It is often said that my room looks like a bomb went off inside, with clothes on the floor and random papers and objects covering my desk and bookshelf. In short, I am a messy person. The first thing I needed to do before I could even start packing was figure out what was in my room and what I needed to buy. Surprisingly it only took a few hours to clean my room and I ended up throwing out more than half my stuff. I then had to take any necessary items with me from my mums house to my dads house, which is wear my suitcase is. I can almost fit inside my suitcase. I don’t need that much space immediately as I am not fond of shopping and therefore have few clothes, but seeing the images of everything other exchange students collect gives the impression that I might need a bit of extra space.
I have been studying Japanese at school for three years now and it has been one of my favourite subjects the entire time. I have also started using duo-lingo to get in a little bit extra understanding before diving into the deep end. Occasionally I think “Hey, I’m starting to get the hang of this!”, but after watching some of my animes in Japanese and having to rely heavily on subtitles, I realise I still have a really, really, REALLY, long way to go.
One of the hardest parts of preparing for exchange is the mental aspect. It is scary to think that you will not see any of your friends or family for a whole year. It is a busy time leading up to the departure date and I have had a hard time trying to meet up with most of my friends within this period. It has been really tiring because I also have to get packed, focus on learning my Japanese and communicate with my host country.
With about a week to go until I leave, I am getting a bit nervous. This however is outweighed by how excited I am to go on this journey.
Great post – so good to hear you’re already loving the language. This will go a long way towards learning it better!