already got a goodbye party all planned out! It'll either be on March 3rd or 10th at my house... I wonder what we'll do!! Channel is really excited to play my Kinect.. lol
I have a feeling I'm going to be crying a lot in February&March.

I sent in my COE application last month, and I sent my final payment in on the 24th as well. The next step is waiting, I guess, because I can't get a visa without a COE or host family placement... so... I just hope time flies by! I think I'll start the packing thing sometime in February, as well as getting together gifts for everyone..
I should probably start giving everyone I work with & am friends with my blog, too... lol
Thanks for reading!!
-Ashley