Open Container in Berkeley, California - Out of Country on Mandatory Court Date

[Thijsssss]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: California

After the first football game of the season beginning of September I went back to a friends place to have some drinks. When we decided to go a bar afterwards, I was so stupid to finish my drink before going on the street. As a European citizen who studied in Berkeley for the last months I forgot that it is a crime in the United States. So as soon as I set one foot out of the apartment building undercover cops stopped my and two friend (randomly picked out of a group of 10 drinking friends) and gave me a ticket for a 25620 (a) BP violation, Open Container.
Having no idea how the whole American system worked, I asked the officer what I had to do. He told me to call the court as soon as possible and they would tell me what would happen next. The first working day after I got fined I called the court, but the ticket wasn't processed yet. The person on the phone told me that it would probably take a few weeks to get it in the system. I told her that I just finished my study and had to go back to my home country in Europe in the next month. According to her, this was no problem, I could arrange and pay the fine online, and that for this violation I didn't need to show up at court.

After a couple of phone calls (it actually cost them a month to process the ticket) I got the news yesterday that my ticket had been processed and that I would have to pay a fine of $485. Definitely wasn't expecting an amount that high, but the real shock came when she told me that I have a mandatory court show up and that I need to come to court in the next month...
Because I'm leaving the United States today from NYC, I will not be able to show up. As a student I can not afford a ticket to the US to go to court, nor do I have the time. The person on the phone told me that I would have to write a letter to the judge as soon as possible and explain that I will not be able to go to court.

I have no idea what to put in the letter accept the fact that I can not make it to court due to a lack of time and resources, that I'm very sorry and I would be happy to pay the fine. Definitely don't want to have a warrant against me, planning to come back to this beautiful (and sometimes crazy) country in the near future.

Could you please help me with some guidelines for the letter and tell me what the following steps might be? Thanks for your advice!

[Disagreeable]

Failure to appear can potentially get you an arrest warrant and potentially banned from the US. You need to treat it a little more seriously.

[Mr. Knowitall]

You can attempt to arrange to appear in court on an earlier date, or see if you can get the hearing adjourned until after your return. You can ask the clerk if they require a formal motion; you can try asking the prosecutor if they'll stipulate to an adjournment. If you cannot figure out how to do that yourself, retain a lawyer to assist you.