Italy is complicated … but France is not that much better

While being the third most active industrial region of the world (The triangle Milan-Turin-Venice), Italy is still plagued by one of the heaviest and most corrupt administration systems. But for once it’s not my problem.
Right now, I need to gather some documents to send to my next school, and so far the Italian part of the deal went smoothly. In fact the longest part was the 15 minutes spent in the line waiting for my turn.
Here is a check list of the things I need to obtain or to do :

• my High-school graduation diploma - done [April 30th]
• my High-school grades - done [April 30th]
• a document that certify that I’ve graduated from Milan University - done [April 31st]
• Obtain an official translation of the above mentioned certificate(IT to FR) - done [May 2nd]
• Get it certified at the French consulate of Milan - done [May 5th]
• Write a motivation letter to explain why I want to enter the Strasbourg University 1 - done [May 4th]
• Do copies - done [May 5th]
• Final check by phone with the school’s office - done [May 5th]
• Send everything to Strasbourg ! - done [6th May]

You’ll notice that the hassle is caused by the French administration wanting an official and certified translation of my Italian certificate. I had the luck to find a really kind translator that accepted to do it tonight and to give it to me Friday (tomorrow is the 1st May, the “Work Day”, nobody works), I’ll have to get up early on Monday to go to the consulate and get it certified. It’s just bad luck that tomorrow is not a working day here AND in France, or else the consulate would have been open, and everything would have been sent by Friday at 12AM *sigh*.
Other things to do? Yep. The CROUS thingy, to get an apart in Strasbourg and maybe some financial aid.But now I’m just waiting for them to send me the papers I need to fill and the list of official documents I need to send.

Well, I cheered myself up by ordering my new PC. I chose this one. I decided to get a notebook because I’ll be moving and working around a bit from June to September and even after that (Paris -> Japan -> Paris -> Milan -> Strasbourg -> Japan … if everything goes according to plan). Once I’ll get settled I’ll think about getting a more powerful desktop work station.

I think I’ll do a post soon about my friend G., as it’s the guy I’m going to work with from June to August.

Call me “Dottore”! 卒業した!!!! \(^_^ )/

It’s done! I finally graduated from my university.
Strangely, in Italy you get called “Dottore” (which means doctor) after a Bachelor degree (3 years of study here), while in the rest of the world you have to get yourself a doctorate (7 years and more of hard work).

Anyway, Thursday 17th of April, I made a little introduction for my thesis in front of some of my professors, my family and whoever was interested. In the end I was awarded a 92/110 vote … which stands for a 16,76/20 in France or a B+ in USA/UK. Not bad.

I’m really happy that this part of my life is over. I really didn’t like my current school. If I knew better 6 years ago I would have gone to attend school in France, but staying here in Italy gave me the opportunity to study Japanese and to make some valuable friends. Now I’m preparing myself for next year. My “search for school “was a success coupled with a great disappointment : I did find a lot of schools in Japan that were really interesting, even in public schools, but as I couldn’t find anyway to pay for my tuitions and my stay in Japan I had to give up, for now.

For now my main plan is to join the “Université Louis Pasteur” - soon to become “Université Louis Pasteur Strasbourg 1″ - in Strasbourg. They have some Nice computer science Master courses the tuition is lower (200€ (250$) a years!!!! All inclusive!!!) and I get the opportunity to try to apply for exchanges with 8 different Japanese Universities.

Here are a couple of pictures of my gradution day.

Before presentation

My parents made a video of my speech … I’ll try to upload it, if it’s a good video. For those interested in reading my thesis I can send you a .pdf copy of it, but it’s written in Italian. I’m thinking about making a translation in French and English, might turn useful when I’ll be attending schools in France or Japan. The title is :

Implementing the Game of Go : Going beyond the physical limits of the board and remote interaction trough the net.

It’s not all about Cherry trees

Near my house there is a small abandoned villa. Abandoned house are not what you can call beautiful … but their garden often are, while they are slowly returning to the wild. I took this pictures with my cellphone, so you might not see much, it just made me realize that tulips (those yellow and red dots on the picture) are in full blossom in this seasons. While you go Sakura-sighting in Japan, In Holland you go tulip-sighting.

Yesterday I went to my favorite Japanese restaurant with some friends, I tried this sake, which is the first Nigorizake I ever tried. I loved it! I paid 10€ (approx 1300¥) for a 0,5l bottle … was it too expensive? I’m asking the few sake lovers I know. I bought another one to drink at home … just for me *hu-huh-hu*.

I finally decided.

In my constant search for a way to go to Japan for as little money as possible, I finally found the ultimate occasion. A few weeks ago I discovered that a cultural association from the Japanese community of Milan was searching for young Italian (or Italian speaking) youngsters to send to japan for a cultural exchange program. The offer is more than interesting : they pay for plane tickets, do the administrative jobs for me (like visas), give me a room to sleep and provide a little monthly allowance.
Ok where is the catch? well their initial Japanese culture stage is quite complicated. I’ll have to go to Fukui and stay there for 4 months inside a full-time pension named the Eiheiji. There, from what I understood, I’ll study culture and Japanese languages in a super-intensive course. Then I’ll be sent somewhere around Japan in there branch offices where I’ll have some part-times occupations but I’ll still have time to do something on the side, from what I could understand from their badly translated pamphlet. In total it’s a 1 years contract, that I can extend if I want to. In the end it looks like a minor clone of the JET program … with less high school girls to teach your languages to.
I went to the reunion, I didn’t understand a lot of things, but the food was okay and there was some sake tasting too. Funny enough they had a monk come too and do a little speech. Here is his picture.
At the reunion I could speak to some alumni, strangely enough, more than a couple looked at my head and told me something like : “Too bad, I really like your hairs …” which is quite hard to answer with a : “euuuh … well .. thank you?”

The organizations is called SCSP … which stand for the Soto-shu Culture Study Program. Everyone told me that the first four month are a bit though as the place I’m going is pretty much isolated and that I’ll have really long lessons.
I asked around and I’ve a good chance to get accepted as they have more places than candidates. I think I’ll give it a try.

What do you think?