The Fordham Invasion, Part 3

One thing that I forgot to mention:

"The Bachelor" is starting a new season, this time in Roma. (Roll the "R" please!)

To go along with the Italian theme, they chose a bachelor who is incidentally, and Italian prince.

You know that will kick up the ratings - a royal! (Even if Italy doesn't have much royalty anymore it still counts. Just like how one of the princesses from the exiled Greek royal family lives on the Upper East Side.)

One other thing - he graduated from Fordham with his MBA.

When will the madness end?!?!?

The Fordham Invasion, Part 2

And so the wedding reception hunt begins.

This past Saturday, Mel, my mother, his mother and I went to the New York Botanical Garden up in the Bronx to check out their wedding facilities and prices. Well, we already had a clue what the prices were since it was in the email that Mel received, but we still wanted to check.

Two-hundred and fifty one dollars a person the NYBG does not make. The carpets were old, the mirrors a bit grimy, the linens looked cheap (didn't help much that the color chosen for the wedding that afternoon was peach) and the place where they had the cocktail hour wasn't very garden-looking. You weren't even in the garden. The tent was dirty, too. The chairs for the cocktail tables were this hideous green. It just looked so blah. If it wasn't $251, we might have thought on it a bit more, since you can change the linens and the chairs and such, but you can't, only for an "extra charge" so money wise it was a waste. No wonder there was a wedding that afternoon - it was a hundred dollars cheaper a person.

Fordham is right next to NYBG and my mom kept on pestering me, saying that "Oh wouldn't it be so nice to take pictures on the Fordham campus?" (Only alumni can get married at the chapel there and take pictures, provided that at least the bride or the groom is an alum.)This was said in hopes that we would choose the NYBG, and before all 4 of us came to the conclusion before our appointment that it just sucked. I kept saying pretty much "Hell no - I never set foot on that campus for more than 20 minutes at a time and the longest time I ever spent there was at graduation." Not my school. Simple as that.

During our appointment, the bride for that afternoon's wedding came in from the "bridal suite" to look at everything and she was happy with it. To each her own.

After the bride left to "go get herself married," my mother turns to the sales representative that we were talking to and asked, "Is the ceremony at the garden?"

The sales representative turns around and goes, "Oh, not this time. They are getting married at the chapel at Fordham University. It's right next door and I hear it's very pretty."

I stand corrected. I am surrounded.

Who is Scared?

Oh holy crap.

I am shaking.

Seriously.

Why?

I am leaving in a week and a half.

I am TERRIFIED. I am sh*t-scared (pardon the phrase). I seriously don't know why. When I went to London I was actually thrilled to bounce the country. I have my Japanese guidebooks, got maps, will be getting suitcases on Friday, someone will pick me up, no problems, right?

WRONG.

DEAD WRONG.

I cried for two nights in a row.

Yeah this is bad. I am writing this in a moment of sheer panic, and my hands are still shaking.

I think it's because the stakes are a bit higher now, and I learned some really important lessons from London.

And - I have a bit of an impediment. Just a "small" one.

I freeze when I speak Japanese. Dead serious.

Impediment, that!

I finally got in contact with the international house that I will be staying at to confirm my date and I haven't gotten an email back yet. Granted that it took almost a month for the lady over there to respond to my email last time, I (naturally) started to panic. What does Maria do when she panics?

Off to google we go! I love that site.

I found a wrong number for the house, and then this evening - bam! I got the right number and after three tries I got through. Told them that I sent an email about my arrival. However, this conversation showed to me that I am terrified about going.

Did I mention that I almost pulled the plug two weeks ago?

The Fordham Invasion

I like the college that I went to. Granted, it did not quite have the specific program that I wanted, but I knew from the start what I did want, so I compensated.

This past Sunday, Mel and I went to the NY Aquarium. Having been there three times before the age of 5, I totally forgot what it was like. It was a lot smaller than I remembered, and a lot less crowded. Then I have Mel on the side of me, providing his schtick on how the aquarium in QLD is much bigger and has these jellyfish called "irakanjee" (don't ask me to spell it) that can kill you with one jolt, futhering providing me with ample reason to never set foot in the Australian water, and how the aquariums have this buge tube you can walk in so it's like you are in the water.

Well, obviously! QLD has the Great Barrier Reef. That said, QLD has alot more space. This is New York. You can't build out - only up. And most of those aquariums with the fancy tube - I think the Camden, NJ has it and I am sure there is one in Georgia with it - are new. NY Aquarium is over 100 years old.

While I listen to Mel scare the pants off me about jellyfish (there are ones small enough to pass through the nets that cordon off swimming areas at Aussie beaches and can kill you!) I notice a familar face. Or rather, a familiar backside.

"Eliza?"

"Maria! I thought you were in Japan already!"

Former classmate of mine. And she was with two other Fordham people.

And at all places, we run into one another in the Alien Stingers exhibit (the jellyfish) at the NY Aquarium in Coney Island.

This, coupled with the recent surge of FCLC '06 grads infiltrating Astoria and treating it as the most wonderful place in the world, finally proves to me that New York is overrun with Fordham people.

Granted, that is myself included. What I think is really hilarious (in a sarcastic, cynical, NY way) is that when I run into classmates, who just moved or moved recently to Astoria, and find out that I live there too, they go all bonkers.

Classmate: "OMG! You live in Astoria? The Greek places are amazing? You're Greek right? Have you gone to Zodiac (or any other Greek cafe) When did you move there?"

Me: "I was born there. And I have been going to the Greek cafes (mostly Zodiac, not often, but recently I have been going more) since I was in junior high school (mostly for family occasions, but it still counts)."

Classmate: "...."

Get my point?

One Hoop, Two Hoop, Three Hoop, No Hoop!

No hoops today.

Got my visa from the consulate - took less than two minutes.

On a wry note, "Oh my! The Japanese are efficient, ne?"

Jumping Through Hoops

When I applied for my British visa circa summer 2004 before I went to London for study abroad, I had to jump through alot of hoops:

1) $65 application fee.
2) Proof that I am going to London - i.e. acceptance letter to SOAS.
3) Proof that Fordham is letting me go to London.
4) Proof that I can travel - i.e. current passport.
5) Two passport photos.
6) Ten page application - that I had to do twice b/c I messed it up.
7) Proof that I had financial support.

And I had to wait on a line for about a half hour. Of course, the waiting time for a visa varies from consulate to consulate.

When I went to the Japanese Consulate last Thursday, I was a bit wary - all I needed was two one-page application forms filled out in duplicate with two photos glued to the top (had to use KrazyGlue as I didn't have a gluestick and almost proceeded to glue my fingers together in the process) and a current, unexpired passport. The passport part was easy - it expires in 2014, got it renewed for London - and the photos were easy, as I had a bunch lying around from a previous passport photo-taking process. And after some initial questions that were answered back in March, the application was easy peasy. A child can fill it out.

But wait - I read on the consulate's site that I need a Certificate of Eligibilty?

1) WTF is that?
2) The Consulate DID NOT tell me anything regarding to it when they sent me the application for the visa! So I have no clue what MOFA is talking about.

That was my reaction to the visa lady at the consulate. And I said that YOU - YEAH YOU, the consulate people - only sent me the application with the instructions to fill it out and return it with my passport and two photos. So there!

I still don't know what that Certificate of Eligibility is. I have heard of it but I have no clue.

So the woman says to sit down and wait, takes my application and passport and returns to the window with a Japanese guy. They pore over my application and another form with a blue highlighter and I go back up to the window - turns out that they were filling out this form in Japanese to specify what visa I need (Ryuu-gakusei, study abroad student) and for how long (2-nen, two years).

So I surmised the following - either I didn't need that stupid certificate, or that either MOFA or MEXT had it ready for me when I got the Monbusho - the woman told me that I had to write a letter to Tokyo! In the words of Cher Horowitz: "As if!" You didn't tell me I had to do it in the first place, so that's your issue and not mine.

I don't have to pay for the visa, which is a good thing. Visas are expensive. However, there is a teeny little catch: my visa says that it is multiple re-entry, meaning I can go out of the country. My British visa said that too, so I had no problem going back in and out. Right?

WRONG!

According to a helpful and informative member of my forum, the "multiple re-entry" qualification does not mean that I can go in and out as I please. It means that I have PERMISSION to go in an out as I please. If I want to leave Japan, I need to get a "re-entry permit" on top of the visa. If I don't have that sticker on my visa, I have to give in my AR card at the airport and have to go through the visa process from scratch.

And this is where they get you with the fees - it is 30,000 yen (about $30) - for a single re-entry permit and 60,000 yen (about $60) for a multiple re-entry permit (which is valid for 6 months).

Sneaky, sneaky. In my opinion, I would rather prefer the way the British do it - make me jump through the hoops in my home country where I know what the heck I am doing, rather than jump through hoops in another country, where I am paranoid about making a mistake.

Let's hope the forms have an English version.

I pick up my passport tomorrow.

Dum, dum dum...DUM!!!

I got my ticket today.

OH MY GOD. I AM REALLY LEAVING.

When, you ask?

October 3 - JFK to Narita, departing at 1:30 pm EST. Arrive in Narita October 4 at 4:20, have a connecting flight to Itami Airport near Osaka at 6:15, arrive 7:30pm Japan time. Someone from JASSO (Japan Student Services Organization) will meet me at Itami.

In a way, I am in shock. Because I knew that this was coming all summer, and to have it in your face - or rather, on your computer screen in the form of a e-ticket on PDF - is a bit daunting. I was expecting for JAL To contact me sometime like next week, but the first (full) week of September! Damn! They are prompt. I don't even have my visa yet, which will be rectified tomorrow. Must. Go. To. Japanese. Consulate. TOMORROW. AT. 9:30. AM.

I have to get two suitcases. My other one broke falling down an escalator at the Heathrow tube station in London and I don't want to go through the nightmare of carrying a 35 kilo duffel bag with no wheels again. I almost broke my wrist. And I don't like this thing of a 20 kilo limit...I am a GIRL. And a girl has shoes. With coordinating sweaters.

Not that I have like 20 pairs of shoes (HA!) but I do have a few pairs that I need/want/must bring with me.

Then again, I think I do have 20 pairs of shoes. Not like I wear all of them.

My mom is all depressed now. She KNOWS that I am leaving. Like, for REAL now. She berated my sister and I (again) on how she does not like this "traveling business" (Leah, like me, will study abroad in her junior year in Italy, then wants to do a Fulbright in Greece). I told her its not our fault that we chose fields that require travel. Hell, I am going to Japan on (practically) a free ride. Does she have to worry about paying a $2283 plane ticket that is one-way to Japan? I think not. But again, she is a mommy and when I was going to London it was her in the end that was telling me to go and my dad getting all depressed. Before, it was my dad ready to pack my bags - he was the one asking me at 13 why I wasn't going to Manhattan by myself yet (I still wasn't allowed to go to the main shopping drag that was walking distance from our old house at 13).

Going along the theme of foreboding-ness that is permeating this evening, along with anxiousness and excitement - did I mention that I SKIPPED down the hallway in the law school this evening when I finally got my ticket? That was me in my "OoOoO!" phase - which lasted a minute. Now I am thinking of all the crap I have to do before I leave - Mel and I went to Philadelphia this Labor Day weekend and we came back in two whole pieces (each of us counting as a piece). Ernesto was pouring buckets of rain on the city of brotherly love, so Philly was a bit deserted. I wanted to go to Antique Row (bought a lovely cameo bracelet that is probably from the 40s) so we took the SEPTA line that goes north and south.

Now then, I have taken the NYC subway by myself at 3 in the morning and gone through the South Bronx on the 6 train. Of course, there are dangerous spots that a girl wouldn't go to - the N train at 3 in the morning from 34th street is quite safe. When a father in an admissions tour asked me if the trains were safe, I was honest - I told him it depends on which line and which time of day and said my 3am anecdote and he blew up on me saying that the trains are never safe. Ignorant little person. Anyways, I was never nervous taking the subway on my own at 3am (granted that was only one time). However, I DO NOT LIKE the SEPTA. Never had a never been more terrified in my life - and Mel was a bit shaken up too. I turned my ring on the inside - and I NEVER have to do that in NYC. The SEPTA platform was deserted, had a disgusting smell and you really couldn't tell who was a homeless person. Mel said that it should be really called "SEPTIC." The smell was worse than 34th street (remember the 9 Circles of Hell?) on a 100-degree, 100% humidity day. My mother used to take me to 34th street every Wednesday when I was younger - dad and grandma used to work in the Garment District, so we would have lunch at Macy's - so I know that station pretty well. SEPTA was much worse.

I did get my deferral letter from UPenn when we first arrived. It was a very "happy" deferral letter, saying congratulations and "we wish you well" and whatnot. According to the secretary, I should be contacted soon by the department about the Ph.D. program - but in EALC, not history. When I said that I will most likely apply for the Ph.D. the secretary replied "No problem, I will just transfer your file there and reactivate your application so that you don't have to pay the fee again." Score! I just saved myself $90. Phew. UPenn is nice - Mel and I each got tshirts, although his is from Wharton (the "dream" business school) and mine is regular UPenn. I can see myself going to school there, University City is nice. But Harvard isn't that bad either. I think those are my top two now.

I was a bit disappointed by the Philly Museum of Art - it looked like there was going to be this HUGE museum like the Met, but it was very small compared to it. However - and I thank Cat for this - there was an actual Japanese teahouse in one of the Asian galleries, which I really enjoyed. Here is a kicker though - in a video on the side of the gallery, they presented a Japanese tea ceremony, and had koto music playing in the background. I actually recognized the tune - I have it on my iPod. My mouth just dropped, what a coincidence! And it was my favorite one too - I only have 4 but hey, I do have a favorite. Koto music puts me to sleep.

Speaking of sleep, I have to go sleep. Or try to. Every since I got that ticket, I can't help but feel a bit more excited.