denmark?

Ah...getting kinda nervous about just getting to Denmark. Come visa come!

I finally got a housing offer!!!! Actually for the first one, the landlord dropped out the last day. I'm glad though because it was a guy! I did not think ever that I could be in the same apartment as a guy...EEK! I thank God that He has made it so that he dropped out for whatever reason! I was expecting to be like living with a family...but this was the email I got from the International Office:

Dear Wury Kim ,
I regret to inform you that Lars Lindkær will not be able to rent out to you after all as he will not be going abroad himself. We will find you something else ASAP - not to worry.

Phew! I would be more worried if I was staying with him. But I got another email saying that I have a landlady! By the name of Malene Thordal Christensen! I'm excited.

Descriptions of my room:

• a furnished room of about 14m^2 in a private home with access to kitchen and bathing facilities. (Yay...I heard of some creepy stories where families will lock the kitchen door after dinner so that the students couldn't eat anything after dinner)
  
• a room in a newly renovated apartment (OoOoo...)
  
• access to wireless internet (2Mbit) costs 180 kr/per month ($38/month OUCH...)
  
• access to TV is included with the rent
• smoking and pets are not allowed
• a bicycle can be borrowed (YES! Everybody rides bikes there. I'm going to come back with even buffer legs. Haha, hopefully not.)
  
• guests need to be agreed on with the landlady.

So rent per month is going to be: 2600 Danish KRN ~ $553.80! I feel the money slipping away real fast...

But we'll see - first the visa MUST COME! Come Visa come!

Housing application

Sent in my housing application via fax! I got a confirmation email from the Tokyo Study Center saying that they received it!

Yay!

Check out my apartment in Japan!

We finally got the email about our housing in Tokyo. Just as an fyi, Japanese people call their apartments "mansions" sometimes, I guess to make it sound more luxurious? So no, I am not living in a huge house in Tokyo somewhere. I am living in a small, single room. 8D

Tokyo Weekly Mansion is the name of the company that owns these short-term apartments. It looks pretty nice. Here are some pictures from their website:



In the last picture, the room on the left (or center? Probably the left one) is the layout of the room.

It's pretty snazzy. It has air conditioning too, something that the dorms at ICU don't have. Hahaha. It will be good for the first month that I'm there! I'm trying to read the stuff in Japanese on the site, about other stuff that they have. We can get a rice cooker by going down to the lobby and asking for one, free of charge! So awesome. :D The units come with a refrigerator and a kitchenette, with cooking utensils and everything.

These apartments are about an hour away (by train and bus) from campus, though, so the commute will be pretty killer. I think that I'll just get a lot of reading done or something. @_@;; Hopefully I'll have friends to commute with. Haha.

There's a TV there as well, but considering that I don't even watch TV in San Diego and that it'll all be in Japanese... @_@;;

The biggest thing, though, is how much this apartment is. If you think that my paying $423.75 a month for rent right now is a lot, you're going to cry with me when I tell you that this room is 99,000 yen a month. 99,000 yen = ~990 USD. Yep, nearly a thousand dollars for that room a month. Meaning that it'll cost me about $3000. I wonder if they'll charge me that much, though, 'cause I'll be there just two weeks shy of a three months. o_o

Anyway, that made me really D: D: D:. I didn't break the news to my momma yet-- I'm biding my time, waiting for the right time to tell her... haha.

I also have to buy a monthly commuter pass for the train and the bus. For the train, it's ~9,200 yen (~$92) and for the bus, it's ~7,500 yen (~$75... you starting to get the trend here?). I guess that it's not too bad, considering that I'd want to explore Tokyo a bit during the school year. :D I do have to worry about the shinkansen (bullet train) 'cause I want to go up to Hokkaido and stuff but riding the shinkansen costs just as much, if not more, than a plane ticket! If that's the case, then I might as well forget Hokkaido and hitch a plane down to Okinawa! Haha.

Wow, an actual update about EAP stuff for once. I had been waiting for this email. It's all very exciting (and painful on the wallet)! The only thing that I'm really waiting on is the certificate of eligibility! Then, Lord willing, I'll be all set for Japan! :D

Mkay, back to lipid rafts (THEY'RE SO COOL).