Information Headache

Hey! Today is August 2nd, which means it is exactly one month until I leave Australian soil. Not gonna lie, I'm freaking out. I still have so much to do! Today I went in to QUT and picked up my information package from Rikkyo. There's quite a bit included in the package, but a lot of it is just housekeeping stuff that kept repeating itself which made it a headache to read.

The package included:

• My Official Letter of Admission (or at least I'm hoping that's what it is because it's written in Japanese). 
• Information about daily life in Japan (although to be honest most of it I had already worked out on my own and I'm still no closer to knowing whether it's worth me opening a Japanese bank account or not and how to get a mobile).
• Boring insurance/health forms.
• An orientation schedule.
• Information about the Japanese placement test (very vague).
• Some information about class registration (also very vague). 
• A booklet with descriptions of the classes I can take (same as what was available on the Rikkyo website).
• A timetable of all the classes (at the moment I won't be disappointed if I end up in J1 level Japanese, they have a 10:45am start instead of a 9am start haha).
• Student handbook.
• Dorm confirmation (I'll be staying at the Shiki dorm, room 206. Any other Shiki residents reading this?)
• Information about the dorms (rules and regulations as well as information about where the dorms are etc, basically stuff that I already knew from reading the info available on the Rikkyo website).

There's also some forms that need to be returned to Rikkyo, some of which are supposed to be mailed back by August 5th. Ha! Maybe if they wanted their forms back on time they should have posted the package at the start of July like they said they would (can you tell I'm a bit annoyed by their lack of organisation?).

Some other items of note:

• Apparently they don't send someone to meet me at the airport, which kinda sucks really. QUT had said that most universities would send someone to meet you. Guess I'll be braving the airport and transport to Shiki by myself. It seems pretty straightforward, but the thought of doing it alone after an overnight flight is a bit daunting considering I hardly speak Japanese. 
• You can't check in to the dorms after 9pm. Luckily this won't affect me as my flight arrives in the morning, but the info we were given prior to now only mentioned that you couldn't check in on Sundays and public holidays. I bet there will be a few people with later flights who were planning to check in after 9pm. I feel for those people, I really do. Probably should have told us that before we booked our flights. Let this be a warning to anyone going to Rikkyo in future!
• I'm allowed to send items to my dorm room within a week of my arrival. This means that I'll have to wait until the last minute to order my bedding. I hope it arrives before I do, I don't have any plans to sleep on the floor!

So that's basically it! There's a tonne of info in there really, but that's the general outline. I guess my next step is to get those forms returned to Rikkyo and plan which classes I want to take. Hopefully I can work out a timetable that leaves me lots of free time!

Anthea xx