One week left!

I can't believe that a week from right now, I'll be sitting at JFK airport, waiting to depart to Johannesburg airport. That is the first stop in our journey.

So a little update... here's what's going down next week. Next Tuesday morning (the 26th), mom's driving me down to Center City, because staging is in PHILLY! A day of orienting, vaccinations, etc. Then prolly followed by a night of stuffing our faces full of American food (I got S.O.S's pizza fries on the brain) and some sight seeing maybe.

At 2:30am Wednesday (27th), we're off for JFK airport. We'll arrive at JFK around 4:30am. The plane is at 11:15am. We arrive the morning of the 28th in Johannesburg. They'll give us a chance to change into something a little nicer from plane clothes. Then a 4-5 hour bus ride to Mbabane, the capital of Swaziland. So yeah.... about 2 days in transit for that.

At this point, I'm pretty much all packed except for some stuff I'm waiting on from Amazon. I made the stupid mistake of sending it to Normal instead of Philly, so now I had to rebuy everything. They said the easiest thing to do would be to rebuy it, and have the roomies reject the packages in Normal. When Amazon gets those back from there, they would refund me. Also, I'm going to pick up some prescriptions sunglasses today I ordered cause I decided not to wear contacts in Swaziland.

I made some new business cards made up for myself for networking.

And lastly, here's my temporary address for the first 9 weeks while we're in training. Send me stuff!!!!

Danni Shtraus

Peace Corps Swaziland
Box 2797
Mbabane H100
Swaziland
AFRICA

Bumps in the road: vaccines and capstone options

So I decided to be proactive (haven't sent off my Peace Corps passport details yet, oops!), and figure out where I can get my yellow fever vaccine for around the price Peace Corps will cover for it. Peace Corps covers up to $150, but the local Travel Clinic will cost around $300-350. So it seems like I may have to head out to Peoria for the vaccine. Only problems there is a.) I have to find a way to Peoria which is an hour away when I don't have a car, and b.) they don't want to do the vaccine because their documents say Swaziland is not at risk of yellow fever. So tomorrow I'll be faxing them the Peace Corps documents to them in hopes that they would change their mind and do the shot for me. *breath*

The other issue is my capstone. It's turning into very much the chicken and egg process.
1.) It's hard to pick a capstone topic before I find out what I'm doing in the Peace Corps if I'm meant to relate the topic to my assignment. It's hard to find out my assignment before I go through Peace Corps training. It's hard to do preliminary research on my topic while in the Peace Corps.
2.) I'm encouraged to pick a faculty who I feel will fit my capstone topic to be my advisor. Refer to (problem 1).
3.) Doing youth development, I will most likely need to do an IRB review for my capstone project. It will be hard to do this in the Peace Corps. If I had a professor to be my advisor, they would be able to help me through the IRB process. Refer to (problem 2).
*sigh*

New checklist

As of now, here's all I have done:

+ Apply for and get accepted to TUJ
+ Send in FAFSA.
+ Certificate of Eligibility
+ Scholarship applications (if applying for any of these, keep an eye out for deadlines)
+ Temple Japan Scholarship {max $5,000}
_ Student Visa
+ Plane Ticket
_ Pay Tuition (already paid the $200 deposit)
+ Housing (I couldn't choose it yet, but I applied)
_ Pay Housing (already paid the $200 deposit)
+Pick Classes
+ Risk and Release form
+ Health Information and Emergency Contact Info form
_ Get Textbooks (can do after picking classes)
_ Life insurance (you have to get a Japanese one to go to TUJ)
+ Find cheap cellphone
_ Get supplies you can't get in Japan (such as a stock of perscription contacts, stronger medicine cause in Asia the doses are weaker, and deodorant because someone told me they don't sell under-arm deodorant in Japan because they don't sweat as much)
_ Get cheapest local transportation deals
_ Pack Luggage

Registered classes

A couple weeks ago, we received the classes for fall in Japan. I've been waiting for this sooo long!!

These are the classes I've chosen:
Intro to East Asia: Japan (MWF 10-11)
Japanese Advanced I (MWF 2:10-3:10)
Intellectual Heritage II (MWF 4:50-5:50)
Japan in a Changing World Order (TR 3:50-5:20)
International Politics (TR 5:30-7:00)

I BOOKED MY PLANE TICKET!!!

Today, I officially booked my plane ticket. With rising gas prices... I couldn't wait any longer.

Other stuff on my checklist that's done:
+ Scholarship applications
+ Find cheap cellphone http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/prepaid/about/charges.html
The phone plan sounds like a great deal, but I dunno if it's still available. I heard that the government is trying to get rid of pre-paid phones? We'll see....

Also, added some stuff to my Japan To Do list:
[ ] Yamanote Halloween Train
[ ] Sleep in a capsule hotel
[ ] Kiss a Japanese boy

Checklist of what's done...

Here's all the stuff that needs to be done generally to get to Japan...

+ Apply for and get accepted to TUJ. (although there's all semester for this, the sooner the better. Also, since there's more paperwork in the future, you don't have to squish it all into the last minute)
+ Send in FAFSA. (Well, since the deadline was March 1st, I'd be suicidal to not have it done by now)
_ Certificate of Eligibility
_ Scholarship applications (if applying for any of these, keep an eye out for deadlines)
- Temple Japan Scholarship (almost done, just have to write the essay ><) {max $5,000}
- Bridging Scholarship (also, just have to get the essay done) {max $4000}
- Freeman Asia Scholarship (I have to get the names of a financial aid advisor and an international studies advisor before i can proceed with this) {max $7000}
- Benjamin Gilman Scholarship (can't apply since I didn't receive a Pell Grant this year) {max $5000}
- NSEP Scholarship (not applying for it because I want to get it for Grad School, although I realized too late that you can qualify for both) {max $20,000}
_ Student Visa
_ Plane Ticket
_ Pay Tuition (already paid the $200 deposit)
_ Housing (can do in May)
_ Pick Classes (can do in May)
_ Risk and Release form (can do in May)
_ Health Information and Emergency Contact Info form (can do in May)
_ Get Textbooks (can do after picking classes)
_ Life insurance (you have to get a Japanese one to go to TUJ)
_ Find cheap cellphone
_ Get supplies you can't get in Japan (such as a stock of perscription contacts, stronger medicine cause in Asia the doses are weaker, and deodorant because someone told me they don't sell under-arm deodorant in Japan because they don't sweat as much)
_ Get cheapest local transportation deals
_ Pack Luggage