Less than a month to go...

I've started the process of getting ready for the trip that is less than a month away. The tickets are booked and ready to go (all times local):

• Depart 9:55 AM from Pittsburgh - Arrive 10:30 AM (Apr. 1) at Chicago (Flight time 1 hr, 35 min)
• Depart 1:10 PM from Chicago - Arrive 4:20 PM (Apr. 2) at Tokyo (Flight time 13 hr, 10 min)
• Depart 6:25 PM from Tokyo - Arrive 7:35 PM at Nagoya (Flight time 1 hr, 10 min)

And from Nagoya I'll be hopping into a Yamasa vehicle for a ride to the Okazaki campus. Now that there's an actual schedule, everything feels way more official...

...And yet there's still so much to do.

Get My Student Visa
Probably the most important thing I need to do is to continue filling out all the paperwork. Admissions sent me a bunch of PDF's asking about my housing preferences and arrival times and all that good stuff, which I filled out. Today I'll have to figure out how to get my signature onto the PDF and send it back to them so they can send me the next step in the visa process. Basically, once they get my paperwork I've filled out, they'll invoice me, I'll pay for two quarters, they'll send me an official letter of acceptance, and then I'll have to bring that to a consulate to get my actual physical student visa.

I'm not sure how that works. From what I can figure, I'll either need to send all the paperwork in the mail (which might include mailing my passport, which makes me a little nervous) or go visit the closest consulate and get my visa in person. I'd rather not miss much work, though, so hopefully they'll be open on a Saturday. We'll see, though. First step is getting all of the Yamasa paperwork out of the way.

Go Shopping
I'm going to need to do at least a little bit of shopping for things to take over there. All of my summer clothes are at least half a decade old at this point, so I'd really like to go out and get at least a few nice pairs of shorts and some t-shirts that aren't from high school marching band functions. Maybe some sandals, too, for the awesome summer weather I'm probably gonna encounter over there. I want to go to the beach at least once.

I was gonna include "buy a suitcase" in this section, but I went to my mom's place yesterday and she had gotten me a very nice suitcase, so that's one thing to scratch off the list! I'll need to figure out if I want two suitcases, though, and if I do, I'll borrow another from my dad or something. Then I'll need to figure out what's going on with carry-on bags. How many am I allowed? Which bags am I going to take? I'll need to also figure out how to get as many of my instruments over there as possible. I can't take all of them, I know, and I'll be leaving my big instruments at home (basses, trumpets, possibly violin) but I'll definitely be able to bring my smaller ones (flute, tinwhistle, harmonica, cornet, possibly ukulele). I guess I'll do a test run one of these days pretty soon to see how easy it'll be to pack all those in my suitcase.

I'd also like to hit the grocery store with a list of non-perishable foods (candy, mostly) that I won't be able to find over there. Not really for my own sake, but for sharing with people who may not have tried them before. Snickers and Starburst come to mind. Also maybe some pop tarts or granola bars as airport snacks.

Move Out of the Apartment
This is gonna be an interesting one, because it's going to involve a lot of sitting down and sorting all of my possessions into "keep" and "toss / donate" categories. The majority of my clothes are going to be donated. I don't think I'm gonna need my bedding material since I'll be getting that stuff when I'm over there.

The problem, really, is that I'm a packrat of epic proportions. I still have spiral notebooks full of notes from my freshman year when I was in Cincinnati. I'm gonna have to dig my heels in and force myself to throw away all that stuff that I'm never going to read again, much less actually use in my daily life. I'll keep my Japanese books, though. I'll probably even bring them with me. But I still have a statistics book that is currently being used to prop up a broken cabinet. I have an old calculus book. I have so many cords and computer parts in my closet that I can't even begin to imagine going through all of them.

But within the next few weeks I'm going to have to slowly move all my crap (that is, only the stuff I'm planning to keep) out of my apartment and to my dad's place. I should probably do that as a gradual thing so I don't spend the last week before my flight departs running back and forth doing a bunch of last minute stuff-hauling.

I really am gonna miss my
Bubble Bobble thumbtack art though.

Write a Letter For My Two-Week Notice
This should be a short-term priority for me, because I plan on officially giving my two-week notice this coming Friday, the 9th. That'll make my last day Friday the 23rd. Then I'll have that weekend, the whole next week, and then Saturday the 31st to finish all the stuff I need to do without distracting things like a 9-5 office job.

Probably a Bunch More Stuff
Of course, there's probably a lot more stuff to do that I just haven't thought about yet. The above will keep me occupied for the time being, however. I just need to force myself to do it now so that I'm not stuck on the 30th with panic attacks because there's still so much to do and not enough time.

This is gonna be fun.