It's Anna, and I, this summer, have been accepted as a foreign exchange student this summer in the country of 日本(Japan). I am very excited, and can't wait. In only 40 days->3< can't wait- I will be on a plane to Chibi international airport, Chiba, Japan from San Fransico International Airport, California, USA. Though I will be very jet lagged after my est. 11 hour and 20 min plane ride, it will be my first time out of the continent, and my first time traveling by myself. (I've been to Disney world without family, but I was with 25 or so of my friends, consistently supervised) Yes, I will miss my family and pets, but accomplishing something that I think I've been preparing for since the 2nd grade is a large stepping stone for my path in life, to adulthood, understanding the world, and much more.
Now, enough of my babbling and to the basic facts...
The most magical facts:
- I am going with YFU-USA (Youth for understanding)
- I will be in Japan this summer for 6 weeks
- I applied for a scholorship, which involves 5 short essays and 1 500 word letter to my host family, 6 pictures with "descriptive captions," and a whole lot of paper work 0.o. (for those of you who always ask.)
- I was given a $2,800 scholarship from Japanese-American Friends (A national government scholarship).
- I'll attend a conference this weekend (May 3rd) in Germantown, Wisconsin for "more information" which I will pass to you in my next post.
- I leave for California June 7th, where I will be attending, I'm guessing, a GET THE BASICS training for two days... most of which I am guessing I know already.
- I leave the 9th for Japan.
I have no clue who my host family is. (YFU-Japan is currently matching me with my family, I won't find out intill "2 weeks before I go on basic information: address, family memebers and ages, time attending school.) I do know some Japanese, I am a student in Japanese 1 at West Highschool. I plan on skipping a year of Japanese when I return, because the vocabulary in Japanese 2 will most definetly be covered while I stay in Japan. I do have to miss finals, and so far are most definetly having to take 3 finals before i leave: english, biology, and math. Gym and Japanese 1 are up in the air. Further questions? Ask, but if the answer is in these last few paragraphs... I'll be a little annoyed.
And a little more babling:
I hope the Swine flu doesn't harm this trip at all... And i will work on a more customized layout for this blog later...
I hope you will continue to read posts about my exchange experiance in Japan!
