Kansai Gaidai Deadline!

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The reason I decided to write this (other than the fact that its spring break and I have nothing better to do until I go to work and my legs are doing their stupid hurttng thing that they have been doing since I was a kid...I really need to get that checked out...so I cant go run until that dies down) is because My deadline for my application to study abroad in Japan is finally up! This means that sometime between now and April 15 I should be informed as to weather or not I got in! Yay! But as it turns out I THINK most of my stuff got turned in. I say this because I had to actually give recommendation letters to some of my professors and they had to mail them in. I knew this was going to be a problem and so it has become just that. Actually its really my fault because while two professors I knew would get them in, the last professor confirmed my suspicions of weather or not he would pull through for me when he said (As soon as I handed him the letter to fill out and told him specifically when the deadline was ) "Oh wonderful! That gives me plenty of time to forget about it and loose your paper!" and that he did! I got a call on the night before my deadline that said "Sorry! I forgot to send off your letter so it probably wont get there on time if you need to call someone and tell them " Now the problem with this is that Japanese colleges or just businesses in general are extreamly strict on their application forms. If you thought that American colleges were strict when they tell you taht you can only fill it out in pen or on the computer you should see the stuff I had to fill out and will have to fill out again if i get in once im over there. To give you a hint of what I am talking about, here are some of the rules to filling out a Japanese application. They will not accept any applications that have mistakes on them. This means that if you spell your name wrong or put the wrong number down for something and put white out over it or erase it (provided you have an erasable pen because applications are not to be filled out in pencil) they will immediately toss the application. Apparently when/if I get over there I will have to fill out an application for a bank account because naturally they dont have American banks and the exchange rate isnt too good if i hear correctly, its the same way. Kansai Gaidai holds a seminar (for lack of a better word) to help you on this. They bring a giant stack of applications and you fill one out. If you mess up then you have to get a compleatly new one and start over. I have heard of people who have had to do the application process 15 times before they finally got one right. thats just crazy! So anyways another thing that I had to do for my application was send in a photo. So thats not really that big of a deal since occasionally American applications will make you do the same thing. What IS a bit differant is the size and number of photos that I had to take. Ok so you have to have 10 photos of yourself (bit of a random number) that have to be extreamly small with a neutral background from the shoulders up. The size itself had to be 3.5 by 4.5 cm. I didnt realize just how small that was until I went all over to find a place that would print that size. If you have a hard time imagining sizes, then its nowhere near the size of a wallet sized photo, or maby a little smaller than my profile picture on here O_o. And as it turns out NO ONE around where I live print that size. I had to get a wallet size and cut them down myself until it was as close as it could get to the specifications. Of course the Japanese are exreamly strict on that too so I can only hope that I got it close enough to where they wont throw out my application immeadiatly after they see it. So I think this is one of the first things about the japanese that I have found not to like. Their rules on filling out things. Anyways like I said i got everything filled out and sent in and now im just waiting for April 15th to come and give me some good news! And once taht does come I will undoubtedly be back to write on that. (They dont send you an acceptance letter by mail but an acceptance E-mail with all the appropriate information....darn these high tech people. I wanted the hard copy) I wont be able to call much becuase of the time differance and the fact that I wont have a cell phone that will let me call for under 20 dollars a min (exageration) :p. So hope that I get in and I will tell when I get my letter....if it comes....I really hope it comes . Ja matta ne!

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