Hey ya peeps! Long time, no see (or read)!
I obviously got just a bit behind on posting (talk about an understatement....), so sorry about that. November was just a bit crazy between school events, our Nation's election, a friend's visit, and Thanksgiving. And boy, did November just fly by? It seems like just last week that we were all holding our breaths for the results of the Presidential elections.
On that note, I should explain briefly how one participates in elections while abroad. The Department of State has a program called Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) that travelers can register for in order to receive information for their trips. This is a one-time registration, meaning that you just have to register once and then use it anytime you are traveling abroad. Once you register for the program, you will set up an online profile where you can then register your trips abroad. Also, you can register contacts just in case something were to happen to you while abroad. After your trip is registered, you will receive monthly newsletters from the consulate nearest to your destination. For additional information about the STEP program, just click on this link.
The STEP Program newsletters will also inform you of any upcoming elections and provide links with instructions on how to receive a ballot and send it back. The instructions vary based on your registered voting precincts. I chose to receive my ballot electronically. It was sent to me via e-mail, at which point I printed it off and filled it out. If you are abroad for more than one year, you will have inform your voting precinct of your "abroad" status each and every year. You just fill out a form that you can find on the internet and email it, snail mail it, or fax it to your precinct's office. Once all the papers are filled and registered and you have finally received and filled out your ballot, you have a choice. You can take your ballot to the nearest US consulate, who will then send it in your steed, or you can fax it to your precinct office assuming that your precinct chooses to accept faxed ballots. I chose to fax mine in and received an email later confirming that my ballot had been received, verified and counted.
So, yeah. That's how voting works when abroad. But, definitely register with STEP when traveling! It's a really nice program. The newsletters also contain a lot of inform in regards to living in your destination's country. Again, really nice.
Now, catching up with life. We had our Election. Then CSU proposed 3 new fees that they want to apply to Spring 2014. These fees are supposed to serve as additional encouragement to students to graduate early. In reality, they are bleeding us for more money. Each fee is a "per unit" fee. One is applied to students repeating classes. For every repeat class, CSU wants students to pay $100 per unit per repeat class. The second fee is a unit cap fee, meaning that CSU wants to limit the amount of units students can take per semester. The proposed fee is $200 per additional unit when students are taking 18 units or more. To be honest, I'm not entirely clear on the unit cap fee. From the sound of it, if a student takes 18 units, then the 18th unit will have the $200 fee applied to it, with an additional $200 for every additional unit.
The third proposed fee is the killer. This fee is known as the 'Super Senior' fee. It is attacking any student that has 150/160 units accumulated. In Spring 2014, assuming the fee is voted in, students will have to pay $372 per unit over 160 units. The next year, the fee will be applied to any unit over 150. I currently stand at 165 (ish) units with about 60 units left (which includes the possible 12 units for my degrees that I may satisfy this year) to complete for my double-majors/double-minors. With that being said, I could accumulate an additional $5580 per semester in fees on top of tuition since I take 15 units per semester on average. And, I will have about 2 to 3 semesters left by the time the fees are supposed to be applied. That amounts to $11,160 to $16,740 in extra fees just to finish my degrees...Needless to say, this has indeed rattled me.
CSU was supposed to have voted on the fees the week following our Presidential Election, but it was postponed to January. So pray hard that these fees don't go through!
What else happened in November...Thanksgiving. A few of my CSU friends are living with host families. One such family threw us a party earlier in the semester and decided to throw us a Thanksgiving party. It was potluck-style, so the family provided the main course and we provided side dishes, appetizers, and desserts. We had sukiyaki, mashed potatoes, tacos, rice krispy treats, pudding, sushi, pumpkin pie, another type of pie and so much more! That party was on Monday of Thanksgiving week.
Then on Thanksgiving Day, we had a tuition-paid-for Thanksgiving Buffet Dinner at the New Sanno Hotel in Downtown Tokyo. Now, the New Sanno Hotel is the U.S. Navy Resort hotel that requires some form of military ID to get into. This ID can be from a parent whose a veteran or an accompanying friend with ID, and this is only for the hotel. So, for each ID holder, 20 additional people can come in with some sort of passport or ID. The Dinner had no additional identification check, but it did have a cost per person in US Dollars. Our CSU Tuition covered the cost.
So, how did we get in? One of our CSU friends is a military ID holder (I will not go into why this person has such ID), so we were able to go to this dinner. And, man! There was so much food! Here's a link to the buffet menu. It was such a glorious dinner with all the traditional fixin's I have with my family in the US! It was such a blessed time with my CSU friends! The experience was so good that my homestay CSU friends are planning on taking their host families and/or host parents to the Christmas Buffet at New Sanno. That will be such a treat for the host familes!
Then, the week after Thanksgiving week was my midterm week (this was last week, by the way). I had a few minute-long speaking test in both my Japanese language courses and a 5-8 page paper for my Japanese literature class. Boy, am I glad that my midterm stuff is done. I finally kicked back and played some video games this weekend and heard one of our CSU friends give a speech in Japanese (language) for a speech contest. This contest was the 47th Annual Waseda University Exchange Student Competition (translated title) that is hosted by one of the international clubs on campus. My friend won the popular vote, which came to no surprise because his speaking skills are amazing!
Then today, I had church at my local church (which happens to be in my dorming complex). We started up the Christmas carols in both Japanese and English, plus we started Advent. Later in the evening, I ran (took the train) to Akihabara with a friend. Akihabara is known as the Electronics District in Japanese and is a great place to look for rare or old electronics or cheap prices on them. Akiba, as it is popularly called, is also known for its Anime Community. I will go into more detail about Akiba in a later post. Anyway, all that needs to be known is that I got a new camera since I lost the battery charger to my old camera, which was also beginning to creak and misbehave.
So yay! More pictures to come, finally!
In my next few posts, I will pick up on my trash series, then finally discuss my Nikko trip and the Waseda School festival, which were so long ago!
Hope you enjoyed this long awaited return.
Until next time, Later Peeps!
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