A lot of information has came my way these past few days! Yay~
This past Monday I found out more information about my potential situation in Ishikawa. There’s three predecessors and three incoming JETs, but we have not been paired up yet. Our welcome packages have been mailed out and we should receive them sometime this week. Today would be nice, since it is my birthday, but it probably won’t be until Friday or Saturday. Monday of next week to be the latest… and that’s just assuming it was sent out by airmail and not surface.
Anyway, my future supervisor (who will now be me known as Mr. F), is apparently like the Superman from Kingdom Come (did I just use a comic book reference, why yes I did). Except, not a complete douchebag about being stressed out from saving the world. So, I have total sympathy about the delay considering his very stressed out and unfortunate situation. I don’t want to make his job harder on him if his plate is filled twice over.
I was told the welcome packet will have his contact information so I’ll be writing a reply introducing myself and thanking him for his efforts.
Two days ago I got my flight request form from the travel agency that handles our travel arrangements to Japan and just now I found out my actual flight itinerary. We’ll be leaving on the first flight out to JFK on the 4th of August, so that means we’ll be heading to the airport around 5am for checkin. We have a 5 hour layover in JFK and then jump on the 2pm flight to NRT. We won’t be actually in Tokyo until around 8pm.
I also found out our airliner is Delta. I was expecting it to be AA since MIA is one of it’s major hubs, but it seems like the travel agency decided to go with Delta. The domestic flight looks like it’s going to be rough. Though, I’m sure my adrenaline of just knowing I’m now on my way to Japan will probably override any miserable thoughts I have about the airline or the trip itself. Perhaps I can use my former employee knowledge to my advantage and get me some goodies.
I wrote up this piece of info in the Miami JETs group I’m in about the flight:
* Wifi equipped, $12 charge for 24 hour access. Domestic leg only (MIA -> JFK)
* No personal entertainment on the domestic leg, international leg has personal entertainment (the TVs in the seats)
* Business class as plugs for laptop devices, etc. Economy seating has USB plugs for iPods and other low power devices. International leg only.
* JFK to NRT is a 13 hour flight on a 747. MIA to JFK is a 3hr flight on a 737
It’s actually a 737-800, but who really cares, lol. Anyway, I now need to figure out how the luggage situation is going to work. I want to bring five pieces with me (three large bags, my carry on and my saxophone) but Delta is ridiculous with their baggage fees. They charge 60 bucks for the first two bags unless I’m a freakin Amex Skymiles card holder. I really need to think this through. Maybe international flying has different requirements.
Anyway, tomorrow is my Q&A session. Everything is finally coming full circle. All I have to do now is simply get on a plane and start my new life.