And so this week, I get some very welcome news about housing. Prof. Haruo Shirane, the guy who'll be supervising me at Columbia, mentioned that I should contact him if I had any problems with housing - so I did. And true to his word, a few days later he got back to me to say that he had spoken to a few people and they have told him that they will be able to get me on-campus accommodation. Which is fantastic, it'll make things a lot easier from a point of view of knowing where I live and not having to live in a B&B for 2 weeks, not to mention the social aspect of being able to meet other CU students right off the bat. Always helps to know people who know people...Prof. Shirane, you rock! He's also been responsible for making me an additional $5,000 less poor next year, so I owe this guy big time. Bottle of Shiogama's finest Nihonshu has his name marked on it. お世話様です。
I also have a new official Columbia e-mail address, which excited me rather more than it really ought to.
Tuesday, went for kaiten-zushi with Anette, Jemma and Steph. Didn't pay, since Anette bought me dinner for helping her out with her laptop...I made sure to take advantage. Although she ate more than I did to be honest.
Also, as of this afternoon, I have booked my flight home to the UK for the 20th July. After first thinking about going with Air China via Beijing, various factors put me off that one (doubts about whether I would need a visa, some horror stories about the airline in general) and so I changed my reservation to Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong. Considering the season, I think I got a pretty good deal at 128,000 yen, and this of course means I can skim 70,000 or so off for myself. Result.
Got Friday off, am going out with the Shiogama Clan for one final fling together on Saturday, and Sunday evening I'm meeting some US grad-school bound people for sushi in the 'gama. Should be good.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Mixed News
So, it's here -
a mere six days. I'm impressed. American bureaucracy's bad name is obviously thoroughly undeserved, as I will no doubt find out repeatedly when I get there.
As for the issuance of the visa itself, I can think of no more apposite remarks than Brad - "Oh the humanity..." and Isaac - "There goes the neighbourhood".
Not so great news on the housing front; I'm on the Wait list for University Apartment Housing, which could be good and could not. I won't learn until mid-August, which could be too late, so I'm going to set about finding somewhere to live outside of that framework. Judging by the listings on the CU site and various places including Craig's List, it actually won't make that much difference financially - rents are more or less in the same bracket. But if I do end up with a psycho room mate, at the very least it'll make for interesting reading for you lot.
On a side note, I'm knackered. Been working really hard the last couple of weeks...it seems that everyone wants a piece of me before I go.
a mere six days. I'm impressed. American bureaucracy's bad name is obviously thoroughly undeserved, as I will no doubt find out repeatedly when I get there.
As for the issuance of the visa itself, I can think of no more apposite remarks than Brad - "Oh the humanity..." and Isaac - "There goes the neighbourhood".
Not so great news on the housing front; I'm on the Wait list for University Apartment Housing, which could be good and could not. I won't learn until mid-August, which could be too late, so I'm going to set about finding somewhere to live outside of that framework. Judging by the listings on the CU site and various places including Craig's List, it actually won't make that much difference financially - rents are more or less in the same bracket. But if I do end up with a psycho room mate, at the very least it'll make for interesting reading for you lot.
On a side note, I'm knackered. Been working really hard the last couple of weeks...it seems that everyone wants a piece of me before I go.
Friday, June 17, 2005
I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition
And it wasn't what I got, either. Yes, it's official, the Yanks have just been misguided enough to issue me with a US visa. It was rather anticlimactic in the end, to be honest. I got up at 4.15 a.m. to go to Tokyo, so I'm going to write this now before the veil of sleep wipes everything away.
In retrospect it was a good thing that I got there early (8:24 arrival at Tokyo station) because by the time I had got myself to the Embassy, there was quite a large queue outside, around 80 or so people waiting to get in. There were, as advertised, airport-style security measures in place so I had to go through a couple of metal detectors and bag searches to get into the place. The Embassy itself is enormous, much bigger than I had thought it would be. Sorry, no pictures - they don't take kindly to people standing around photographing everything.
Anyway, after waiting for 40 mins or so outside, I got through the checkpoints and was shown into a room with about 80 or so other people all waiting for NIV Interviews (Non-Immigrant Visa). What would happen was that people would be called four or five at a time to a first window to check who they were and then to press their left and right index fingers onto a laser fingerprinting machine, I guess to see if they were wanted in connection with anything. I was called at 10:15 on the dot, as anticipated. Bloke behind the counter was polite if not effusive...
Bloke: So, you're going to New York, huh?
Me: Yes, that's right.
Bloke: Ever been there before?
Me: Yes, yes I have actually.
Bloke: My family's from Queens actually, New York Irish, my father's from Dublin.
Me: Oh really? They're both fine cities
and then I had my fingerprints taken. I was told at this point I would have to wait about 10-15 mins for my interview. In the event it was nearer 45.
The interview itself was not the sit-down one on one affair I had imagined it would be - rather, one approached the window, much in the style of a post office. The general feel of the place was not far removed from a benefits office in the UK, or at least it would have been if not for the odd hulking uniformed US marine walking by occasionally.
Anyway, after a rather boring and unpleasant 45 mins (it was pretty hot in Tokyo today, and you're not allowed to bring food or drink into the embassy), I was called over to the window and my interview began. It wasn't very long, so I'll reproduce it below:
Me: Hey, how's it going.
Bloke: Hi, how are ya. So, why did you choose Columbia?
Me: Well, a variety of reasons, but mainly because it was the only place that accepted me.
Bloke: (laughs) yeah? What are you going to study?
Me: Um, East Asian Studies, basically Japanese literature and history.
Bloke: You studied any Japanese before?
Me: Yes, I did my BA at Oxford in Japanese, and I'll have been doing it for 8 years now in September.
Bloke: So you won't be taking any language classes then?
Me: Actually, I probably will, just to get some cheap credits.
Bloke: (laughs) You know, I did my BA in Japanese at Columbia myself.
Me: Really? When did you graduate?
Bloke: 1997.
Me: Right, cos there's a Columbia grad in Japanese in Miyagi right now, but you wouldn't know him, I guess.
Bloke: Sure. Anyway, Mr. Tuck, this all seems fine, your documents are all in order, and you should have your visa in about a week. Thanks and good luck!
Me: Thanks!
And that was it. No grilling, not even any hard questions that I might reasonably have been expected to answer, like "What are you going to do when you finish your studies?" (you're supposed to answer "go home and not take any American jobs"). Didn't give me enough rope to hang myself, really...I think the only way I could have screwed it up would have been to say something monumentally hare-brained like
Bloke: Hi, how are ya. So, why did you choose Columbia?
Me: Well, after 9/11, I figure New York is the last place they'll be expecting another large-scale terrorist attack, so it seems like a good place to get started....ah, now that was one of the things Abdul told me not to say, damn it!
I guess having the documents in order and the I-20 from a university like Columbia sealed the deal before I got started, really. Given the amount of care I had take over the app, I was rather surprised to see people filling out forms on the day or getting their photo taken at the booth in the embassy grounds...surely something like this is important enough to spend a little time getting right.
So, anyway, I got away from the Embassy around ten past eleven, and headed over to Shinjuku to meet Nick for lunch. Was starving by this point, had had a substantial breakfast around 5 but was in dire need of more. We dined at the Subway right by the Keio Plaza, so beloved of misbehaving JETs everywhere. Nick had not one, not two but three job interviews that afternoon...I trust they went well. Lunch over, I went back across town to Otemachi, where an old college acquaintance Natasha now works, for Dow Jones Newswires. She took a late lunch to catch up - had been almost exactly three years since I'd last seen her. Second lunch was a cup of clam chowder...very American, and very good too. Tokyo may be hot, overcrowded and ridiculously expensive but it does have its compensations.
Got back to Sendai about 5:30 in the end, absolutely knackered and still am. Off into Sendai to celebrate Curtis's birthday tonight, but I think I'll probably fall asleep before we can finish the nomihodai.
Signing off for today...
In retrospect it was a good thing that I got there early (8:24 arrival at Tokyo station) because by the time I had got myself to the Embassy, there was quite a large queue outside, around 80 or so people waiting to get in. There were, as advertised, airport-style security measures in place so I had to go through a couple of metal detectors and bag searches to get into the place. The Embassy itself is enormous, much bigger than I had thought it would be. Sorry, no pictures - they don't take kindly to people standing around photographing everything.
Anyway, after waiting for 40 mins or so outside, I got through the checkpoints and was shown into a room with about 80 or so other people all waiting for NIV Interviews (Non-Immigrant Visa). What would happen was that people would be called four or five at a time to a first window to check who they were and then to press their left and right index fingers onto a laser fingerprinting machine, I guess to see if they were wanted in connection with anything. I was called at 10:15 on the dot, as anticipated. Bloke behind the counter was polite if not effusive...
Bloke: So, you're going to New York, huh?
Me: Yes, that's right.
Bloke: Ever been there before?
Me: Yes, yes I have actually.
Bloke: My family's from Queens actually, New York Irish, my father's from Dublin.
Me: Oh really? They're both fine cities
and then I had my fingerprints taken. I was told at this point I would have to wait about 10-15 mins for my interview. In the event it was nearer 45.
The interview itself was not the sit-down one on one affair I had imagined it would be - rather, one approached the window, much in the style of a post office. The general feel of the place was not far removed from a benefits office in the UK, or at least it would have been if not for the odd hulking uniformed US marine walking by occasionally.
Anyway, after a rather boring and unpleasant 45 mins (it was pretty hot in Tokyo today, and you're not allowed to bring food or drink into the embassy), I was called over to the window and my interview began. It wasn't very long, so I'll reproduce it below:
Me: Hey, how's it going.
Bloke: Hi, how are ya. So, why did you choose Columbia?
Me: Well, a variety of reasons, but mainly because it was the only place that accepted me.
Bloke: (laughs) yeah? What are you going to study?
Me: Um, East Asian Studies, basically Japanese literature and history.
Bloke: You studied any Japanese before?
Me: Yes, I did my BA at Oxford in Japanese, and I'll have been doing it for 8 years now in September.
Bloke: So you won't be taking any language classes then?
Me: Actually, I probably will, just to get some cheap credits.
Bloke: (laughs) You know, I did my BA in Japanese at Columbia myself.
Me: Really? When did you graduate?
Bloke: 1997.
Me: Right, cos there's a Columbia grad in Japanese in Miyagi right now, but you wouldn't know him, I guess.
Bloke: Sure. Anyway, Mr. Tuck, this all seems fine, your documents are all in order, and you should have your visa in about a week. Thanks and good luck!
Me: Thanks!
And that was it. No grilling, not even any hard questions that I might reasonably have been expected to answer, like "What are you going to do when you finish your studies?" (you're supposed to answer "go home and not take any American jobs"). Didn't give me enough rope to hang myself, really...I think the only way I could have screwed it up would have been to say something monumentally hare-brained like
Bloke: Hi, how are ya. So, why did you choose Columbia?
Me: Well, after 9/11, I figure New York is the last place they'll be expecting another large-scale terrorist attack, so it seems like a good place to get started....ah, now that was one of the things Abdul told me not to say, damn it!
I guess having the documents in order and the I-20 from a university like Columbia sealed the deal before I got started, really. Given the amount of care I had take over the app, I was rather surprised to see people filling out forms on the day or getting their photo taken at the booth in the embassy grounds...surely something like this is important enough to spend a little time getting right.
So, anyway, I got away from the Embassy around ten past eleven, and headed over to Shinjuku to meet Nick for lunch. Was starving by this point, had had a substantial breakfast around 5 but was in dire need of more. We dined at the Subway right by the Keio Plaza, so beloved of misbehaving JETs everywhere. Nick had not one, not two but three job interviews that afternoon...I trust they went well. Lunch over, I went back across town to Otemachi, where an old college acquaintance Natasha now works, for Dow Jones Newswires. She took a late lunch to catch up - had been almost exactly three years since I'd last seen her. Second lunch was a cup of clam chowder...very American, and very good too. Tokyo may be hot, overcrowded and ridiculously expensive but it does have its compensations.
Got back to Sendai about 5:30 in the end, absolutely knackered and still am. Off into Sendai to celebrate Curtis's birthday tonight, but I think I'll probably fall asleep before we can finish the nomihodai.
Signing off for today...
Thursday, June 16, 2005
The night before
So I'm off to the US Embassy tomorrow at an ungodly hour (leaving Shiogama at 5:40) for the interview for my student visa. Let me just check I've got everything...
I'm also meeting a good friend of mine, Nick of the North, for lunch as he has a couple of job interviews in Tokyo. A leisurely lunch for me, for I will have finished...he may not be quite so relaxed. More to follow...
- Current and previous passports over the last 10 years (all 3 of them)
- Hard copy of appointment form
- DS-156
- Photo of self, 5cm x 5cm
- Original receipt of $100 application fee (actually 10800 yen, internet payment NG)
- DS-157
- Self-addressed ExPack 500 Pre-paid envelope
- Clear Plastic Folder
- Valid Japanese Re-entry permit
- Photocopy of both sides of Gaijin card
- DS-158
- I-20
- I-901 Fee confirmation ($100, paid online)
- Letter of acceptance from US university
- Proof of funds to cover expenses
- Proof of adequate academic preparation for course of study
I'm also meeting a good friend of mine, Nick of the North, for lunch as he has a couple of job interviews in Tokyo. A leisurely lunch for me, for I will have finished...he may not be quite so relaxed. More to follow...
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Heart attack in the classroom
So I have a shogakko visit (elementary school) as one of my regular things here in Shiogama. I play games with the kids, teach them about the UK, generally hang out with them, answer their questions and, I guess, get them used to being around a foreigner. Today I played the Harry Potter game with them (make ten of the kids Voldemorts, give them wands, and set them loose on the other kids...see the link for more details), let the kids wear my mortar board, showed them some UK currency and so on.
Now, I normally eat school lunch with the kids before I leave in the afternoon to go back to the office. There's two extremes with your average shogakusei, they either sit there in complete silence or they ask you so many questions that you literally don't have time to shovel the food into your mouth. The food, incidentally, is not half bad - today it was a rather ecletic mix of Chinese seafood noodle salad, soup, and a hot dog. Anyway, this bunch, Tamagawa Shogakko 3-1, are as lively as you like and don't stop asking questions all lunchtime. At the end, one of the kids gets up and says he has something to give to me.
So, he stands up in front of the class, and proffers this folded piece of paper, with some writing in Japanese and English on it. It says something like "Dried Scorpion, from Taiwan, Souvenir" or something similar. Now before I take it, he tells me very deliberately in Japanese that I have to be extremely careful with this, because, he says, if I touch it, it'll come back to life. He then gives it to me and tells me to open it. So, expecting to see a dried scorpion or something, I open it up, and suddenly there's a loud buzzing and the packet vibrates! I immediately drop it like a hot potato, to the immense amusement of the entire class, who are all in on the joke. The kid picks up the package and shows me the mechanism - it's a rubber band, paper clip and coke tab rigged up to rattle when you open the paper up. I'll happily admit it scared the bejeezus out of me. As soon as I realised what had happened though, I laughed my ass off. Good on the little bugger, something original, daring, and, dare I say it, hilariously funny - and I fell for it, hook, line and sinker. Shatters the image of the shy J-kid terrified of the gaijin, anyway...the kids loved it. They all queued up to get my autograph afterwards as well - they go nuts when you sign your name for them. I guess primary school kids in the UK or elsewhere would love it if I wrote my name in kanji or something similar.
Anyway, I thought merited recording. Not much else to report, just getting the documents together for my interview on Friday.
Now, I normally eat school lunch with the kids before I leave in the afternoon to go back to the office. There's two extremes with your average shogakusei, they either sit there in complete silence or they ask you so many questions that you literally don't have time to shovel the food into your mouth. The food, incidentally, is not half bad - today it was a rather ecletic mix of Chinese seafood noodle salad, soup, and a hot dog. Anyway, this bunch, Tamagawa Shogakko 3-1, are as lively as you like and don't stop asking questions all lunchtime. At the end, one of the kids gets up and says he has something to give to me.
So, he stands up in front of the class, and proffers this folded piece of paper, with some writing in Japanese and English on it. It says something like "Dried Scorpion, from Taiwan, Souvenir" or something similar. Now before I take it, he tells me very deliberately in Japanese that I have to be extremely careful with this, because, he says, if I touch it, it'll come back to life. He then gives it to me and tells me to open it. So, expecting to see a dried scorpion or something, I open it up, and suddenly there's a loud buzzing and the packet vibrates! I immediately drop it like a hot potato, to the immense amusement of the entire class, who are all in on the joke. The kid picks up the package and shows me the mechanism - it's a rubber band, paper clip and coke tab rigged up to rattle when you open the paper up. I'll happily admit it scared the bejeezus out of me. As soon as I realised what had happened though, I laughed my ass off. Good on the little bugger, something original, daring, and, dare I say it, hilariously funny - and I fell for it, hook, line and sinker. Shatters the image of the shy J-kid terrified of the gaijin, anyway...the kids loved it. They all queued up to get my autograph afterwards as well - they go nuts when you sign your name for them. I guess primary school kids in the UK or elsewhere would love it if I wrote my name in kanji or something similar.
Anyway, I thought merited recording. Not much else to report, just getting the documents together for my interview on Friday.
Friday, June 10, 2005
How much?
Been looking around the vaccination issue...if I can't get my records transferred across from Oxford, it'll be possible to have a test done (called a titre, apparently) which will detect the presence of antibodies and thus satisfy the requirements...the only problem is that it will cost at least ￡67 on the NHS and ￡137 if done private. Not a cheap business.
Since I haven't been in Oxford for three years now, that means the surgery will have been collecting a fee from the NHS for me even though I'm not there, for the past 3 years. GP Nirvana. Hang on...collecting money from the government...for doing nothing...for up to three years...sound familiar to anyone?
On a sort of semi-related note, good luck to my brother Mike who is interviewing with architectural firms in NYC this week. If all goes according to plan, there will be not one but two Tucks in New York from this autumn. One was bad enough, surely...
The weekend dawns...I don't really have any plans, probably just go to Sendai. It's raining, which is not at all satisfactory.
Since I haven't been in Oxford for three years now, that means the surgery will have been collecting a fee from the NHS for me even though I'm not there, for the past 3 years. GP Nirvana. Hang on...collecting money from the government...for doing nothing...for up to three years...sound familiar to anyone?
On a sort of semi-related note, good luck to my brother Mike who is interviewing with architectural firms in NYC this week. If all goes according to plan, there will be not one but two Tucks in New York from this autumn. One was bad enough, surely...
The weekend dawns...I don't really have any plans, probably just go to Sendai. It's raining, which is not at all satisfactory.
Monday, June 06, 2005
6 weeks on Wednesday
So the I-20 finally shows up today (Monday), after having been sent to the UK first. Reckon it must have nearly completed a full circuit of the globe, although I think we can probably forgive the good folks at Columbia that little mistake, given that they were so quick in processing the whole thing. So now everything I need for the interview is gathered together, more or less; I still have a total of $200 in application and processing fees I need to pay before the whole thing can go through. Not something I am particularly happy about, but it's not something that can really be helped.
And another hoop to jump through; I also have to find my vaccination records from 1983 or thereabouts, as apparently New York public health law requires proof of vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella before any student at a university or college can register for classes. This might prove a bit tricky, as I had mumps as a kid (which means I probably wasn't immunised against it), but apparently there are tests for antibodies or whatever which can confirm immunity. Might not be easy to do quickly under the NHS though, and so far as I know my medical records are still in Oxford. This could prove rather problematic...
I must commend the US authorities on doing a stirling job to make sure I'm not an illiterate, impoverished and disease-ridden terrorist.
Weekend saw a small-scale night out in Sendai on Friday, then nothing much for the rest. Helped the very lovely Nicky Furniss put together the Drum (prefectural JET magazine) on Sunday, spent a leisurely couple of hours with her after lunch, and that was about it.
Work plods along much the same as before, rather busier than usual. Visits to Tagajo Higashi Shogakko and Tamagawa Shogakko, plus Eikaiwa on Weds and a speech for Shiogama Labour Union Association to work on this week - should keep me out of trouble.
And as the title implies, there's not much time left for me here now. Still not completely sure how I feel about leaving - I probably won't be until I have left. In an ideal world I would have liked to have been able to take the job at the Kencho and stay for another year, or maybe more - I really do like Sendai and the Tohoku region, and I have some great friends out here who I will be sorry to leave behind. But in many ways JET is a lot like life's snooze button, and it's time to get up, however hard that may be.
Plus I'll finally be able to get reasonably priced fruit and veg.
And another hoop to jump through; I also have to find my vaccination records from 1983 or thereabouts, as apparently New York public health law requires proof of vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella before any student at a university or college can register for classes. This might prove a bit tricky, as I had mumps as a kid (which means I probably wasn't immunised against it), but apparently there are tests for antibodies or whatever which can confirm immunity. Might not be easy to do quickly under the NHS though, and so far as I know my medical records are still in Oxford. This could prove rather problematic...
I must commend the US authorities on doing a stirling job to make sure I'm not an illiterate, impoverished and disease-ridden terrorist.
Weekend saw a small-scale night out in Sendai on Friday, then nothing much for the rest. Helped the very lovely Nicky Furniss put together the Drum (prefectural JET magazine) on Sunday, spent a leisurely couple of hours with her after lunch, and that was about it.
Work plods along much the same as before, rather busier than usual. Visits to Tagajo Higashi Shogakko and Tamagawa Shogakko, plus Eikaiwa on Weds and a speech for Shiogama Labour Union Association to work on this week - should keep me out of trouble.
And as the title implies, there's not much time left for me here now. Still not completely sure how I feel about leaving - I probably won't be until I have left. In an ideal world I would have liked to have been able to take the job at the Kencho and stay for another year, or maybe more - I really do like Sendai and the Tohoku region, and I have some great friends out here who I will be sorry to leave behind. But in many ways JET is a lot like life's snooze button, and it's time to get up, however hard that may be.
Plus I'll finally be able to get reasonably priced fruit and veg.
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