Chicago Orientation

Days until Departure: Less than one

After a week of scrambling, the living room floor was covered in (I swear) organized piles of clothes, electronics, and toiletries. A neighbor who came by to visit hopefully didn't look to closely or he might have noticed a pile of brightly colored bras and panties.

My last day, Thursday, was dedicated to putting these piles into suitcases. It was much harder than you'd expect. Once I get to Tokyo, my two checked bags will be sent on to my prefecture and I will be allowed to take only my carry-on with me for orientation in Tokyo and the following orientation in Shiga prefecture. That's a lot of clothes and toiletries to put in one small bag. Much of my orientation is business-wear, meaning that my carry on is crammed with blouses, heels, a suit, and dress pants.

This is when, the day before I left home, I realized that I was going to have to wear a suit most of the next week, but had just one paired blouse. I took an emergency trip to Boston Store to pick up the other two blouses (blue and yellow, to accompany my pink) so I wouldn't be dependent on hand-washing a single blouse all week. I was lucky that they were on sale!

There were two signs, one advertising the brand as 30% off and one for 40% off. When checking out, the blouses rang up at 30% off and I asked the sales associate about the 40% off sign. She brought me over and explained that that (vague and misleading) sign was only for a few specific (and unspecified) items. When I expressed concern about being able to afford both (very nice but very expensive) blouses, she asked if I had a store credit card or wanted to apply. I explained that I was leaving for Japan the following day so that wouldn't work, to which she said that she had a 20% off coupon I could stack with the 30% sale instead. Once I was checking out, she explained that she had lived in Japan, was hoping to go back this fall, and was eagerly sharing tips. It always makes me feel good knowing how much people like Japan. It makes me optimistic.

Sorting out exactly how many days I'd have to survive without my other bags took several hours to calculate and to sort out piles of stuff. After that, everything else was neatly thrown into a duffel and a roller-suitcase. Checked luggage is limited to under 50 pounds per bag. To get an estimate of my (very heavy) bags, I had my brother Francis* stand on the scale, then hold my bag, then subtract out his weight. This was made even more interesting by the scale battery dying a slow and tragic death, and Francis' general lack of enthusiasm.

Bright and early this morning, while Francis slept mom, dad, and I drove down to Chicago for orientation. We arrived at the hotel to see lots of young adults milling around in suits and knew we were certainly in the right spot. I nipped in to change out of my college tee and jeans into my interview suit and a pair of heels as business-y looking as they are difficult to walk in.

Mom teared up, and even asked if she could come upstairs with me. Insisting that she couldn't follow me around the hotel made it easier to say goodbye, ironically. Dad's not a crier, but I think he'll miss me, after all, I have his sense of humor. Everyone keeps telling me that Francis will miss me, too, to which I can only point and ask, "that happy child?" Having shared a bathroom with me forever and a car with me (and dad) since he could drive, Francis is quite delighted with the profiting he'll do in my absence.

Standing in line to check in at orientation, I realized that there were a lot of guys, more guys than girls, I believe. I was the only girl in line surrounded by 10 guys. Luckily I am fairly comfortable talking with guys. I chatted with the one in front of me in line (from Minnesota.) After checking in, we had to select seats in the poshly decorated (with chandeliers overhead) room. I scampered after the guy from line, explaining that I knew he was from Minnesota, which was more than I knew of anyone else in the room and asked if I could join his group. I ended up being the only girl.

Orientation, while generally informative and important (yes, I have a VISA and a ticket!) was a lot of sitting still listening to speeches. I grew impatient and the room did become more figity as the session continued. There was one break (during which the girls' bathroom had a line out the door and the guys' had none) which helped.

Dinner was frightening. It was business dress again and I just prayed that my clumsey self wouldn't get food on my very nice suit. It was the most formal meal I've ever had, consisting of multiple courses: salad and bread, pasta, sausages and potatoes, and dessert. I enjoyed my brownie and had a nice reminder that even in the US, formal meals are hard to be vegetarian at and Japan can only be more difficult.

At dinner, I was seated with two other JETs heading to Shiga, one of whom I chatted with extensively. He actually will be living fairly close and has visited Japan a handful of times. I plan to utilize this resource.

After dinner was free time. They warned us that our checked luggage would be locked up downstairs starting at 6:30. That gave me 45 minutes to follow the advice of Austin, our JET Programme liaison and use the scale in the weight room to check (and probably adjust) our luggage. Bags over 50 pounds have an additional fee of $50 per bag. Bags over 70 lbs are $420. After 45 minutes of careful rearranging, my bags both came up as about 46 or 47 pounds. I just need to pray now that that scale is accurate, or at least off in the same way the one at the airport is. Weighing bags was also a good way to chat with other (mostly female) JETs also weighing bags.

Chicago's been experiencing thunderstorms, which has thrown the internet into a tizzy. The addition of 130 JETs all trying to log on after dinner probably didn't help. I finally got online after about an hour of trying. I dragged my laptop downstairs to the lobby where other JETs (also struggling with the internet) had gathered. It was an anti-social social experience.

While many people went out into Chicago (or out to eat again, something I wish I'd done now that my tummy's rumbling) I was also feeling sleepy, so I went upstairs, took a hot shower, and made some tea.

The shower reminded me of my hotel room in Dublin a few years past. I had been unable to book a hostel and finally checked into a hotel as a last resort. While expensive, especially as I was alone, the room was amazing luxury compared to what I'd gotten used to. My apartment in Ireland also appeared to have only lukewarm water for showers (and then, it ran out in about 10 minutes, so much of my leg shaving was done in freezing water with goosebumps all over me while I tried to shave my second leg after the hot water ran out. The hotel in Dublin had hot water, something I hadn't experienced in months. As it was dark and I was alone, I stayed in my room, drew up a hot bath and didn't leave for three hours. As the hotel staff had left our air conditioning blasting here in Chicago, the warm water, in an empty hotel room (I hadn't yet met my roommate) was very reminiscent of how happy I felt taking that shower in Ireland. (Honest to goodness, that shower was a highlight of Ireland!)

My roommate has since come back and we've chatted a bunch. I'd met her briefly downstairs. She's flying on American Airlines, while I'm one of the 20 or so on Japan Airlines, and the envy of everyone as Japan airlines has larger carry-on bag limits and is generally said to be much nicer. It unfortunately means that my plane leaves 45 minutes before hers, so my alarm is set to a frighteningly early time. (It has --deep, dramatic breath -- just one digit in the hour slot!)

My goal at this point is not to screw up getting to Japan. I'll worry about everything else later. I assume the hotel in Tokyo (which is quite Ritzy) will have internet. And that is where I'll next update.


*Note: as this is a public blog, names have been changed.