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I only noticed the other day that I haven't made a blog post in over a month!
I've been pretty uninspired, but then suddenly everything seems to be happening all at once and I've been rushed off my feet! There was christmas, and then new years, but on new years eve I finally got my start date from my new job....19th of February....I have to be there and ready to start work. This basically means I have a month to move myself to Japan.
I handed my notice in at my current job yesterday, this afternoon I'm booking my flight, next week I'm going to London to get them to stamp my work visa into my passport, and on the 18th of Feb my apartment will be ready!
I'm leaving on the 15th Feb.....everything suddenly seems so real rather than just something that was going to happen at some point....
I'm going to try and make some blog posts between now and leaving, and I'll be starting up a youtube channel for you guys too, so keep your eyes peeled!
Sorry for not writing much recently, but I've had a lot to think about over the past few weeks. Trips back and forth to London, interviews, paperwork, waiting..waiting..waiting..
I had my official job offer last Monday!
I'll be working for one of the big chain Eikaiwa (english conversation schools) in Japan starting between Feb/March 2013.
Now it's onto more waiting....
I sent my visa paperwork off earlier this week along with copies of all the documents they need to process it. It was surprisingly less work than I first thought, but hey, they do the hard work at their end. The whole thing should take between 4 - 6 weeks, and I'll be waiting for them to send me a CoE (certificate of eligibility) which I then have to take to London along with my Passport for them to stamp my work visa into. Only once this is complete will I get the location I'll be working in.
I now have 3 months left in the UK and it's yet to really hit me. This will be my last christmas with my family for at least 2 years. I am terrified and excited all at the same time. From here on I'll be keeping you all regularly updated on my move to Japan and all the shit in between.
For now I have to work out what the hell I should be taking with me....
Following my friend Ali over at VIVA☆DREAMER this post is about 'Summer Memories'!
I have to say, this summer has been one of the best I've had. This year so many exciting things have happened and been put in motion, with more to come yet too! It's hard to list exactly what I enjoyed the most, but most of them circled around those first two weeks in August.
1. Seeing a side to Japan I've never experienced thanks to the Boys and Ku.
2. 飲み会! and the friends that we made through them.
3. Hanabi! Watching fireworks and sitting in a park eating festival Yakisoba with friends.
4. Neputa! Wearing Yukata and seeing the floats and Taiko in Hirosaki and Aomori. Amazing.
5. Getting to work with a Japanese band. Kiryu's manager is terrifying.
5. Finally getting things sorted out for next year and the big move!
Overall I've had an amazing summer, and now heading into September even more exciting things are to come. I have the final stage of my ECC interviews at the end of the month and I'm busy studying for my test! Wish me luck!
I don't know how many of you follow me on twitter, but you might see the odd mentions of JES sometimes, likewise suggestions of moving. I wasn't sure if I wanted to write about it on here before now, simply because things were still so undecided, but now more is planned and I feel like I can actually do a decent post about it !
Next year I'll be moving to Japan.
It could be as early as March or as late as July depending on which position I decide to take up.
I have a meeting/interview with the school I'll be going to in Sendai in August while I'm on holiday, but I could be placed in one of several locations throughout Tohoku, their schools are located in Aomori, Goshogawara, Akita, Kitakami, Furukawa, Ishinomaki, Sendai, Fukushima, Koriyama, Shirakawa, Aiizu, Niigata, Joetsu, Yamagata and Yonezawa. My Visa will be processed over Christmas too!
The company is small as far as Eikaiwa go, but after hunting for months for information on various employers, they came out as one of the best, treating staff much better than larger organisations such as BERLITZ and ECC. So far from my emails back and forth with them, they seem better than I could have hoped. I have a reason to be nervous about my holiday too now, I'll take the Shinkansen down to Sendai from Hirosaki on Thursday 2nd of August and have my interview! I might go to find little hearts while I'm down there, depends how it goes for time seeing as it's a 2 hour train ride (Thank god for my Japan Rail pass, it's going to really get a workout!).
I invested in a smart suit dress the other day, my first piece of seriously smart clothing! I feel so grown up haha! I'm now working on slowly downsizing my things, and it feels really odd to have to throw out things I would have kept before, simply because I know there won't be any point in taking them with me.
It's sad but exciting at the same time.
A new beginning.
Mt Iwaki. Located in western Aomori. This might be my view!
