Skip to main content

A Full Circle

As the end of my time here approaches, I'm having mixed feelings.  I remember when I could barely believe I'd been here for a full month, and now I can barely believe I only have one month left.
Studying abroad is an experience I will treasure for the rest of my life and then some.
I highly recommend anyone who has the chance to allow yourself this experience.
I have grown so much, learned so much, and experienced an unbelievable amount of things I never would have if I hadn't taken this leap into the unknown a year ago.  There are no words to describe how incredibly thankful I am to have had this experience.
I am thankful to whatever or whoever the force of life is in the hands of for pushing me down this path, to my family and friends for being so supportive of me, for the new people I have met all over Japan (both the ones I will remain close to forever and those I will never speak to again) for shaping my time here, and my life in the process, and to myself for being brave enough to do this.

Labels:

Comments

  1. DadMay 29, 2012 at 6:25 AM

    You take your last month for yourself. This is your life's experiences, not ours, as much as I do enjoy sharing them vicariously through you. You will be home soon and you can share then. I love you , Dad. P.S. Will still try to skype though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 21, 2012 at 7:50 PM

    Hey! I'm the Venezuelan guy who wrote you some weeks ago. I'm sorry we are not going to meet in my arrive at the end of the summer in tokyo, but I want to thank you for the videos, because there have been very helpful to me to create an idea of what ICU is, and how is going to be my life for the next few 4 years.

    I you plan any time to travel to South America, and can give you some tips.

    Once again, I apologize for my english.
    Have a nice flight back home!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

40 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Japan

Before I jump straight into this list, I want to clarify that some of these points may be generally incorrect, or could be exclusive to Tokyo.  I could also have some of my reasonings wrong.  This list is simply something I compiled based off of my own experiences throughout the year that I lived and traveled throughout Japan. This list is also not, in any way, a complete one.  I'm sure if you search the internet you can find many other very true facts about Japan that I have forgotten to list here. In urban areas there will, at any given time or place, be at least one コンビニ ("conbini" / convenience store) within walking distance. Japanese people don’t usually have  middle names . Japanese people are very interested in each others' blood type - it's like astrology in America, except people take it very seriously.  Expect to be asked what your blood type is at least once. Japanese deodorant supposedly doesn't work very well.  I brought my own deodo...
5 comments
Read more

Osawadai Elementary School

Just a short (15 minute) walk from campus there is an elementary school, and I was one of the people who visited it today.  When we first walked in, we saw a bike rack... full of unicycles!?  Two steps into their territory and Japanese children are already proving their superiority over me.  We walked into the school building where we took off our shoes and were given slippers to wear.  Then we met all the children (the 5th grade class) in the gym.  Each of us was paired up with two children.  My partners were Yuta (the boy) and Olivia (the girl... obviously).  The children gave us a tour of the school.  Olivia is half British and fluent in English just as much as she is in Japanese, so I received a very comprehensive tour.  Her accent was very interesting, as you can imagine.  Yuta was pretty good at English, too, but was a little bit shy and spacey.  This elementary school was just amazing.  They had classrooms for each grade...
5 comments
Read more

Coping

Being away from friends and family has gotten me down a bit lately.  It's been a month, and the homesickness started to kick in.  Also, I think I understand what they mean by culture shock now.  I admit, I was starting to regret my decision just a little bit.  All I could think about was how long it would be until I could have a hug from my mom and my dad and my boyfriend, and my mind started to become physically tired from all the Japanese.  It's exhausting to feel like you don't understand a single thing in your life; when you don't understand what anyone is saying, when you don't know anything about where you are, when you don't know anything about the people around you, and when nobody who truly loves you is by your side, and won't be for another 11 months.  But then I remembered: I may not understand anything around me, but I understand myself.  It sounds so moral-y, but I honestly think it's important to remember.  I need to remember it, and...
2 comments
Read more