Day Four: Work
So the woman that chose me for the internship said that she chose me because of my essay. The only problem is, I don't remember what I wrote in it! Hahahaha! Thankfully she didn't ask me anything about it!
I got to the consulate an hour before I could even get in. Turns out Americans must wait until 9am to get in, but Japanese and other people who are applying for visas can get in a 8am. (Huh?) There were some random policemen standing at the corners of the consulate, and I felt sorry for them because their job looked VERY BORING. They just stood there, while this one old Japanese guy busted his butt directing people to get in line for their visas.
Finally I was allowed to go in and I met two other interns, a girl who's dad works in the Osaka consulate (she's still in high school, half Japanese and therefore speaks it fluently) and a girl who was a graduate student at YALE who was in the internship to prepare her for her pretty much guaranteed job with the Foreign Services. (She speaks Japanese a LOT better than me too. I know nothing compared to her!) The other girl who'd I'd been communicating with never showed up and hasn't answered my e-mail. Hmm.
We took a tour and then I was dropped of in the visa area where I did nothing all day. That's right, I sat at my desk and read some tourist guides all day because I can't do anything without a login and password and the guy in charge of that is apparently not on top of things.
Went out to lunch with Yale Girl and three supervisors to this place on the 27th floor of a random building. (How are you supposed to know its even up there??) The place was pretty fancy looking, but the dishes were surprising cheap, like $9. I had some chicken thing, which tasted like a bland version of the Orange Chicken from Panda Express. The rice was purple tinted from some beans (which had no taste) and the rest of the food was gross. The supervisors paid of course! <3 Free food! At lunch, Yale Girl and the supervisors talked about Foriegn Services junk and I had no idea what any of it meant. They asked me afterwords if I was also planning on joining the Foriegn Services and I honestly told them I didn't know anything at all about it. When they asked me why I'd taken this internship, I was honest again and told them that I got some random e-mail about it and my dad was bothering me about an internship. They thought this was hilarious and one of the supervisors said that that's why they liked my essay, partly because it was so honest. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
They let me leave at 2:30 since there was nothing I could do, but I'd asked Yale Girl help me figure out how to properly buy a subway ticket and she would be getting out at 5pm. So I walked around for a bit and returned to sit outside of the Consulate at 4pm.
Well, these three old jerk-offs set up camp outside the consulate, got on a loud horn and started ranting about anti-American things. I heard Bush, White House, Iraq, something about the consulate must leave, the base in Okinawa should be closed and about Iraqi women and children dying. There were also bits about the UK as well, but most of it was just ranting and raving about how much the US sucks. Yes, and that's why there are shit loads of people lining up outside of the visa office to get into America for long term stays. Ummhmm. I stayed there for the entire thing, hoping it would piss them off. : )
Anyway, that went on for about an hour and as they were packing up, Yale Girl FINALLY came out and we went to the subway. I found out how to really buy a ticket without spending more money than I need to, and then we went in search for some discount pass that would allow me to travel between certain stations at a discounted rate.
We didn't know where to go, so she asked this young (and cute, we both agreed!) subway worker and he was very nice, and even wrote out in Japanese what it was that we needed. Yale Girl was surprised at this, because apparently, other times she'd asked subway workers for help in JAPANESE, they shook their heads and said "NO ENGLISH!" and wouldn't help her. Yes, even though she was speaking Japanese. LOL! I asked her if those had been older men and she said yes. I told her that younger people would probably be more open to foreigners asking for help, and indeed, we had to talk to another young subway worker to find the place to pick up the discount pass office. He was also nice and helpful.
The discount pass is very cheap, about $140 for an entire 3 months of travel to and from work compared to the $360 in 3 months I would spend just buying normal tickets everyday. I'm not sure if I have the money for it right now but I'll wait and see when I get my last library paycheck on Friday.
I got to the consulate an hour before I could even get in. Turns out Americans must wait until 9am to get in, but Japanese and other people who are applying for visas can get in a 8am. (Huh?) There were some random policemen standing at the corners of the consulate, and I felt sorry for them because their job looked VERY BORING. They just stood there, while this one old Japanese guy busted his butt directing people to get in line for their visas.
Finally I was allowed to go in and I met two other interns, a girl who's dad works in the Osaka consulate (she's still in high school, half Japanese and therefore speaks it fluently) and a girl who was a graduate student at YALE who was in the internship to prepare her for her pretty much guaranteed job with the Foreign Services. (She speaks Japanese a LOT better than me too. I know nothing compared to her!) The other girl who'd I'd been communicating with never showed up and hasn't answered my e-mail. Hmm.
We took a tour and then I was dropped of in the visa area where I did nothing all day. That's right, I sat at my desk and read some tourist guides all day because I can't do anything without a login and password and the guy in charge of that is apparently not on top of things.
Went out to lunch with Yale Girl and three supervisors to this place on the 27th floor of a random building. (How are you supposed to know its even up there??) The place was pretty fancy looking, but the dishes were surprising cheap, like $9. I had some chicken thing, which tasted like a bland version of the Orange Chicken from Panda Express. The rice was purple tinted from some beans (which had no taste) and the rest of the food was gross. The supervisors paid of course! <3 Free food! At lunch, Yale Girl and the supervisors talked about Foriegn Services junk and I had no idea what any of it meant. They asked me afterwords if I was also planning on joining the Foriegn Services and I honestly told them I didn't know anything at all about it. When they asked me why I'd taken this internship, I was honest again and told them that I got some random e-mail about it and my dad was bothering me about an internship. They thought this was hilarious and one of the supervisors said that that's why they liked my essay, partly because it was so honest. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
They let me leave at 2:30 since there was nothing I could do, but I'd asked Yale Girl help me figure out how to properly buy a subway ticket and she would be getting out at 5pm. So I walked around for a bit and returned to sit outside of the Consulate at 4pm.
Well, these three old jerk-offs set up camp outside the consulate, got on a loud horn and started ranting about anti-American things. I heard Bush, White House, Iraq, something about the consulate must leave, the base in Okinawa should be closed and about Iraqi women and children dying. There were also bits about the UK as well, but most of it was just ranting and raving about how much the US sucks. Yes, and that's why there are shit loads of people lining up outside of the visa office to get into America for long term stays. Ummhmm. I stayed there for the entire thing, hoping it would piss them off. : )
Anyway, that went on for about an hour and as they were packing up, Yale Girl FINALLY came out and we went to the subway. I found out how to really buy a ticket without spending more money than I need to, and then we went in search for some discount pass that would allow me to travel between certain stations at a discounted rate.
We didn't know where to go, so she asked this young (and cute, we both agreed!) subway worker and he was very nice, and even wrote out in Japanese what it was that we needed. Yale Girl was surprised at this, because apparently, other times she'd asked subway workers for help in JAPANESE, they shook their heads and said "NO ENGLISH!" and wouldn't help her. Yes, even though she was speaking Japanese. LOL! I asked her if those had been older men and she said yes. I told her that younger people would probably be more open to foreigners asking for help, and indeed, we had to talk to another young subway worker to find the place to pick up the discount pass office. He was also nice and helpful.
The discount pass is very cheap, about $140 for an entire 3 months of travel to and from work compared to the $360 in 3 months I would spend just buying normal tickets everyday. I'm not sure if I have the money for it right now but I'll wait and see when I get my last library paycheck on Friday.