Random Rants LVII: wow. many anger. very whining.

[classical_hero]

New thread over here.

 

[Phrossack]

This probably deserves its own thread.

 

[schlaufuchs]

It's a very tight schedule, and that's only part of it. Tuesday will be brutal because I'll probably be running on very little sleep, have seven hours of jet lag, and will be frantically running across a foreign city alone doing a crapton of complicated things, and I'm merely conversational in German, not fluent. I'm sure I can get English help, but still. I'll be half-dead and swamped with work simultaneously. They expect students to land, move in, get registered at three separate offices across the city, open a bank account, pay hundreds of Euros in cash and hundreds more in credit, and everything else, all by 6:00 PM.

The first time I visited a foreign country I set off armed with nothing but a card that said "I am lost, please direct me to Yakosuka Naval Station" in English and Japanese. Within two hours I had invited myself to some sort of giant corporate picnic, featuring free beer and food, where two very cute girls who spoke not a lick of English took me into their hearts.

All your concern and preparation is not really necessary. You'll survive.

The first time I visited a foreign country on my own I was put in a holding cell for 8 hours. And when I was released I had nowhere to stay, little money, and almost no contacts to help me. So some preparation is necessary, but Phrossack has a visa and living accommodations, so he should be just fine.

Phrossack: the other side of that story is that despite my first day being absolutely miserable and feeling like a punching bag who just went 10 rounds with Mike Tyson I got through it. I got out of holding (they rejected my visa and told me I had to stay overnight and catch the next plane out of the UK), the hostel I had booked forfeited my room because I didn't show up in time (because I was stuck in a holding cell all day), and it was like 7 PM and I didn't know what I was doing. I found an internet café. Booked a hotel last-minute. Called my parents and the professor I was working with. The next day I spent like 6 hours running around the airport arguing with various customs agents. I managed to convince them to grant me a visa with like 5 minutes before boarding closed on the plane I would have HAD to take. Then I got in contact with family in the city, and within the week I was situated in an apartment and things settled down from there. Settling into a new city is going to be scary. Accept that. Rather than focusing on ALL the crap you're going to have to do, just take it one task at a time. Get through customs. Figure out how to get to your apartment. Get moved in. Then progress from there. It seems like it's all going to be overwhelming, but accept that that's part of the process and you'll get through it eventually. And take solace in the fact that whatever happens to you will probably be a hundred times less bad than what happened to me

 

[Hygro]

It's the most liberating thing, the horror of day 1 in a foreign country with no place to stay and the stress of it all.

 

[reddishrecue]

The same similar thing happens to people who end up in a different state.