Achievement Unlocked: Get Amity Assignment!

Drumroll please.....

I GOT MY AMITY POSITION ASSIGNMENT!

After worrying about it for weeks, I got a phone call today from the Los Angeles office and they informed me that (should I choose to accept this mission), they want to send me to the Shizuoka-Ekinan Amity branch this November!

Shizuoka in red, a little south of Tokyo.

Shizuoka (静岡，しずおか）is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture in the Chubu region of Japan. It's 1.5 hours from Tokyo, and 1.25 hours from Nagoya, plus it's located next to Mt. Fuji, the Japanese Alps, and the Pacific coast, so in the summer there will be beaches nearby! :) 


There are festivals and events throughout the year, although my arrival time and subsequent training will make me a few weeks late for the Daidogei World Cup (Nov. 3-6) and the Shizuoka Street Festival (Nov. 19-20). Sadness... but there's always next year! Plus there's supposed to be a lot of festivals and events in the spring coming up, and I'll be in time for Japanese New Years!

From Amity's website (the star is where the school is)

According to the info that Amity sent me, the climate is "Comparatively mild. Rarely snow during the winter, although it can get very cold." I'm glad I'm bringing my coat, but it looks like my snowboots will be mostly unnecessary. :/ Not sure how I feel about a snow-free winter, but I figure if I miss the white stuff I can take a train North. :) I don't know where the apartment is yet, bbut it's supposed to be within 5-10 minutes from my school (my school, hee hee!), so I won't have to worry about having to travel too far to get to work every day. It will be hard not to let that become a reason to sleep in daily. 


I tried to be a total creeper and "google street-view" the area, but unfortunately it's not one of the places marked out for that super awesome feature. I'll just have to sit here and imagine it for a few more months. ^_^ As soon as Amity sends me the hire-packet with all my forms and stuff in it, I can get my plane ticket and seriously pack my stuff! The information they've sent me by email has been so helpful, as well as the stuff I've researched online over the past few hours! I found a weekly video-news in English for the area, a city guide for foreigners with information about local hospitals and trash pick-up, and a little guide book that you can print out and take with you to doctors or post offices and point at if you need help and don't know all the words (like "I need stamps" or something). I'm going to try really hard to learn as much Japanese as possible so that I can do that on my own, but it looks like it would be a lot of help!


Anyway, it's official: I'm going to Japan! Please continue to read and support my blog as I keep you updated on all my adventures!

Stress, Grad Photos, and Anticipation

So, I've been putting off updating this blog while I wait for SOMETHING to happen in regard to my Amity job, but since it's been several weeks, I thought I'd just do an update anyway. 


First off: my classes are over, I passed everything, and I have my graduation ceremony in one week from today. YAY! I'm done with college! :D


I've been a bit stressed out recently... In June/July, Amity announced that they had positions available to start in September, October, and November...and then burned through the first two in under one month, leaving nothing but the November spots open. Since my graduation is at the tail-end of August, I sent Amity a letter from my academic adviser and my transcript so that they would be able to possibly hold a November position for me until I can get them my diploma next week. It's been over a week and they still haven't contacted me. I don't know if that means that there are no spots, or that they forgot about me, or that they just haven't had the time to contact me yet. But it's driving me insane... Every day I check my emails hourly, hoping that they will email me, and my phone is never far from hand's reach.  I don't want to call them or email again, because I don't want to pester them any more, but I also want to make sure that they remember me. *SIGH* It will be fun to look back on this when I do get my placement and laugh at how unnecessarily anxious I was.... I hope... :P


On the sunny side (lol), I did get to take my photographs for my graduation announcements yesterday with my mom. Here are just a few of the ones we took (they look better at the regular size, but for space-sake I made them a bit smaller):

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

              

              




Pretty cool, huh?


I'm actually kinda excited about graduation, even though I originally didn't want to go to the ceremony. I can't believe that after all this time I'm finally finished! :D It took me 6 years to complete college, and here I am finally done. It's weird to be at home with nothing to do other than work. No homework or papers to write, even though I'm still practicing Japanese on my own. Now if my job would just come through, everything would be perfect! 


Short post today I guess, like I said I just wanted to do a small update. I'm spending my Sunday playing Minecraft and watching Supernatural. ^_^ So, to sum up all that's been happening lately:

Sunnyside Up: 


- Taking photos with Mom and Krys
- NO MORE CLASSES! :D
- Interview at Panera tomorrow
- Tried my first durian... not really a pleasant experience, but fun!

Sunnyside Down: 


- No word from Amity yet....
- My stupid job doesn't give me enough hours...
- Mosquito bites... :(

Looking Ahead:

- Getting my diploma!
- Going to Japan!
- My birthday in November!