My flight for Japan leaves tomorrow, and while logically I know that I will be there in about 24 hours, it hasn't really sunk in yet. I'm sure that by tomorrow I will be able to regale everyone with tales of my flight; meanwhile, I will discuss all the ways not to prepare for a study abroad trip. I recommend setting aside a lot of a prep-time, I generally tend to plan things out way ahead of time and I ended up having to scramble to get ready at the end.
While it was easy enough to make my health decisions, the nice thing about going to JBy interstingapan is that I don't have to worry about things like malaria, I did have several other adventures, the first of which was getting my visa. In order to go to Japan, I needed to receive my certificate of eligibility. Unfortunately, after submitting my paperwork, I had no control over when I would receive my certificate. I finally got the thing a few weeks before my trip, so instead of using an online visa service I decided to go to to the Japanese Consulate in Chicago.
I had no idea what getting a visa would entail, I sort of assumed that it would be like going to the DMV. I thought I'd go in fill out a bunch of paperwork and wait around for a few hours. I figured: Chicago's only a few hours away from Beloit, I'll take a day off of work and go in. First lesson: check your date because I ended up driving in to Chicago on a day when there were six concerts going on. I finally got to Chicago and paid for parking. I ended up staying in the consulate for five minutes and being told to come back in two days. The next time I went in to Chicago I took the train, avoided the traffic, and planned to spend the whole day in Chicago and had a lovely time.
I also had an epic saga involving my insurance company. I called in my medications for Japan two weeks in advance, I thought I was planning ahead, then my insurance company became nigh unreachable. It was a perfect example of best laid plans going south.
Packing was an adventure in and of itself. I have learned that I am not a good over-sea's packer. Making a list of what to pack does not help me to take things out in order to make the weight limit. As it is my boyfriend had to take my suitcase away to stop me from putting more things into it.
It's been really frustrating trying to get ready for Japan. There have been a lot of unexpected pitfalls, and it's been difficult getting everything together. I've had to learn how to do a lot of new things really quickly an it's been an interesting ride. I like to think of it as practice for Japan, if I could do it all over again, I'd try to leave myself more time, but other than that I don't really see any options.
There is one thing I can do now, which is to get some sleep because I have a looong flight tomorrow. I haven't been on a long international flight since some family vacations when I was little so I'm not sure what to expect, but I have a friend to fly with so at least I'll have company. Maybe I'll blog during one of my layovers or maybe I won't have time until I'm settled in Akita. Once I'm in Akita I'll post pictures, but until then you'll have to make do without.
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