Beckteria

Orientation

So, the 1300 people here at this week’s orientation (there’ll be another 1100 next week) are leaving tomorrow. I’m taking a bus to the shinkansen (bullet train) station and then the shinkansen to Osaka. Sure, I’m living in Osaka prefecture, but tomorrow night I’m staying at a hotel in downtown Osaka. Yeah. I won’t see my apartment until sometime on Thursday.

The luggage situation is bizarre. I was forced to send my two checked pieces of luggage ahead of me even though I was told I could take one to Tokyo with me. Okay, now everyone is supposed to send ANOTHER piece of luggage ahead of themselves. I said that the only stuff I have is what I had as carry-on on the airplane. (This included a huge backpack, a rollover bag, a pillow, and a purse!!)

BTW, one piece of checked luggage weighed in at ~62 lbs and the other at ~58. Originally, the larger one weighed ~90 lbs. In Chicago, I re-packed EVERYTHING. I’m guessing that everything I brought to Japan probably weighs in at 200+ lbs. (That’s more than I weigh by a few pounds.)

Anyways, conferences are always crazy. I have to say that I have behaved better than I did in Vegas for NSM, so be rested assured that I haven’t made Americans look like assholes—yet! (I’ll have plenty of time for that later.) The food situation has been weird here too. The breakfast buffet (both days) have had French fries (instead of hash browns) and salad (traditional in Japanese breakfasts). Last night, I could barely make it to the buffet tables as everyone at the table getting food would just stand by the table eating, not moving to let other people in. Also, every table had different food and each side of each table was different too. What’s that about? But, there was plenty of free beer.

The conference has been somewhat helpful. There were different workshops/lectures to choose from, but the motto here is “Every situation is different.” Okay, I understand that, but why do we even bother to come to the seminar? That’s a bit annoying.

But, every situation is totally different. For example, I learned that I am getting some moving in money. This is good because my rent is quite a bit. (Well, Osaka is about the third most expensive city to live in the world, but who’s counting?) My roommates weren’t told that they’re getting any move-in cash, but their rent is considerably lower. Some people are buying the contents of their predecessor (like me) and other people’s contracting organization have already paid for it. Yada yada ya.

I’ll let you know more when I can start processing this overwhelming amount of information. I have about 20 more pounds of books to take with me from this orientation—YES!

I’m going to try to find other people to go forge for dinner with. Tonight’s dinner is not provided. Actually, tonight is supposed to be Embassy night, but most Embassy’s canceled due to weather (typhoon warning). But, the US doesn’t host Embassy night anyway because (in my opinion) they’re cheap bastards. (The official excuse is that there are too many Americans involved in the program.)

posted by Bex @ 9:53 AM