What now?

Okay, if you have been reading my ramblings thus far, then you should be more or less at the same point I am now.

Hopefully you have received your passport on time, and I mean with enough time. I'm not referring to the kind of "on time" that has you stopping by the post office on your way to the airport demanding they give you your mail.

Anyways, assuming all is going according to plan and there have been no major delays, then right now you are just waiting for your departure date to arrive. AND, what should you be doing while you wait? That's right, you should be doing something productive with your time.

My recommendation is that you get your affairs and things ready for your departure. Depending on how long you will be abroad, you might need to make plans for some minors things, such as paying bills, so that you don't have any problems from home while you are away. Now, I am not referring to paying rent or anything like that, but things like the cellphone bill, cable, internet, credit cards, computers, and whatever other things you have to pay on a regular basis.

Now, how you go about this is solely up to you. But, it is better to get them in order before you go and not while you are over there. Give yourself a peace of mind so that you can focus on what you are doing abroad. No sense adding more worries to whatever other worries you already have.

There are also other things you can do while you wait. One thing I found helpful was taking the time to decide what I want to take to Japan, aside from important documents and such. Things such as cloths and small items that will remind me of home were at the top of my list. I am sure that even though I might not admit it now, at one point or another I will find myself feeling homesick. Might as well plan ahead, right?

So, okay, that is pretty much what I have at this point. I am a little more of a week away from my departure date. I am almost 100% certain when I say that I am ready to go.

Congratulations folks, and to myself, you and I have caught up to the current point in time where all this is taking place. Does this count as time travel?

Almost There

Welcome back folks! The mood has struck me again, so I will post something.

Alright, in my last post I mentioned that waiting was perhaps the hardest part of the whole study abroad process. Can you guess what comes after you've waited for a reply, hm? No, no one? Well, what you do next is...

Wait some more!

Yes folks, that's correct! After you wait for a reply and you finally receive said reply, you have to wait some more. Now, this might be different depending on your study abroad program, but in some way or form you are still going to have to wait a bit more.

Now, thanks to modern day technology you will likely receive the reply of whether or not you got accepted into the program well in advance before your information packet arrives from the university or school in which you will be studying while abroad. Hopefully however, this should arrive rather quickly. All of course depending on the postal system and what courier they decided to use.

So, why do you have to wait for this information packet? Well, within it you will find your arrival information and other important instructions that you will need at some point or another. Also, depending on the length of your program, you will receive your ever so important certificate of sponsorship (also referred to as a sponsor's note, certificate of eligibility, sponsorship, etc.). Without this certificate, it is likely that you will not be able to get a visa.

Why do you need this certificate to apply for a long term visa?

Well, this certificate basically tells the embassy, from which you are applying for a visa, that you are going to their country for the specified reason or reasons you have given them in the application. No certificate, no visa. Its that simple.

SO, while you wait for your information packet and certificate of sponsorship to arrive, you should continue trying to keep yourself busy. No sense loosing that newly acquired habit, huh?

Now, assuming you did all the required leg work at the beginning of this whole process, you should have an idea of where the embassy is. However, if you don't know where the embassy is yet (shame on you), then this is the perfect and last chance to do so. By NO means should you leave the visa application for the last possible minute. Applying for a visa can take time, and by that I don't mean hours. It can take days, weeks, and in the most drastic of cases it can take months. If you wait till the last minute possible, you can very easily find yourself on the other side of that window looking onto the tar mat as your airplane leaves without you.

As such was my luck, I received my information packet and certificate of eligibility one month before my scheduled arrival date. I mailed it to the Japanese Embassy in L.A. (yes, that's the nearest one for Arizona) as soon as it was in my hands. I had the envelope ready and all the required extra copies and my passport inside the envelope. I am glad to say that it only took them about a week and a half to receive it, process it, send it back, and for me to receive it.

That being said, my only advice for this post is that you be prepared. If you have to wait, then wait and use your time wisely. Get things ready to go because, at this point, as soon as things start getting in motion, you can and may find yourself wishing you had an extra few weeks to prepare.

Still Some Time Left

Alright, in my last post I talked about having a plan. Assuming you got all your paperwork turned in, and on time, what you have to do next is perhaps obvious. All you have to do now is wait. Sounds simple enough, huh? Well, you're wrong!

Waiting is perhaps the hardest thing you'll have to do. This is mainly because after you do all that running around trying to get your paperwork turned in and what not, you begin to realize how big a deal this really is. Questions such as, "Did I fill out that part correctly?" or, "Did I forget to fill that part out?" will pop into your head and gnaw at it like rabbit on a carrot. You'll also begin to wonder about a lot of "what if" scenarios.

"What if they don't accept me and I already told everyone?"
"What if I wait till the last minute to do anything and then I can't get anything done before I go?"
"What if I get accepted and then something happens and I can't go after getting everything done?"
"What if I can't get my airplane ticket on time?"
"What if I forget/forgot something important?"
"What if my financing/scholarships get pulled before/after I'm there?"
"What if..."

These are just the tip of the iceberg people. Believe me when I say that just when you think you answered (read "Buried in the crevices of the back of your mind") more and more will come up. And trust me, some of them will just be silly. Well, you'll realize they are silly after the fact, but when they hit you, they'll be the most serious thing you've thought of up to that point.

Now, for these questions and "what if's" there is no real or easy solution. Things will or will not happen, and you'll have to deal with these things when they do or do not happen. This is all of course IF they happen or do not happen at all... Confusing huh? My point is though, that while you are waiting, things will begin to settle in and your mind will begin to wonder.

Some people while waiting will have more doubts, questions, worries, or "what if's" than other people will. This is just the nature of the beast, so be prepared for it. My suggestion for this is perhaps obvious and somewhat simple. Are you ready for it? Here it is...

Keep yourself busy!

What it all boils down to in the end, is that there are just some things that do you no real good to worry about them. Sure, some worries are more valid than others, but that's just it. Don't just worry about it, do something while you have time to wait.

If you are concerned about finances, look up other income alternatives for before and after you are there.
If you worry about what will happen if you do or do not get accepted, then look at alternatives. Talk to people that have gone or have tried to go on a study abroad program.
If you are concerned about anything, just look it up! Talk to people (especially your program coordinator), look it up on the internet, read a book, but don't just linger on it.

If you worry and do nothing, it will just drag on and it will feel like an eternity. If you worry and keep yourself busy, it will not seem like an eternity and some of those worries will be answered or disappear all together.

Think of it as an odd combination of the saying that, "patience if a virtue" and the saying of, "idle hands are the devil's play thing."

You will have more time than you think while waiting for an answer from your study abroad program. Use it wisely!

Lets get this show rolling!

Alright, its that time again. I figured since I have more or less a month till I have to be at the airport, I might as well start posting something in relation to this whole endeavor. So, that being said, I think I'll start with what one should consider or plan when deciding to go off and study abroad.

First thing one should realize is that you need a plan. An attack plan so that you can catch the enemy with their pants down. A plan is key, a plan is everything, you do not disobey the plan or the consequences will be dire. Everyone, including your dog, will shun you and you will be cast out like a plagued rat to the street corner... Okay, maybe not dire. Your dog won't shun you but everyone else will, including the study abroad program you are applying for.

So, what am I trying to say? I'm saying you need to be organized and plan ahead. You need to try and have everything ready before they ask you for it. I myself have never been a really organized person. Well, not for a lot of things anyway. I first talked to my program coordinator well over a year ago. Granted that some of the things he told me went in one ear and out the other, but I still managed to get everything done well in advance.

So, my best suggestion for you in the early stages of going to study abroad would be that as soon as the idea hits your noggin, get as much information on it as you can. Check to see what paperwork or documents you will need. Try and figure out what deadlines you will need to observe and how much things will cost you. Usually, you can get all this information from the program coordinator or from the program website. Neither of these two will refuse you information and if anything, talking to a program coordinator will be the best thing you can do. Use whatever resources you have at your disposal.

Once the idea has firmly cemented itself in your brain, and its something that you can do, then by all means do it. If you got the information ahead of time and started looking into what things you already have ready and what you need to get ready, then you should be able to have everything done well before the deadline for the application. I am not saying things will magically get done on their own if you did the research in advance, but you will still have to do all the leg-work.

Now, I am not saying that nothing will go wrong. Something has to go wrong in order for something to turn out right. So expect it and be prepared. I think with my application, the only issue I had was that I accidentally filled out an outdated version of one of the forms in the application packet. I found this out because the program coordinator in Japan contacted my program coordinator here in the States and emailed him the newer version of the form that I needed to fill out. This was after my original application packet had already been mailed to Japan. If you've ever mailed anything to another country, you know it takes time. Something like this is perhaps common, but if not handled immediately, it can delay your application. However, because I had done the research before hand and managed to have everything ready in advance and turned in my application well before the original deadline, I was able to fill out the new form and send it to them in a timely manner. Obviously everything worked out.

SO! If you have kept on reading through my rambling, you should have a clearer idea of what I'm trying to tell you. However, if you are the type of person that likes to read the beginning and then skip to the bottom, I will impart upon you my advice in a different manner...

"Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare." -Japanese Proverb-

Oddly enough, this little piece of advice came to me through means of a bottle cap, given to me by a classmate that knew I was going off to Japan to study abroad.

Lets see how many more bottle caps I can base my advice off of.