Lo-Volt said:
Congratulations! Don't forget to write once you've had a ride on the Shinkansen! I would drool for the chance to ride on one of those trains. One day...
It can be pretty expensive, though. I just hope the Shinkansen isn't like the trains in Tokyo and you're like a sardine in a can.
RevenantKioku said:
Wow, I didn't know you could get called so late. That's fuckin' awesome though. Congrats.
Thanks! Yeah, when they told me I was an alternate, the letter said that they can call you up through October(!), but from what I've read, if you don't get called up by August, it's pretty much not happening.
My one friend is leaving soon for it, and I'm pretty confident that if she got in, I have a decent chance. I just have to, you know, graduate.
I decided I was going to go a few years back when the worst guy in our Japanese class (he missed classes, couldn't do the homework without cheating, etc.) applied and still got what had to be a good letter of recommendation from our teacher. After he was accepted, I figured anyone could go. Then two more classmates went last year, with one of them being in the same situation I was in; he got called up right at the end of last July. When I got picked as an alternate, I pretty much put all hope into having a situation like his, and that's what happened.
Minotauro said:
Heh, yesterday, I was trying to devise a way I could either burn or bomb my office without being caught...anything to avoid having to get up today and go sit in a cubicle.
Part of me wants to come in when the boss is here, knock over all the magazine and game racks, throw a hammer at the computer screen, point to anyone in the store, and say "fuck you, fuck you, you're cool, fuck you...I'm out!" :lol I told them I'd be willing to work until the end of this month; I have no idea what's going to happen though. The place is doing badly so I really wouldn't be surprised if they tell me tomorrow or by Monday to stop coming in...
...which I wouldn't mind at all.
Was the overall JET process stressful? I hear they can ask some pretty off-the-wall questions in the interview.
Definitely stressful, but it was also my first actual job interview, so there was even more stress for me. My teacher was there as an interviewer (too bad your teacher can't interview you or everyone would get in!), and she pulled me aside and told me a ton of stuff that I should say should they ask me. Turns out they didn't ask me ONE of the questions she was telling me to prepare for! They gave me a lot of basic questions; I sat up straight, kept smiling, and did my best, but I know they knew how nervous I was because one guy kept saying "it's almost over, relax!"
I think I got picked as alternate because of the main interviewer (you have three people interviewing you). He started by asking me about my Asian Studies major, and I had a bit of a hard time recalling some names from the Meiji era; what I learned was less about names and more about events. I also goofed when they asked me to do a mock lesson; they let me do it again and they seemed to really like it, but I'm sure that lost me a point or two. Also I couldn't seem to come up with a good answer for a book I'd reccomend for the kids to read. When I think about it, I probably should just have said "Harry Potter." ^_^;
From what I've been told, being picked as an alternate basically means you missed getting chosen by a small amount; it could have just been one point or half a point off that made you miss getting hired right then and there.
The most stressful part of this whole experience was the wait; my interview was back in February. Then there was a month wait just to find out my interview results, and then months of waiting until now to see if I'd get called up! It felt like I wasn't able to really do much of anything; couldn't plan ahead and didn't want to apply for another job in case they did call me up.
teruterubozu said:
Get ready to sweat your ass off - August-September is BRUTALLY humid in Japan.
That's okay; I'm pretty used to that with the way the weather is here in Atlanta. I've been to Japan twice before in the summertime, and the climate felt pretty much the same.
