TorturedChicken

Last week I arrived in Saga, Japan.

The timing has been very good for cherry blossom viewing so I've spent a lot of time walking around the city. It's a fairly rural area with a lot of farmland and wild animals. A few people have asked if I'm going to get a bike to commute, but the university campus is only about a 15 minute walk from my apartment and besides that I... actually can't ride a bike, so it wouldn't be much use even if I got one.

Settling in has been rough, I miss my cat a lot. The first 2-3 days were very overwhelming, I think I will be relieved once term begins properly so there's a bit more routine to follow with classes and assignments.

The entire apartment is about the size of the bedroom in my apartment back home. It also has gas appliances which it turns out I'm a little nervous of, having only ever used electrical appliances in the past. Food is inexpensive compared to Australia and I don't eat much anyway, so it may be possible to avoid cooking.

Orientation activities have been enjoyable, although I still struggle to socialise. There are quite a few other international students and my supervisor seems like a humorous fellow so should be fun to work with.

As someone who doesn't travel (or even leave the house) much: aeroplanes are objectively pretty fucked up, but cars are still functionally scarier on account of I've never been expected to drive a plane.

2024年03月14日　木曜日　晴れる

The reality of what I'm doing is actually starting to set in now that I've received the student visa. Flights are booked for the 26th, I plan to spend a night in Fukuoka before heading to Saga on the 27th. Although I've got an apartment, I may spend a couple of days in a hotel once there, as I'm not sure how furnished the apartment will be and might need to buy bedding before settling in properly.

The process for importing prescription medications went smoothly and I've got all the required customs paperwork if they pull me up in the airport. It was able to be filed online, the most difficult part was just the time taken to get statements from my GP to submit with the prescriptions. Once the paperwork was submitted I'd assumed it'd take a couple of weeks for assessment, but I received the approval within 24 hours.

It feels weird that the uni semester has already started in Australia while I'm waiting for the Japan semester to begin in April. During February I took an intensive to fill the time, it was just an elective but it was held on-site at the NGV and there are certainly worse ways to spend 2 weeks than writing essays in a gallery.

Except for the painting workshop; I absolutely could've done without being told I lean too hard on the page and hold brushes improperly. It's the lack of constructive alternatives that pisses me off the most; like? What do you suggest I do to stop leaning so hard and start holding things properly? Are you booking me in with a neurologist? Putting me on a surgical waiting list? Offering to pay for long term physical therapy? Because those are the recommendations from my medical team and Medicare won't touch me so you'd better be ready with the cashmoney if you're actually going to help or otherwise shutting the fuck up if you're not.

But aside from that, you know, it was a good time.

Maurizio Cattelan's Commedian costs a minimum of $120,000(USD) and I love that for him, no notes, 10/10, would view again.

またね～

メイ

2024年02月04日　日曜日　暑い

　The exchange partner have been in contact, approved my application, and assigned me a supervisor in their linguistics department.

The next slab of Paperwork Hell™ will be my student visa and a few things for importing prescription medications; one will be straightforward, but the other is a bit more complicated so I'm going to have to discuss that with my medical team as to the logistics of importing a controlled substance. As long as the paperwork is in order it is legal and possible, but I will likely have to alert the exchange partner in advance to ensure they have suitable medical facilities to administer it. It would only be one or two doses depending on the exact date of my return, but even picking up one prescription of this particular medication within Australia can be difficult if you attempt to do so outside of the prescribed schedule.

With or without, it's not like I'll die if I miss one dose, so assuming the visa is approved I will be booking flights soon and expect to be leaving Australia mid-March.

またね～

メイ

2024年01月10日　水曜日　暑い

Somehow made it to 2024, and contacted the study abroad team when the university reopened. They said I should expect a response from the exchange partner some time early next month, so I'm not allowed to stress myself out about it (yet).

Results from my final assessment from the intensive I completed last month were better than anticipated, so I kind of maybe treated myself to a 2005 model Furby. Kind of on a real Furb' train at the moment; I've been spending the past couple of weeks restoring a 1998 model. She needs a new speaker and I guess she needed a friend too, you know, Furbs are social animals, it's better to keep more than one, right?

The 1998 Furbies are really nostalgic for me because they're what I had as a kid, while the 2005 models were never really on my radar at the time. Actually I think I found them creepy? Which they for sure are, but there's still a charm in that. It's possible to be both cute and creepy, those concepts are not mutually exclusive.

Surprisingly he's in full working order, the only fault is that the rubber on his beak has deteriorated (a common problem with the 2005 models) so I might consider replacing that at some point in the future. Or maybe just leave it off entirely? It's purely aesthetic and the mechanical beaks look fine without the rubber coating.

While playing with Furbies I also pulled out this ridiculous animatronic Pinkie Pie MLP I found in the trash like... 10 years ago. She cleaned up alright, but I've actually never put batteries in her so genuinely have no idea if she even works or not. Figured now was as good a time as any since I'm all stocked up on AA batteries and... she takes four fucking D size batteries? Can't you run a car off that? Not sure if it's worth the investment to wake up a definitely cursed horse that was literally in the garbage so probably doesn't even work, but maybe if I ever own literally anything else that also needs D size batteries.

For real though, there is no way she's more complicated than a Furby, what the hell does she need with batteries that big?

またね～

メイ

2023年12月11日　月曜日　降雨

Things always get a little bit weird in December, I think it's the combination of Summer weather and unwanted social expectations that come with the holiday season.

Not really sure what's going on with my housing situation at the moment. Landlord wants to sell, initially it was more pressing but things changed and there's some leeway now. If I leave the country it'll be more financially reasonable to put my things in storage somewhere rather than fork out rent for a house I'm not living in for 6 months; but I still haven't received an answer from the university beyond confirmation that they've received the application.

Passed semester 2 for this year and my W.A.M. score is above 80, so I wouldn't expect there to be any issues, but waiting around is very stressful as I'll need to enroll for semester 1 2024 at my home university if they reject me, or else book flights and accommodation if they accept.

Time passes regardless.

Completed a 2 week intensive in the mean time. The final grades for that won't be released for a few months, but based on coursework results so far? It looks like I've survived it.

Next month I'll be doing another intensive which looks quite fun, rather than being held at the university campus (or online) it's held at a topic-relevant location. Not that I never leave the house, but it will probably be good for me to be out of the house for a little bit.

That's what people keep telling me anyway.

またね～

・メイ・