Where do I begin? London Orientation I suppose since that is in the title. It's actually quite hard for me try and write this at the moment as I am feeling rather overwhelmed. I just looked at the little count down timer I have on the side of my blog and saw that I have 18 days left. Seriously, 18 DAYS! That's just over 2 weeks and I have so much to do. This overwhelming feeling is actually causing me to be counter productive and I'm finding it terribly difficult to motivate myself. I've found my emotions keep going from high to low as I begin packing everything up into boxes and talking to people about leaving. But that doesn't mean to say that I'm not excited, because this great sense of adventure hovers over all of this. Anyway, London Orientation. I still can't actually believe how fast it came around, and how quickly it was over with. I decided to travel up on the Wednesday afternoon. Registration didn't actually start until 9am the following morning, but I really didn't want to risk commuting the hour's train ride up to London and then finding my way on the tube to Mile End where the Orientation was being held at a university. JET had booked for everyone to stay on campus the Thursday night (which was paid for by them), so I simply got in contact with the university and arranged an extra night. Though I had to pay for this myself, it was most definitely worth it and I highly recommend that anyone travelling fair distances or who does not know London all that particularly well do the same. It made things so much more relaxing and gave me a chance to meet up with some of my fellow JETs. Thursday morning we went to register, which included handing over our visa applications and passport. This took quite a while to do as there are about 143 of us this year. After registration was complete we then went into the lecture theatre and had seminars, workshops and talks on various different aspects of Japan and daily life, our flight information etc. I have to say, this was a very long day. We didn't finish until almost 7 and only had an hour's break in that (most of which was spent sorting out our rooms). That evening a few of us went on over to Stratford shopping centre and dinned in Pizza hut. I think someone has a photo somewhere that I'll try and get hold of later.
Friday morning was up early again and straight into an all day Japanese lesson. This was probably the hardest day, I found myself really struggling to keep up with everyone. Whilst I do know a little Japanese grammar and probably enough to put me in the group I was in, the majority of the group seemed to have a lot more knowledge than I did. That being said, it really did push me, and whilst it did take me out of my comfort zone it was probably what I needed. The lesson was conducted entirely in hiragana which meant that I really had to concentrate to work things out. It forced me to think and meant that I could not be lazy in just using romanji.
Once the lesson was finished at 4pm, we all then decided to commute on over to the Embassy for the evening reception at 6pm. I'm really glad that we left when we did, as it meant that we just missed the rush hour traffic and commuters. The only downside was that the weather was soooo hot and sticky and most of us were in suits. I actually felt like I was melting on the tube. A friend and I decided to stop off at a Pret store near to the embassy to freshen up and get ready, then went on over to the embassy where we had to hand in our invitations, sign in/security checks and store our luggage.
Once we were through we went upstairs to where the reception was being held. There were already tons of people inside and we were all given champagne and sushi! It was a really amazing evening and went by so quickly. I talked to so many people over the couple of days in London that I found it so difficult to remember everyone's name. I also spoke to a couple of Japanese businessmen whilst at the reception and they gave me their business cards which was totally amazing. My advice to anyone is try to talk to as many people as possible because they might just be an excellent contact for the future! After the reception had finished at 8pm, we were all invited to continue the evening at a pub just down the road from the embassy. Many of the Japanese officials and JET organisers came too, and it was here that I actually got to speak to the director of CLAIR (anyone applying for JET should know exactly what CLAIR is.) I had a very interesting conversation with him and was extremely happy that I went for an hour or so as it gave me a chance to talk to both new and ex JETs too. I must have left around 10.30 as I had to get the train back, but really wish I could have stayed for longer. It was such an amazing evening. I'd had slight doubts about going as I was so tired after orientation and not feeling 100%. But I am really glad that I did. I highly recommend that any future JETs uncertain about attending the welcome reception go, because you won't regret it.
So yes, now I am on to my final preparation before I leave this country and embark on my new adventure. I really need to start packing this week too as next week is going to be super busy for me. We have some Japanese exchange students coming over from Ito and Yokosuka who I will be be showing around and supporting on excursions. So I really need to try and get mostly packed and sorted this week. I need to get my backside into gear and get organised. Time to make some more To-Do lists I think!! Will update you soon on how I am progressing!
See ya~
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