Zing!

I got documentation from the Board of Education in Towa. My apartment is a ten minute walk from the office. They also sent a cool map of Kochi prefecture. The good news is that I now know how much they will be paying me to be an ALT.

Per month, I will be getting - after tax - ¥300,000 (¥30,0000, as they say in Japan).

Live rates at 2008.06.15 22:55:49 UTC
300,000.00 JPY	=	3,692.64 NZD
Japan Yen		New Zealand Dollars
1 JPY = 0.0123088 NZD		1 NZD = 81.2428 JPY

That's over $3.5k a month :o

Take off rent, power, phone, Internet and food costs and I will still be able to save up to pay off my entire student loan in no time at all (well, it could take me a while if I buy a laptop and a car, haha!).

As it gets closer to the time that I'll be leaving home soil yet again, I am trying to think of anything else I can ask the people over there in preparation for leaving. I don't know how I can be any more prepared than taking enough clothes to live, and a few little gifts for important people I'll meet. Once my exams are over (my last one is this coming Saturday - the 21st), I will be free to clean up my stuff here and go away to stay with my parents for a little while before coming back to stay with my auntie for a little while, and then heading off for good ;)

Aside from my exams, my biggest issue is deciding whether to top up my World of Warcraft subscription :p

Oh, and my niece is being delivered in a couple of hours. My sister is in the hospital right now and since my entire family is down for my older sister's 30th birthday (which was on Saturday), we are all heading into town soon to be at the hospital when the newest family member is born.

Timotheos