Me and TUFS: not off to a good start
So, got this e-mail which has me very stressed out:
Dear all
TUFS has informed us that it can only guarantee places in university accommodation for three Leeds students. Unfortunately, this means that two of you will have to find your own private accommodation in Tokyo. You do not need to worry about finding decent private accommodation near TUFS, as our contact at TUFS will provide guidance. However, private accommodation will cost quite a lot more than the TUFS accommodation - approximately 60,000-70,000 Yen per month.
We will obviously submit all of your Applications for Residency in case more than three places turn out to be available. However, we will be required to identify which two students will find private accommodation if necessary.
Please could you email me as soon as possible to let me know if a) you would prefer to find private accommodation anyway b) you have strong reasons for wanting TUFS accomodation? The Year Abroad Tutors will review your responses to try to decide who to nominate for TUFS accommodation. If all else fails, we might have to resort to drawing your names out of a hat.
I'm sorry for any inconvenience this information may cause and hope you will understand it is outside of our control. We will try to resolve the issue as fairly as possible.
Regards
Nicola Craine
Firstly, what sort of incompetent university says it has places for five exchange students but only accomodation for three?
Secondly, I'M GOING TO LIVE FOR A YEAR IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY I'VE NEVER VISITED AND I'VE BEEN LEARNING THE LANGUAGE FOR LESS THAN A YEAR, I DO NOT NEED THIS HASSLE.
Thirdly, TUFS dorms are 40,000 Yen, including utilities. Private is apparently 60,000-70,000 Yen. This would put the rent up from £287 a month to £430-£502 a month. I have no idea how the hell we'll afford that.
One of the guys from our group has suggested that if it's not too expensive to get a four-bedroomed flat, he and two boys going to Tokyo ICU could move in with one more person from our group. So my options are to either live by myself off-campus as a female student in a big foreign city I don't know, which leaves me feeling very unsafe....or I move in with three boys (one of whom I know from class, the other two are intermediate students so I've barely spoken to them at all.)
So I've e-mailed back saying how much I don't want private accomodation, and I'm really hoping someone else volunteers to go otherwise it might come down to the picking names out of a hat, and in that case it's anyone's guess who has to fork out. I'm getting so worked up about this, which is stupid because it might not happen and there's nothing more I can do about it anyway, but I can't help it. I'm not even sure when we find out who gets to live in the dorms.
All I can say is: FAIL, TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN STUDIES, MAJOR EPIC FAIL.
This is making me really optimistic about their capability to process the rest of the year abroad arrangements smoothly, and doesn't give me much faith in their general competence :/
Dear all
TUFS has informed us that it can only guarantee places in university accommodation for three Leeds students. Unfortunately, this means that two of you will have to find your own private accommodation in Tokyo. You do not need to worry about finding decent private accommodation near TUFS, as our contact at TUFS will provide guidance. However, private accommodation will cost quite a lot more than the TUFS accommodation - approximately 60,000-70,000 Yen per month.
We will obviously submit all of your Applications for Residency in case more than three places turn out to be available. However, we will be required to identify which two students will find private accommodation if necessary.
Please could you email me as soon as possible to let me know if a) you would prefer to find private accommodation anyway b) you have strong reasons for wanting TUFS accomodation? The Year Abroad Tutors will review your responses to try to decide who to nominate for TUFS accommodation. If all else fails, we might have to resort to drawing your names out of a hat.
I'm sorry for any inconvenience this information may cause and hope you will understand it is outside of our control. We will try to resolve the issue as fairly as possible.
Regards
Nicola Craine
Firstly, what sort of incompetent university says it has places for five exchange students but only accomodation for three?
Secondly, I'M GOING TO LIVE FOR A YEAR IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY I'VE NEVER VISITED AND I'VE BEEN LEARNING THE LANGUAGE FOR LESS THAN A YEAR, I DO NOT NEED THIS HASSLE.
Thirdly, TUFS dorms are 40,000 Yen, including utilities. Private is apparently 60,000-70,000 Yen. This would put the rent up from £287 a month to £430-£502 a month. I have no idea how the hell we'll afford that.
One of the guys from our group has suggested that if it's not too expensive to get a four-bedroomed flat, he and two boys going to Tokyo ICU could move in with one more person from our group. So my options are to either live by myself off-campus as a female student in a big foreign city I don't know, which leaves me feeling very unsafe....or I move in with three boys (one of whom I know from class, the other two are intermediate students so I've barely spoken to them at all.)
So I've e-mailed back saying how much I don't want private accomodation, and I'm really hoping someone else volunteers to go otherwise it might come down to the picking names out of a hat, and in that case it's anyone's guess who has to fork out. I'm getting so worked up about this, which is stupid because it might not happen and there's nothing more I can do about it anyway, but I can't help it. I'm not even sure when we find out who gets to live in the dorms.
All I can say is: FAIL, TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN STUDIES, MAJOR EPIC FAIL.
This is making me really optimistic about their capability to process the rest of the year abroad arrangements smoothly, and doesn't give me much faith in their general competence :/