Weeks to go

Only 3 weeks left before I head out to Japan. It's scary just how many things I have to take care of, from culling junk accumulated from staying 6 years in this city, to packing up whatever I need to send by freight and getting clearances for medications and other fun stuff.

The JET orientation a couple of weeks back brought me in touch with my fellow JET n00bs and experienced veterans, and while not terribly informative (all the info was in our handbooks anyway), was a good chance for me to pull the consul aside and clarify a few things. We got by with an afternoon tea in lieu of lunch, and had our dinners subsidized, so it wasn't all dull. Wish I could have attended the game music concert that was going on at the same time at the Opera House though. Boo.

So the last few weeks have been spent clearing out junk from my room and packing away stuff for storage (thanks Leena!). Damn I have a lot of junk. So I put the stuff I didn't want anymore out on the walkway outside my apartment on Saturday and attempted to do the garage sale thing. I suppose I had been outcompeted by the Live Earth concert nearby and the USS Kittyhawk at Woolloomooloo, because there were'nt all that many people on the streets that day. Despite that I made about $60 (by offering my stuff dirt cheap) and got rid of some of the higher value items. Meh. The rest will go to Vinnie's I suppose, they're better at redistributing used stuff. Anybody wants a 1200W convection heater?

I'll be sending my stuff via an economy courier box because it's just way too expensive to do it by sea unless I have a cubic metre of stuff to send over. Seeing that my residence in Japan will probably be a closet, it seems a bit unwise. So DHL's 25kg Jumbo Box it is, seeing at UPS and FedEx have issues with sending personal effects overseas (beats me why). Combined with some handy-dandy vacuum space bags, I should be able to cram quite a bit into a single box. Yay! Kinda expensive, but what can you do?

Much to do still. Gah, I might scoot off early from work today and pack some more. So I have time to drool over Captain Jack in tonight's ep of Torchwood. Hey I didn't just say that... *flee*