Home Stretch

Just four more days to go! I don't think it's hit me yet that I'm leaving so soon. It's been a rather busy week.

Last Wednesday I spent three hours in two different Kohl's stores. My mom and I went early in the morning to look for dress shirts, under shirts, dress socks and khaki pants. We spent the next hour there. Of course they didn't have anything in my size except for the socks. We asked them where they would have khaki pants in my size (which I am required to have for the summer casual dress code my company has) and they informed us that we could either order them to that store, which would take a week, or go to the Millbrae store which had two pairs left of the exact color and size I needed. We didn't want to chance the pants not coming in time, so they called the Millbrae store and put the pants on hold.

After meeting with my language partner, I went to Millbrae for the pants. When I got there the lady I was dealing with hadn't heard of anyone putting pants on hold that day... Finally she found them in some location she said they weren't supposed to be.

She hands over the pants; I look at them; they are both the wrong color and not the size I asked for. The lady was very nice and horribly embarrassed that whoever grabbed them had so completely messed up. She had this other guy look around for the pants I needed. He ended up finding two in the size and color I wanted, but slightly different styles. I ended up getting them both, just because I didn't think I'd have luck anywhere else.

Luckily, I also managed to find undershirts and a single dress shirt while I was at that Kohl's for an hour.

I also went back to Men's Wearhouse to get my fitted suits, and to return some dress shirts I got from them. I had been getting dress shirts with a 15 1/2 neck size, cause that's what the Men's Wearhouse people said I should be wearing (actually they wanted 15, but I refused). After not enjoying the strangling feeling and rashes I was getting from such a tight fit around the neck, I decided to go with 16-16 1/2. Hopefully that will help.

Besides that, I've done other stuff, such as going to the dentist for a final checkup, getting new glasses:



Getting yen from the bank:



Finally got my rain boots (actually they are an outer shell-like shoe, so I can wear them over shoes):



I also finally shipped out my box of suits,



which also contained my overcoat, some shoes and other miscellaneous stuff. It ended up costing me $156 to ship it, because it weighed 23 pounds. I do not look forward to carrying it from the school to my apartment in the summer heat. I'm also slightly worried, because when you ship a box like this internationally, you have to declare what's in it, and how much it's worth. The post office refused to let me be vague, so I had to mention that there were suits in it, and worth $1500. The worst part is they don't even cover up that information, so anyone handling the box can see how much it's worth. Not the best system...