Cool; I have an entire week to resettle! (Personal Entry)

For a while, I thought classes at K-State start on the 3rd Monday of August, like many schools traditionally do, so after I got off my last flight of my numerous hops from Nagasaki, I thought I'd only have two days to move back into my apartment in Manhattan, enroll in classes, buy books and supplies, and start going to class.

It looks like I have more time than I thought I did.

I checked the K-State calendar here and I feel relief; I have an entire week to resettle back into my apartment and get ready for the new Fall.

I'm typing from my family's home in Lindsborg right now; I haven't gotten to see Manhattan yet and won't until about Tuesday or so, so as soon as I tour Chapman's tornado damages and come back, there ought to be a lot of progress made in the construction of our new parking garage, and the other ambitious downtown development that'll turn Manhattan into a trendy suburbia (though for its own city.)

Then my apartment will have (hopefully) gone through a thorough renovation, like my landlady said it would go through. (A subleaser was filling out the documents when a leak was discovered above where my bed would've been; looks like I got out of there just in time!) They discovered other issues that needed repairs and renovations after finding the leak, so hopefully my apartment will cosmetically look better as soon as I find the key that I left with my family and open its door for the first time in five months.

As for all of my textbooks, I'm so glad I'll have all the time I need to find them. I hope to find a digital version for each and every one of them (either online, or on a disk from Varney's Bookstore) so that I wouldn't have to strain my back carrying them anymore. If not, I could possibly find an illegitimate digital textbook from ThePirateBay or a torrent site. The traditional textbooks break our wallets AND our backs!

Whatever time it takes to complete my reverse culture shock (which I believe there isn't much of) will all be spent on Resettlement Week.

I ought to have a better chance in a job search now that I can put studying abroad and my private tutoring job on my resume. The reason for leaving that job would be perfectly acceptable to any employer - it was almost time for me to leave Japan. I'll hopefully visit Career & Employment Services at K-State or the Manhattan Workforce Center during Resettlement Week to polish my resume (with critiques) and conduct practice interviews.

Private tutoring uses and improves leadership skills, and many recruiters are looking to hire new candidates with any particular leadership experience, so that will improve my chances even further. My resume is already two pages full, so I will have to remove something from there - my least favorite past jobs, perhaps?

It's so nice to come back to familiar surroundings now (though I'll now have to buy a washlet, being unwilling to go back to the old way), and see old friends again and ask what they did all summer, and so forth. Let us hope there are new clubs at K-State and anything new (perhaps a Korean class, for crying out loud!) I'm so happy that my long hop home has finally about ended!