>>1158615>please elaborate on your experience if you dont mind, sounds very intriguingSure, it's a long story. I’ve posted this all on /trv/ a while ago. Summer of 2015.
>How did it happen?So, the UCEAP (University of California Education Abroad Programs) office miscalculated my financial aid package because I was the first student to be accepted to the program I chose in four years. I had an intensive language summer program, then a 5 week break, and then a year at the university I applied to. They didn't send me enough money for the summer program, and then they forgot to send me money before the five week break despite asking them four times.
I was on a full ride scholarship because my family is dirt poor among other reasons. I couldn’t ask my parents and the financial aid office, bless their hearts, thought that I spent my money “incorrectly” despite budgeting me $2 a day BEFORE accounting for the 5 week break. I burnt whatever savings I had.
After being let out of the summer program, I went to the Tokyo UCEAP office, they scolded me for the reason above, and kicked me out. I considered turning myself into the embassy. I couldn’t afford a plane ticket home, let alone food. The irony in this budgeting was that I was a finance student, so I wrote up a report on how their calculations were super wrong and sent it to the UCEAP head office and never heard a word back from them.
A friend heard of my plight and lent me $50. I knew I pretty much had no other options but to hitchhike like I’ve done before.
