japanI got home a couple of days ago and am now in Detroit with my girlfriend. The strangest thing is how normal it feels. It's like I never left, but I feel different. I know that I was spared the annoying media blitz behind "Snakes on a Plane"; a movie that I don't plan on seeing because the campy-ness of it wore off around February for me. The weather is a vast improvement and I'm still adjusting to the jet-lag (usually takes me around 5-7 days to get back to 100%). I am returning to Chicago this Sunday and have to take a language assessment test in order to prove... something. My ability in Japanese I suppose.
Truth be told I miss my friends from Japan already. Most have already retreated to their respective parts of the globe but I've had some success in contacting a few. I've even been able to stay in contact with some of the Korean students still in Japan, and that makes me very happy as I expressed fears of losing them forever before. But I would like to see them, talk with them face to face. Some I will see again, like my dorm mate who lives in New Jersey... others I will see in the future, like the one Korean girl who is coming to visit America next year and I will house for however long she needs... but most I will simply get a friendly email with some pictures from on occasion and that will be it.
I'm also not too sure what to do with myself. I'm just sitting around waiting to move into the dorms right now. It's a nice little vacation but it was like going from 90 mph to 0 mph in a split second, and I'm kinda feeling the whiplash from it.
Everything is different now. That's not a bad thing tho. I see the world differently. Nothing is wrong, nor have I changed my mind about anything that I felt strongly about before I left. Yet still, things are different. Better. Food tastes better, the air smells cleaner, I have more confidence than ever before. I spent five and a half months outside of the walls I built around myself that both protected and limited me. When I returned I found those walls destroyed. The landscape is the same, only now I can see and travel farther then I ever thought possible.
In conclusion:
If you are still in college or will be going soon, study abroad. Don't just consider it, do it. Choose a country that you are interested in but is outside of your heritage. Learn from it. Remember everything from it, good and bad. Learn, laugh, cry, study and play. There is no substitute for experience and you only have yourself to blame if you don't do it.
-Maru!
This will be my last entry concerning my KCP Study Abroad terms. I plan on going back to Japan to teach English (Jet Programme or equivalent) and continue studying the language next year. Once I have that worked out I will resume posting in this blog about that. Thank you for everyone who read this and anyone who may stumble upon it in the future. I hope it helps you in your decision to go overseas or at least gives you a few chuckles.
x
