Getting Hyped

I'm going to Japan near the end of July, and I can't wait!! It's been my dream to go since I was in 8th grade. 8th grade!! That's at least ten years ago for me!

Getting ready to go seems so daunting, but hey, if it weren't, I'd be worried that I wouldn't be so hyped to go. So far, the meetings with the other three Japan-goers have been relaxed and very informative. We received our boarding passes at the last meeting and came up with the main idea of how we're going to present the City to the Japanese Sister City.

I'm excited, also! I'm looking forward to designing the shirts for this program. I've been researching Harajuku and Toki Doki style shirts for a while. I think Sanrio, Hello Kitty, and Paul Frank really made the type of style more popular, but then Takashi Murakami came along and gave the art style a name. It's called Superflats. It's an art movement based on anime and manga. Yes, those big-eyed, colorful pictures of enlarged heads on tiny bodies are an art movement. Takashi is most famous in the United States as the label cover of Kanye West's latest LP.

And that's what I want to build from. The Superflats. That is, when it comes down to shirts, but I want to add my own style. Hopefully, it will all work out.

Besides shirts, I'm working on my Japanese--or Nihongo--so that I can get along with the Japanese host student and the family better. I studied Japanese pretty rigidly when I was in high school, but I didn't have as many resources as I do now. I have a co-worker who knows a lot of Japanese, thanks to minoring in Japanese, so I speak to her as much as I can. Sometimes, I just barge over to her office and interrupt her with a question in Japanese. I feel bad,um, afterwards, but I'm glad she's there! I have a couple of guides in Japanese, and I'm learning every day!

I think the way this all started was pretty much fate, knocking ten years after the original dream. I was just sitting at the computer like I always did and my mom burst into my room, almost scaring me, rambling about a program through the City to go to Japan. She produced a small newspaper clipping from the Union Tribune, and I read over it, almost skeptical that there were a million and one strings attached.

There were a few strings attached, but none too harsh to take out any limbs.

I printed out the application twice (for good measure), and set off to complete all of its requirements. Filing for a passport and getting a physical were the most daunting things I had to do. The passport called for two pictures of myself, my birth certificate, and me going to downtown to send it in with paperwork filled out. The physical took longer. That reminds me, I don't like Kaiser too much. I tried to schedule for a physical at least a month in advance, because I had only 4 weeks, and of course, they were booked, the phone operator not too nice, either. I had to make an appointment at school and skip out of my Microbiology class just to get a physical on campus, and even that was delayed because they had to have pre-physical and then a physical.

And then, there were things that I had to do, some of which cost money, some of which didn't.
Expedited Passport: Close to $150
Pre-Physical and (late) Physical: $45
2 Notarized Documents: $20
Essay: A week of editing, typing, and typos
Letters of Recommendation: Begging 2 references
Completed Application: Hassling from my mother
Getting the acceptance letter: Priceless

Funny thing, my mom was the one who found this for me, gave me the documents I needed, and turned in the application personally for me (because I had work during that time). Then again, during the wait period before interviews, on Tuesday of that week, she asked me if I got a phone call.

"No," I answered.

She looked like she tried to give me a look of pity, but to me, it just came off as smug. "I guess you're not getting it then," she replied.

"It's not Saturday yet," was all I said. The Commissioners called me on Friday and invited me to an interview. I went to the interview, charmed my way, I had hoped because I prepared myself accordingly.

And then I received the acceptance call, email, and formal letter. I was ecstatic!

I knew it wasn't a free ride there. After all, the application by itself put me out a little bit, but I wasn't complaining! I mean, a chance like this, to expand a little more into politics other than college student government, why not go out on a limb?! The City handled only $500 towards the flight, so I knew that the rest would come out of my pocket. Once I told my mom how much it would cost me totally to pay for the rest of the flight, $575, she had the tenacity to say, "Well, I guess you're not going."

Huh?

"I'm going," I announced, and when she complained about how she thought it was free, I nearly toppled over laughing. "Nothing's free. In the newspaper, it just said $500 towards flight and that's it." I don't think she liked that much, but then again, she really didn't like the fact that anything costs money. If I should say I inherited anything from my mother, it would be her cheapskate-ness. I just hope to God that I didn't inherit her hypocrisy as well. She will indulge on random things a lot of the time with money that we don't have.

This dream, which I hope will blossom this July, will serve as my gateway into another culture, more than the cultures I have encountered so far. I can't wait!

Till next time, matte ne!