Time to Change Gears

I have pretty much all the information I am going to get before I go to Waseda. I have my flight, I have my Visa, I have permission for just about all of my classes, and I have a room! I will be in a double in "Waseda University Student House" in 西早稲田 (West Waseda)、新宿区(Shinjuku-ku)、東京(Tokyo)、日本(Japan)(Can you tell I am happy I know the language a bit? Way easier on the heart than it was going to Korea). I will be about a 7 minute walk from campus, so I am overwhelmed with joy -- I was originally expecting between a one and two hour commute to school each day based on various sources. That fact, combined with the reduced dorm fee for a double (35000円, about $280~325 a month), makes it much easier to accept that I will have a roommate.

My room, if I am following this packet correctly, is on the first floor, is 18.48 sq m, and is in the more populous part of the building. I've also lucked out -- there is no curfew for my room, and, despite what I was originally told, there is a common kitchen (and the dorms are coed -- we were told they weren't before. A LOT of the information has been wrong). On the other side, I cannot have visitors. I am not sure how strict this is, as it says that I 1) Can't have visitors, and 2) Can't let people stay over. It would not surprise me if they are just being redundant, but I'm hoping it was just another mistake.

In anycase, the closer I get to leaving the more excited I am about the trip. Everything seems to be working out alright -- the Japanese I forgot seems easy to relearn, the fees are much less than I was originally anticipating, AU is even making transfer of funds easier -- we can now do refunds via direct deposit, for those of you that are not aware. Pretty nice. All I'm really waiting on now are a few class permissions, and word for Financial Aid, so I can get my student loan for the year.

P.S. I have decided to keep the blog going, apparently.