Sorry I haven’t touched this blog ever since I set foot here in Japan. The problem about WordPress is that it is difficult to upload albums that is why I used my Multiply account instead to document my JTA experience. There, I have uploaded albums capturing my JTA experience since Day 1. My Multiply, I think, has/is documented/ing my JTA experience well. Here is the link to my Multiply account:

http://briandelrosario.multiply.com/

The 20 kg limit for a checked-in luggage is every JTA student’s nightmare – well, for those riding coach at least, like me. Practicality and a good son’s conscience dictate that spending more dough for business and first class seats for a four hour flight is ridiculous and impractical. Imagine, the additional money to be spent on upgrading from economy is already equivalent to a month’s worth of apartment dues in Japan. So why bother?

That aside, I think that the 20 kg limit is not as bad as what I thought it was, and this pleasant revelation came to me when I started packing two days ago. At the moment, inside my luggage are a month’s worth of casual clothing, accessories, cardigans and jackets — all these weighing a little less than 12kg. I have yet to pack other winter wear that include a cropped trench coat which I am very very excited to wear (who gets to wear trench coats here anyway, without looking funny and be ridiculed??), a week’s worth of pants, underwear, socks, toiletries, four pairs of shoes, and those other little things. Wait. It sounds like that I have a LOT more to pack and yet, here I am not  worrying at all! Hah! 

PS. I wanted to put a picture here of the list that details the things I should pack and the pictures of my luggage, but bleh. I just noticed that this site does not look clean with pictures popping here and there.

Yes my friends, that medium-sized luggage in the picture is what I will bring to Japan when I leave for my term abroad next week. I actually want to bring a bigger luggage or an additional one but the 20-kg limit rule does not permit me to do so. I feel kinda sad to know that I have such a limited space to pack in the things that are essentially part of my everyday life here, and that I will be leaving a lot here in the Philippines. If only I can bring my family, friends and my whole wardrobe to Japan, I guess the sadness and excitement in the process of packing will be reduced to mere excitement.

Look at the nifty widgets I have at my laptop! Don’t they scream “I am excited!”?

1. Countdown timer before I leave (14 days, 08 hours, 36 minutes and 34 seconds to go)
2. Clock showing the time in Tokyo
3. Tokyo 7-day weather forecast
4. Japanese Yen to American Dollar conversion widget
5. English to Japanese language translator

I know its been a while since my last post but I find it hard to write something here without enough material to share in this JTA blog simply because I am not yet in Japan. I’ve been meaning to write all about what has happened in the short break I have before I leave but I fear that it will stray away from the purpose of this blog which is to document my JTA experience. I will just have a separate blog for all my other musings aside from my JTA experience, which I will link here. But for now, please allow me to blog about some other stuff aside JTA.

I already wrote about work and my internship in Summit Media in my last entry but I haven’t written much about it yet. Although not required in my course’s official curriculum, I decided to apply just to have fun, experience and to kill the idle time I have at home. Unlike Kate, my friend who is also interning in Summit Media but in a different magazine (Cosmopolitan), I was placed under the business side rather than the creative side. Meaning, Kate gets to assist in photoshoots, design Cosmo’s 2009 planner, write articles, and all those stuff while I do comparative studies. It is okay though since I get to practice what I have learned so far in my business subjects in school and apply it in real life. So in the coming days, I will be busy writing my comparative study bearing in mind that if I do well, I can be absorbed by the company when I graduate (HAH! Dream on Brian! You don’t show up for work everyday and you still dream of being absorbed by the company!).

Fun facts about interning in Summit:

1. No dress code! You can wear what you want to wear.
2. There are a number of stylish people there.
3. The office looks great, it gives an “Ugly Betty” feel with the nice interiors.
4. My Macbook perfectly blends in there since most cubicles are equipped with Apple desktops.
5. You can come in at 10:00 am for work
6. The cubicle at my back is the associate publisher (?) of FHM! Hahaha
7. I breathe the same air the daughter of Gokongwei breathes. And in fact I get to see her occasionally in the work place. She looks so regal.

***

Moving on to JTA matters, today is August 21 and I am 21 days away from leaving the Philippines. It is kinda weird that I look forward more to the day of my departure than my birthday on the 1st of September. What’s even weird is that September 1, 2008 will mark my 20th birthday slash 2 freaking decades on Earth and I feel that I need to look forward to that momentous event. Hah! I am sorry but unlike peers my age, I will not celebrate my birthday in a bar — you know, it is the trend these days, teens partying all night long in Embassy. Sorry, its not my thing. I’d rather have dinner with my family in Circles or Heat and help myself with their wide range of food offerings in their sumptuous buffet. Yum yum. So yeah, I think that the thought of leaving for my semester abroad has clouded my mind to the point that when I see Irma, Krystle or Michelle online (the gals I will be going with), I’d typically chat with them with the opening line “(Insert name here), (Number of days to go)!!!!!” Haha! And apparently, I am not the only one who is super excited as they too are itching to leave.

My employee card plus Moleskine notebook/journal

The short break I am privileged of having before I fly to Japan has allowed me to have work and today I just had my taste of the corporate world as an intern in Summit Media. Summit Media houses the country’s popular magazine labels such as Cosmopolitan, FHM, Preview and many more. Choosing to work in the cubicles of a magazine company over those of a gargantuan Filipino-owned food company is partly hugely because of my exposure to Western shows showing the upbeat and exciting environment in a magazine workplace. Oooh, does Ugly Betty ring a bell?

Images of employees dressed up in fancy clothes, bigwigs carrying their Birkins and people whispering about the latest gossip about celebrities and their own co-workers swirled in my head last night whilst imagining myself being immersed in a workplace often stereotyped as a nest of the flamboyant and fashion-forward. All these prejudices that I’ve built from the images fed to me by shows like Ugly Betty are what I brought with me as I graced through the glass doors of Summit Media. Also, I entered the office with an enraptured and hopeful spirit optimistic that I will be given exciting assignments only to be disappointed to leave the glass doors with only clerical stuff accomplished for the day. But I’m still hopeful that I will be given more exciting work in the coming days. )

Filing the documents

I must say that even though I was given mundane work – filing documents, counting ads in a magazine and listing each down – which was completely disjointed from what I envisioned my first day of work to be, the environment where I was at composed of different and colorful people very much compensated for my dry and boring first day work. It was the ultimate Ugly Betty experience.

The more I get new updates coming from Ate Fe and Ms.Cherry from the Office of International Programs (OIP), the more I get excited about leaving. Even though it is easy for people to say that 1 month will just pass by like a breeze, doing nothing here at home but eat, watch tv, surf the internet and sleep make me feel that life is in slow motion mode. Uugh I can’t stand the idleness anymore. Thank God I will be starting my internship this week in Jollibee Worldwide Services or Preview Magazine. The operative word is or since I don’t know which one to pursue. 

***

Yesterday, I finally completed the 6 talks which I needed to attend lest I let myself be sanctioned by Dean Ang.

So all I need to do now are:

1. Submit my JTA class card and three other forms to the OIP
2. Fix my visa
3. Pay for my pre-departure expenses
4. Pack my stuff

Wee! And off I go!

***

Updates from OIP:

1. We will be staying at Leopalace Apartment where we will have our own bath tub, refrigerator, microwave, oven, television, blah blah, but NO Internet. Here is a layout plan of my apartment:



2. Fall Term starts on September 19 (but we will be arriving there at the 11th) – January 21.
3. Winter break is on December 24 – January 6: We shall ski in the snowy mountains of Japan!

41 days to go.

Disappointed with the lack of good selection at Topman’s Private Sale, I did not expect anything good to come my way today until Ms.Fe of the OIP texted me about the arrival of my Certificate of Acceptance and Eligibility from Josai. I was elated – happier than getting a bargain for shirts!

During the focus group discussion with the people who went to Josai last year, they said that they left the country on October 4 because of the complications they encountered in processing their papers. They also told us to be patient since it takes time for Josai to send us our Certificate of Acceptance and Eligibility needed to procure our Japanese Visas. So, with the early arrival of our COA and COE, I was pleasantly surprised!

The thing is, we will be leaving the country on September 11 — a scary date to ride an airplane!!! But oh well!

Fully knowing that Japan is an earthquake-prone country, I feel afraid settling in Japan even for just a short period of time. And now, my fear is fueled more by the news of a 6.8 strong earthquake that jolted the people of Honshu today during the wee hours of the morning. 

Oh gosh.

The grades from the notorious 1st JTA Semester are already posted on AISIS and may I just say that I was totally caught off guard! I logged in AISIS just to check “My Individual Program of Study” (look at pic below) to see if my teachers have submitted our grades by looking at the status beside the subject name. A “C” indicates that the teacher hasn’t submitted our grades yet and a “P” means that we have passed the subject, meaning, our final grades have been computed already. 

Being the curious Brian that I am, I clicked “My Grades” just to see if my grades are there. And yes, they are there! However, only our Finance and Philosophy teachers have posted our grades. Since I am not proud of my grades, I censored them. Haha!

Sigh.

Well, as they always say, “bawi na lang next sem”.