Friday, July 10, 2009

Flight Itinerary and Visa Woes

I believe I promised this entry...

If you are one of those people who like things done and done fast, you get stressed out when things are getting down to the last minute, you are female whose PMS can cause you to get extra stressed out and emotional, etc etc... I do not recommend a Two Part Adventure at Sophia and Kansai Gaidai.

For those who are wanting to study abroad for a semester/year, you will need to acquire a Certificate of Eligibility (abbreviated CoE/COE) from the school are attending to get your visa. Kansai Gaidai says that they do not recommend people come TOO early to Japan because they, KG, cannot guarantee you will get your COE in time to get your visa before you leave. Now, I'm leaving at the end of July, that makes me think I have plenty of times especially when I have been told so and read past blogs where people receive their COE at the beginning of July.

Well..... KG must be taking their sweet time this semester. If you have Facebook or any other social networking account try searching for others who are going abroad as well to your school to get to know people. I've already got a roomie :D The downside to this lately is hearing about everyone getting their acceptance before me, getting their COEs before me, and at times I'm just like "If I don't go, I don't go, oh well". Currently, though, I will admit I'm very "moody" *cough*PMS*cough* Although some people may hear you cannot apply for your visa in Japan, I have been told I can but their is a higher chance of being denied. So basically, the worst case scenario is that I will not go to KG. Hopefully it doesn't come down to that.

No word from Sophia since my big packet of maps. Though I'd like to comment on my ability to now figure out how to get from point A to point B on the map via train(s). Kinda awesome. I know buying my train ticket and getting on the right train is going to totally spoil that ability but..... hopefully I will be ok with travels.

I have bought my plane ticket (technically, it is on hold while my card is pending). I'm flying exactly what I flew last year to Japan. I leave at 6 am and should walk through customs into Japan by 3 pm :D Kinda nice. Only costed about 1225$

For those students going abroad, here is a nice website (Orbitz links to this, and I've heard of others using it so you can trust it unless any future posts say otherwise):
www.studentuniverse.com

The only thing annoying on that site is if you do your name wrong, you have to call them to change it. So go on and register and type your name EXACTLY as it is on your passport. I wanted to get angry and complain about that (like I said I'm moody) but the lady was so nice I didn't want to yell at her. Also, if you are a UWF student there is a possibility you may need to help them verify your student status. Just take screen shots of your account balance via Argus from the most current semester, even if it takes two shots, and paste into a word document. It needs to have your name, UWF (the address is at the bottom so that works), and the semester name and date.

Anyways... I'll be sure to update when I get my COE (which is sent next day delivery... now if Japan can manage that why can't Dell manage to build my new laptop and ship it in a week? Yet again, Japan wins).

I believe I had a TO DO list in an earlier post

*Buy a plane ticket |||CHECK|||
*Receive my visa |||STILL WAITING FOR COE|||
*Meet with Uni personal to get classes registered |||WILL BE REGISTERED ABOUT A WEEK AFTER EACH SEMESTER BEGINS|||
*Pay for summer tuition |||WILL BE ABLE TO AFTER I'M REGISTERED THROUGH MY UNI|||
*Double check my financial aid |||AWAITING REPLY|||
*Shop |||STARTING THAT SOON BUT MAY TAKE A WEEK|||
*Pack |||WILL DO A FEW DAYS BEFORE DEPARTURE|||
*Buy some new flip flops |||CHECK|||
*Maybe get some travelers checks |||WILL DO BEFORE DEPARTURE|||

Countdown: 17 days (I can HAHA at this point to all the KG students who are waiting 50 days or so... HAHAHAHAHA)

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