well... (そう です...)

This post might be a bit more eclectic than usual; I've got a lot to cover and only one post to do it in.

But anyway, I'll start with the rant: Over the last week I've been repeatedly hindered by the fuckwits that are the Student Loans Company. Their work rate meant that they were dealing with a backlog of correspondences from 2 months ago - not hugely useful when I sent my signature form in early August. I rang them to see if there was any way of speeding up my application, letting them know that I ticked the box to receive my money early, but no joy. I then resorted to the (poorly designed, hard to use and overall shit) website for help, but found instead that the 'ask a question' tool was like Mirage Island in the old Pokémon games; it was only present 1 times in a million, and the chance was reset each time you went away.

Bugger.

So I phoned them again. This time to change my bank details, and I wasn't surprised to find there was some issue to stop them from doing so: their systems were being updated, rendering them unable to deal with ANY queries. This was at 11.30am on a MONDAY. Great. So I waited, and rang back an hour later, to find that they couldn't do that over the phone; I'm sure the original operator could've informed me of this without looking it up on the almighty system.

But never mind, it all turned out well (I think). I managed to track down the elusive 'ask a question' tool, and asked away. Several DAYS later I got 2 replies, both on the same day, at roughly the same time: one said my application hadn't been approved and gave me a long list of things to do to solve the problem, the other said my application HAD been approved. Despite the contradictory responses, I figure it has been approved, and am now just waiting on my payment schedule letter now so I can finalise my Toronto expenses spreadsheet.



Now for the good stuff. Alongside the aforementioned farce, I've been sorting out the last minute things for my upcoming exchange to Toronto. I've decided on 2 travel insurance policies to get, emailled everyone I needed to email, found the best exchange rate, and even looked through my guidebooks for possible things to do there. But perhaps most importantly, I've found accommodation!

It's a room in a family's apartment, 30 minutes from Downtown by subway, and with a double futon bed, a desk, a tv and a chest of drawers. Nice.

The rent is cheaper than I expected as well, and now my daily budget is £6.82 (about $12.50).

All the last minute preparations are going as planned; I've got loads to do in the last week, people to see etc, and it should be amazing. I can't wait to go but at the same time I don't want to leave!



I might expand on this later, but I want to post one last post for August, so here goes!

the domino effect (ドミノ)

I can't think of anything worthwhile to blog about at the moment, yet it seems a shame to go so long without a post... Luckily I found some stupid pictures in an old folder that you can enjoy.



On a trip to Domino's Pizza in Welling a couple of years ago, me and Aaron saw this sign and thought it was stating a rather bold claim:



So we decided to take action. The Domino's website unwittingly gave us a means by which to contact them, and we sent them this:



This email is now dead by the way, so no spam please! Anyway, 2 years later, and after being presented with the message below, we're still waiting on a reply.



I wonder why?

the winning entry? (勝)

To be eligible for a tasty £500 BUTEX scholarship, I had to submit an essay titled "Why every student should study abroad". I went for the light-hearted, joke-occasionally-slipped-in touch, and feel I pulled it off quite well. Feedback appreciated:

"In today's world, it is easier than ever to travel at a low cost; budget airlines, hostels, affordable travel packages and numerous other means allow travellers to get to almost any city on the globe for a modest sum, yet usually people only experience the 'tourist' facade of their chosen destination (through choice or otherwise).

While it's all well and good to see the main tourist attractions, shop in duty free, and stay in English speaking accommodation, I feel the best way to experience foreign culture is to immerse yourself fully in it; befriend the residents, learn their ways and (if applicable) their language, see the things they're proudest of, and give yourself a completely different perspective of the place to that of the travel guides. Obviously this method requires more effort on your part, more time must be set aside to truly benefit from immersing yourself, and as a result of this more money must also be set aside. For this reason it strikes me that university is the best time to go; you'll have all the time you need during your year (or even semester) abroad to immerse yourself, and even to experience the 'tourist' facade if you so desire, as well as an abundance of resources for funding.

From an academic viewpoint, you'll have the chance to be taught by Professors with a completely different outlook from those at your home university; this will give you an advantage over your classmates upon return as you'll have been shown aspects of your subjects that would have been missing otherwise. Learning how foreign education systems work is also beneficial; it will give you a new way of looking at the one at home, highlighting it's good (and indeed bad) points, as well as giving you ideas of how to improve your education at home by combining aspects of the two.

On top of the reasons mentioned above, there are also plenty of opportunities for personal development to be found studying abroad; the people you'll meet will have come from all different walks of life, and will be able to give you an insight into their cultures and customs. And of course there's always the chance of forming long-lasting friendships (or maybe even more!). Living independently in another country will provide further opportunities to develop yourself, and things such as organising your time and budgeting your money will take on a whole new meaning during your time abroad!

In short, studying abroad will not only enhance your CV and academic profile, but you'll have the opportunity to make great new friends, learn about and develop yourself into a more capable and more mature young adult, and maybe even get a tan! It is for these reasons that I think every student should study abroad."

we went to Australia (オーストラリア)

Summer 1998: The Smith family are in Australia, tanned and relaxed from their recent week in Malaysia and are ready to head back there after a couple of weeks touring the Oz. The itinerary for the holiday, without dates because I can't remember that far back, was as follows:

July 1998: Fly from London to Kuala Lumpur, then from Kuala Lumpur to Penang. Book into the Golden Sands hotel for a week and spend said week lazing around on the beach, swimming in the awesome pools, using the neighbouring hotel's better facilities (it was 5 star, we were 4), and experiencing the hustle and bustle of Malaysian markets.

After said week, fly from Penang to Kuala Lumpur and then to Sydney. Spend some time with Australian family, doing such things as barbecues (barbies), bowling, and seeing red-back spiders. Then drive around Australia for a couple of weeks, going to Canberra, Melbourne, Windsor, the Blue Mountains, and the Jenolan Caves (probably not in that order).

August 1998: Fly from Sydney back to Kuala Lumpur, then to Langkawi. Spend another week in beautiful Malaysia, this time however staying in two hotels (I can't remember whether that was planned originally). We also had an underwater camera which provided hours of entertainment!

August 2009: I (formerly Chris Smith) find photographs of the aforementioned holiday, and upload them to Facebook for everyone to see, Matthew and Lewis Smith in particular (my then-stepbrothers I recently reestablished contact with).

The pictures below are my personal favourites from the two albums worth we took during the trip. The quality isn't too great; the film was cheap to begin with, and transferring them to the computer via my phone's camera didn't help any. But they're still nice to look at:

See all the photos here, if you want.

a Smoot too far... (スムット)

As some of you may be aware, I recently had my haircut. My hair was between 0.176 and 0.235 Smoots long before, but now it's about 0.017 Smoots all over. I'm thinking now that the 0.146 Smoot minimum that was cut off was too much, and I should have gone for a comfortable middle distance, (around 0.117 Smoots?) like the length it was in late Summer / early Autumn last year.

I'm still not used to several things: the sound of wind in my ears, for example. It's been a while since the wind was able to penetrate the full Smootiness of my hair. My head's the wrong shape now as well, and ergo my shadow. Instead of casting a mushroom cloud shaped shadow as before, it's a boring human head shape now. And perhaps the most perplexing thing to comprehend, is that the elastic-banded ponytails of hair laying on my dining room table could be worth money. Money, for hair. It's madness.

By the way: a 'Smoot' is a nonstandard unit of measurement which piqued my interest. Read about it on Wikipedia if you so desire. I was going to name this post as I did whether it related to Smoots or not, so I guess it's lucky it did.

20p each or 4 for £1! (ポンド)

The title of this post refers to the kind but inconsistent logic of the local shop assistant, which allowed me to buy a single packet of '4 for £1' biscuits for 20p and brighten my day immensely. The reason my day was not sufficiently brightened beforehand is I spent a large amount of it ungloved and hunched awkwardly in someone else's garden, pulling up a plenitude of thorned weeds.

However despite not being bright, it wasn't dark either. It was dimly lit. The prospect of payment provided much needed lumination throughout, which was reinforced by budget biscuits at the end of it. Further reinforcement came via listing my first item on Amazon for a healthy £4.25, and an email from a Torontian friend informing me that she'd happily view properties for me, removing the possibility of living somewhere for 4 months that I had not seen or evaluated beforehand.

Tonight I intend to settle on the travel insurance I'll be buying, and update my "Toronto budget" spreadsheet, and intelligent little document I whipped up yesterday, accordingly. Check back soon for more exciting updates!

(further) thoughts on Canada (カナダ)

It's amazing the difference 12 hours can make, give or take.

I signed my last post off on a fairly pessimistic note, stating that I was "yet to find... a clear frame of mind in which to tackle [things]". Now however, I feel a great deal more optimistic about the whole experience, and here's why:

Firstly, I spoke about it. A massive weight dropped after talking to Dave, Jay, Aaron and Charlotte, and their ear-lending is muchly appreciated! I was in a mood to get things done after this, and a couple of hours spent browsing Craigslist enabled me to find a selection of accommodation options, all within a sensible distance of the University, and all under $400pcm (£221!). Taking these figures as accurate, the rent total for my trip would now be around $1600 (£884), a much more likely sum!

Using Google Earth to find approximate distances between accommodations and the Uni also fuelled my appetite for Toronto; I managed to pinpoint several attractions and places of interest (or at least mild intrigue) along the way, including the Cabbagetown, the BATA Shoe Museum, the CN Tower, Little Korea, Little Italy and many more.

Perhaps I'll even pick up a collection of funny hats and comical t-shirts from these attractions to divide up between family and friends upon my return...

The last thing on my list of things to sort for today is insurance. I'm going to scour every page on the internet to find the best, cheapest and most inclusive deal in existence. Then hopefully accommodation will get sorted over the next couple of weeks, flights can be booked, and it'll all be dandy.

Wish me luck!

thoughts on Canada (カナダ)

So, if things go to plan I'll be heading to Toronto in just under a month. I feel like it's time to address some personal pre-departure ponderances:

I still haven't got accommodation. Several people have been asked by me or on my behalf whether they know of anywhere cheap to live, or even if they're willing to except a student lodger for the best part of 4 months; but so far no luck. The general consensus from aforementioned correspondences and Craigslist is that I can expect to pay between £250 and £400 a month for accommodation, and if I take my stay as 4 months (it's actually just over 3), that's between £1000 and £1600 total rent. Once I have my student loan, hair sponsorship money, earnings, and other acquired money collected together and have spent out on insurance and other necessities, I'll have somewhere in the region £1500.

It doesn't take a great mathematician to see that's not a huge amount of spending money.

£500 (at most, as it would seem) has to cover food, travel and other expenses for 112 days in a completely new, bustling metropolis, of which I will certainly want to take full advantage, and it seems an awfully meagre amount for the task. I am open to any (and I repeat, any) suggestions on how to improve my financial situation before arrival.

A further reflection of mine is how I will experience the experience itself. Obviously my senses will relay information for processing via electrical impulses to various centres in my brain, which will then decode the information and feed it back to me in an coherent fashion, but consider beyond this: Will I be an exchange student or a tourist? Will I be taking full advantage of everything this strange new place has to offer, or just living frugally against a different cultural backdrop? Of course these questions are impossible to answer at this stage, but still important to consider. I don't want to return to London to find that I wasted the entire trip choosing whether canned spam or a loaf of stale bread is the most financially advisably dinner choice, yet on the other hand I don't want to return to a horribly overdrawn bank account with a vast collection of funny hats and comical t-shirts from assorted tourist attractions to be divided up between family and friends.

It's certainly a bother.

With the exchange being such a potentially amazing experience, I refuse to give up on it. Yet I must say it's becoming a struggle getting it all sorted. With just under a month to go, and as I have already mentioned in part, I am yet to find accommodation, insurance and a clear frame of mind in which to tackle it.

new email system (メール)

After weeks of deliberation, today finally saw the implementation of a whole new personal email system. And by 'personal', I don't mean my own email server or anything equally absurd, but instead a method of virtual filing so confusing that no others would likely consider it.

Basically, I now have 3 email addresses: one 'formal', from which I send any correspondences wherein I don't want to sound like a dorky teenager; one 'old', which as the name suggests has been around for a while; and one 'new', which suggests the contrary.

The 'new' one can send and receive emails from both the 'formal' and it's own address, a feature gmail offers which I find rather nifty. The 'formal' one receives a copy of any correspondences sent with it's name from the 'new' account, as well as any email sent directly to it. The 'old' one receives a copy of everything sent to the 'formal' and 'new' addresses, as well as anything sent directly to it (and a healthy amount of spam. Just over 1000 in 4 days is the record so far).

The goal is to have one sign in I can use to send and receive any important messages (the 'new' one), and another acting as an all-encompassing archive of every message, important, spam or otherwise, I receive (the 'old' one). The 'formal' one will never be signed into itself, but instead any messages needing to be sent from it will be sent through the 'new' one, with thanks to gmail's aformentioned nifty feature.

I hope that brief nugget of techno-babble has enhanced your day at least a little.