Tales of Interest! (or 色々)

I spent yesterday flinging myself into an airbag. It was great.

I finally broke the news about grad school at U Tokyo to some teachers at the school. One of them is a first grade teacher who deals with the problem students most of the time. About an hour after I told her, she came into the teacher's room in tears.
- "What's wrong?"
- "All the teachers that I like are leaving!"
D'oh.

In Hiranai in Aomori Prefecture (the place I was last year), there is a religious community that worships a god in one of the mountains. I visited every once in a while to judge an English speech contest at their high school. I'm still in touch with the teachers there, and last week, they sent me an overview of their religion and charity work, in English, that they were going to use at an overseas conference. I proofread the thing, which didn't take that long because the English teacher that wrote it is quite capable. Still, because they're ridiculously nice, they're sending me a 3000yen (~$30) bookstore voucher. Score!

Went to school on a Wednesday a few weeks ago, and found out I had a fever of 39 C (~102 F). Of course the head teacher sent me home and told me to see a doctor. I drove about 10 minutes to the big hospital in the area, as the local clinic was closed on Wednesdays. It was pretty crowded, but I got in to see someone within about an hour. First thing I got was the notorious swine flu test (I swear they swab the brain with that thing). It came back negative, but the doctor still diagnosed me with flu. To make a long (and not fun) story short, I wasn't better and hadn't eaten anything significant by Sunday, so I went back to the hospital. They set me up with some tests and an IV for food. I got the results back on the next Wednesday - it was a bacteria that caused gastroenteritis (stomach "flu"). Could've been solved with antibiotics back when it started. Great! I already felt better, so I didn't go back for more meds. But I was left with some fun parting gifts, including 6 kg (~12 lb) of dropped weight, low blood pressure, and plenty of extra pills and capsules. Anyone want some Tamiflu?

Grad school stuff is almost over. Everything looks okay for the scholarship, now I just need to change my visa, take care of storing my stuff (and ship some stuff to the US), decide what to do this summer, sell the car, tell the company I'm leaving, and try to prepare my successor for this school. Oh yeah, and work, I suppose.

Good times, good times.

The next step...

It was early December. The school in which I work was crazy. Students were off the wall and teachers weren't doing anything about it. I was thinking of ways to escape the fate of being here another year, so I shot an e-mail to the University of Tokyo's International Office. There was a program in Sustainability Science that I had a slight interest in, because it was taught in English and the topic of study is pretty open-ended. Originally on the program's website, it was written that I could not apply as an international student because I was living in Japan. So I gave them a conundrum.

"Well, I'm going to leave Japan in March, so I won't be here for the other test in August... what should I do?"

It came back that I could apply as a foreigner as long as I returned to the US. So I ran with it.

I wrote the four essays they required. I wrote a research plan. Then I wrote another one. Then I visited them three days before the December 31st deadline, threw the previous two plans and wrote a third. がんばった。

But one of the letters of recommendations I requested from a professor back at he beginning of December didn't come on time. I was told by e-mail that I wasn't eligible.

A few days after the deadline past, I got another e-mail, saying that I could be eligible if the letter arrived by the 15th. It didn't. And again I was told by e-mail that I wasn't eligible.

On the 22nd, I got yet another e-mail that informed me that they received the letter, and that I was put back on the list of eligible applicants.

Last Friday, February 5th, I got the acceptance e-mail for the program. Along with it is another set of applications for the scholarship that accompanies acceptance. One of the requirements? A letter from the Dean of my college, due on February 24th.

I feel like I should be more excited about getting in, but I've had no time to yet, and the scholarship isn't guaranteed, so there's still the outside chance I won't go. I feel blank. Burned out. Being tangled in red tape hasn't been a fun experience.

Besides red tape, I'm still tangled with the idea of staying in Japan rather than going somewhere else for school. Japan is a great place to live. But there are plenty of places out there that I haven't been to yet.

February 24th will be an important day. I'll know if I'm committed to Japan for two more years, or if I'll be around for one more while I apply elsewhere.

I have learned a couple things, though:
- upper echelon schools are reachable for grad school, even if you've been out of school for a while
- waiting for things outside my control to happen sucks. A lot.

In any case, I'm ready for the result. Time for a break from limbo. Let's deciding!