I'm judging you.

No key money, no deposit, no nothing. Nowhere I've really heard of, but 7 minutes from the nearest train station (one I've never heard of on the Toukyuu Meguro line, that according to Wiki is only a local stop), and in Shinagawa-ku. Bath and toilet inside the apartment. Place for washing machine. They accept pets. 8.5万 (~$850) a month.

Teeny-tiny? You betcha. Pretty old? Uh huuuuh. But a hop-skip-and-a-jump away from Shinbuya/Shinjuku/Ikebukuro? Very very yes.

My dream apartment? Sounding like it...

Now, the question is: WILL THEY RENT TO A FOREIGNER?!

---

Another--little more expensive (10.3万 ~ $1030 a month), but newer, still no extra-fees at start (that I can TELL >_>), still with a bathroom and shower, still accepting pets, still with a place for a washer/dryer, nearer to a major station (Ohtsuka station on the Yamanote, one stop from Ikebukuro).

Can I really afford to spend almost half my monthly salary on rent alone? ://///

In other related news: I'm thinking of, some time next month probably, of inviting one of my English teachers up to Tokyo with me to help me get an apartment--I mean actually sign the papers and everything. I'm REALLY looking into renting from a Japanese agency, because there are more apartments, cheaper sometimes--or at least more bang for my buck--than if I just go through some place like Palazatto or Sakura House, but I'm absolutely terrified I'd miss all the hidden fees and wind up with a $3000 a month apartment I don't need and cannot afford.

I'm hoping if I at least pick out some places ahead of time, narrow down my choices, and pay for her ticket, I'll be able to drag one of them up there, help me iron out the details, and not get screwed.

Ugh, I just want to live in Tokyo already :/ I hate this! I HATED GETTING AN APARTMENT IN AMERICA. ARGH.

Will need to look into upping the translations I do XD Because I want a CANON WordTank V80. *pets*

After seeing a post about electronic dictionaries on japanese yesterday, reppu and I surfed the net to see how nice they were, and this one looks like it and I could get along very nicely, oh yes. Check out these stats ♥

Found a few really nice reviews on it, including this one, which told me the selling point:

"The Canon Wordtank V80 has perhaps the most sought after feature in any Japanese electronic dictionary: the ability to input Japanese (and Chinese) kanji by writing them on the screen."

*flails* So it's like Jim Breen and Microsoft IME all in one lovely expensive package XDDDD It's about $300 on most sites around, but Amazon Japan lists it for about $230, which puts it at $250 with shipping, and that's still $50 cheaper than I saw at any other site. Sadly there were none on eBay when I checked, but hopefully that means everyone loves theirs so much they don't want to sell it.

On that financial note, I got my first paycheck! Was considerably less than I'd thought it would be, but then I realized it only went through July 1st, and left off about $200 worth of work that I did last week, so alas, see you NEXT paycheck. Am going to deposit it before work tomorrow. Yay ♥

So, I'm going to make my first LJ-esque rant, and pray to God that my parents don't find this, because I'll feel reall bad if they do.

Some of you may have heard from me that I'm not gonna be in Shreveport this summere (big surprise, a LOT of us are going out of city/state for summer jobs). What you may not have known was what the job entailed: it was probably going to be volunteer work (because room and board were provided) in southern California for most of the summer doing field work with a group on Barn Owls. The latter half of the summer I'd spend holed up in a lab running all sorts of tests on blood and egg samples, blah blah blah.

In short--my DREAM JOB. Not the kind of job you do for good money (heck, ANY money), but the kind of job where you wake up excited every day because you LOVE your job and are so grateful you get to do for a living something you truly enjoy.

I learned I was going to have this job early last semester (September). Today is Monday February 7, 2005, and it's pretty much shaping up to be the worst day of my life so far.

My father called me at 9:30 this morning, telling me in excited tones about a 3 month (89 days, actually, but I'll bet it feels like 90!) job opening this summer at GM (the General Motors plant) that my uncle found out about (he works there), and the salary would be ~$15 an hour--a good 2.5 times the amount I was making at LSUHSC last summer. I kind of nodded and listened to what he had to say, then reminded him that I already had a job lined up for this summer in Cali, remember? He said he did, but it was a lot of money. I repeated that I ALREADY had a job this summer that was infinitely moroe enjoyable than the one he spoke of, and while I was grateful to my uncle for thinking of me when he came across it, I was already committed to the Cali job.

I hung up with him, and 15 minutes later my mother calls. Same spiel, asks me to reconsider, and then here it comes: "Well, how were you going to get out to California, Courtney?"

...Excuse me? Umm, now, I don't mean to sound like a spoiled brat but...you people are my PARENTS. I kinda expected YOU to pay, or at least HELP me pay. They were SO excited when I told them about this opportunity back in September...why the sudden change?! I mean, my father has literally gone to Cali THREE times already this year! THREE! That's almost $1000, and AFAIK he didn't really have any reason he NEEDED to leave, it was just to visit family.

Guilt Trip #1: "We can't afford to send you out there."

I said I'd think about it--I mean, $15 an hour IS a lot of money, and maybe one summer of desk work wouldn't be so bad, you know? So I called my dad back and asked him when the job started, what I'd be doing and all, and he didn't know. Then it came:

Guilt Trip #2: "It's an awful lot of money, Courtney...and we just don't want to have to worry, 'Will she be able to afford such and such expense while she's at school?'"

...What the HELL? What are we, like, almost BANKRUPT?! I'm doing just fine on my summer/winter earnings, thank you very much. *I*'m not worried about me financially, why are YOU?! This just pissed me off and made me more frustrated, so I called my uncle himself to get details.

...God I wish I hadn't done that. I wish I'd just said yes, then come June I could've found out what I'd be doing.

Assembly Line Work.

Yes, THAT kind of assembly line work. The kind they could feed monkey's bananas to do, but instead pay poor college students $15 and hour to do.

There is nothing MORE frustrating in the world, than to see your dreams just kinda crumble in front of you. I could have taken my first step towards my future this June. And yet I'm going to be sitting in cesspool!Shreveport doing blue collar work for more money than I got curing cancer.

How deliciously ironic.

Now, I feel absolutely horrible that I'm not thrilled at this opportunity. What college student wouldn't be dancing in the streets at getting a job that's THIS easy just THROWN at them, for more money than they could possibly hope to earn on the norm? Really?

Well, apparently ME. I don't WANT an easy job. I don't WANT a high paying job unless I LIKE it! I want to have FUN, I want to do what *I* want to do, because *I*'m the one who has to live my life and pay my bills and crap like that, and DAMMIT I'm about to start crying again.

It's 1:45 PM now, I've been crying on and off since this morning. It's mostly stopped now, and kind of descended into a quiet rage that I can't take out on anyone or anything because everyone I want to be mad at is 4 hours away and yelling over the phone is not my thing.

And dammit, I have an O-Chem test this evening that I haven't even begun to study for. I'm so screwed, but right now, I don't really care. I plan to buy the biggest, prettiest, shiniest laptop I can afford as soon as possible this summer--which should take about 2 weeks of work, apparently.

Then I will sit on my ass in front of it the whole summer, and talk to you people, because Amy will be having a blast at her St. Jude lab--not in S'port, Chanelle will be having a blast (ok, don't laugh) at summer school--not in S'port, Brandy will be having a blast (again, don't laugh) at summer camp--not in S'port, Fred will...umm, I dunno, but--not in S'port. And I will be at my dream job in Cal--oh, wait, nevermind. I'll still be in S'port.

*sigh* That makes me feel only slightly better.