A lot has happened since my last post, so now is the time to fill everyone in on what has gone on lately.
Friday Dinner with all of the Japan-Bound Students
Our dinner experience turned out to be a wonderful way to meet new people and talk about our hopes, worries, and the experiences we hope to have during our time abroad. I am typically a shy guy around new people, but being around a group of people with similar interests really helped make it easier to talk to people. Thank you again Tyler for organizing and hosting a wonderful dinner. There were six people in all that attended; Tyler, Megan, Blaine, Trey, Jesse, and I. Everyone had a great time and it turned out to be a very successful event. I really hope that everyone is able to meet up in the spring and spend a weekend together catching up, sharing experiences, and traveling. Trey is back this semester from spending at year at Kansai Gaidai Univeristy, and he was able to help answer a lot of the questions that the three heading there in the spring had to ask him. Our Japanese themed dinner menu included:
-miso soup
-rice
-edamame
-Ramune (soft drink)
-mochi (rice cakes)
It was interesting hearing about life at Kansai Gaidai and how it will differ in some ways from the experience Jesse and I will have. I don't know about the demographics of Kansai Gaidai, but I think that Shinshu averages between 2-4 Americans per semester. The information booklet I received from OSU for Shinshu shows that only 2 Americans were enrolled during 2006. Talk about being a minority! That is one aspect that I am really looking forward to about Shinshu. Being immersed in Japanese and having to use it survive daily life will really help our language skills grow.
Receiving the JASSO Scholarship
Anyone who has ever applied for a scholarship, only to receive a rejection letter in the mail (if you are me, they don't even spell your name correctly when they do it. How do you misspell Ball?) knows how frustrating it can be trying to obtain funds. Fortunately though, the JASSO only required a single sheet of paper being filled out; no essay or proposal, and I was randomly selected to receive this scholarship. Sounds perfect right? Not quite. There must be some hidden clause the university(ies) have in regards to the financial matters of those chosen to receive such a gift. I do not know exactly how they have it phrased, but I am guessing it is something along these lines;
" We ************* University, state that any recipient of such a scholarship should be forced to pay more for housing, lose financial backing that is supposed to ease the recipients worries, and find a glimmer of hope in the situation."
These things have all happened to me. Housing costs shot from $48/month for the international student dorm, to $300 for my own apartment. That is quite a little jump. A loan that would have helped to ease my worries was knocked off the table because of the JASSO. That may be a good thing or it may be bad, I haven't quite decided, but I will let you know 8 months in to my stay. As for the glimmer of hope, it truly is. With the amount of money the scholarship offers, I will be able to pay off rent/bills and still have enough so that Jesse and I can use it for travel, exploring, and enjoying ourselves when we have time during the week. This money will allow us to do the things we want without hopefully dipping into our personal funds at all. The good outweighs the bad and I should probably stop being a pessimist on the issue.
D-Day Approaches
Only 17 days separate Jesse and I from heading to our new home for a year, Matsumoto. We are both very excited to get to Japan and experience a culture different than our own. Our home city is located in Nagano Prefecture and we are surrounded by the beautiful Japanese Alps, forests, rivers, streams, old shrines and temples, and many other beautiful sights. Exploring places off the beaten path is something we both look forward to, and who knows what mysterious and beautiful places we will find? Time is ticking, and the 18th of September will be here before we know it.
That is all that I have to share now, but I will post more when I find out more news.
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