Thoughts on Study Abroad

Today, the one day I decide to come to work dressed like a puritan, the weather decides to be extremely hot and painfully sunny. So much for trying to prepare for the rain. Tropical weather is very erratic. One moment you think you are in the middle of a paradise, ready for a relaxing day on the beach or something with no annoying interferences, the next you feel as though you’ve entered monsoon season. The bipolarity is a little much to deal with. The upside is that it is always temperate, always on the warm side. I like warm weather more than I like cold, so even if it’s raining, it’s warm, and that suits me just fine. At least I got dried mangos at work today (I love free food and I especially love dried mangos YUMMY OMG -- must not find out where I can buy them for fear of getting diabetes due to overdosage on sugary mangos...).

But I digress from my topic today. Granted, I don’t think that I will have much of a coherent theme for this post, but I do have a few thoughts I would like to write about which all rather originate from the past two evenings. On Monday night, I had dinner with the Stanford Kyoto SCTI internship coordinator and last night I had dinner with her and the other Stanford students that work in the city of Tokyo. I will say that both evenings were very enjoyable, mostly since I didn’t have to cook for myself!

Monday night was just the internship coordinator and me. She is a very sweet lady, and her main purpose in inviting me to dinner was to ascertain whether I was having any difficulties at my internship or not. Since the circumstances of me getting my internship were a bit strange, and since coming into the organization I did not know very much, she was right to want to keep tabs on me. But I only expressed to her happiness in my work environment. Sure, there are times when I don’t understand what’s going on and what’s being said around me, but that is a) expected, and b) not bothersome. I have a set task and I’m aiming to complete it. My coworkers are all pretty neat and my boss is pretty chill. I have a semi-lax work schedule. I’d say that it’s all in all going well. But that’s not really what I want to write about, so I’ll leave it at that. After I told her all these things, we ended up talking about many different subjects, among which were what I was doing after graduation, what I was interested doing in the future, what I thought about the Kyoto study abroad program to name a few. Now, I'm not really going to discuss the first two in that list as a) i'm still working out the details, and b) those are more reflective topics and have less to do with my relationship and adventures in Japanland. But I think it is worth it to definitely comment on the last point of discussion.

Studying abroad I think is one of the best experiences a college student can have. Study abroad is both a way to immerse yourself in another culture and a way to see how well you function in the real world. The amount I've learned about myself while being in Japan these past four months has been exponential. Or perhaps that's an incorrect way of putting it; and I wouldn't say that i've "changed" either. I guess I would say that maybe I've just grown into myself moreso, that I've become more resolute and understanding of myself. Maybe it's too early for an entry like this as I still have eight weeks left in Tokyo. And maybe it's incorrect to say that study abroad does that for you. It's true that we were all grouped together and we lived in homestays and used both english and Japanese regularly, but I believe it would be incorrect of me to say that I did most of my "growing" by myself in these past two weeks in Tokyo. Now, don't get me wrong, the internship experience has been vastly different from the study abroad experience, and it's not as though my growing stops now (I still have till September!), but the longer one stays in a foreign environment, the more times one steps out of his or her comfort zone really reveals the type of person one is. And I think I've come to like the person that is forced into awkward and uncomfortable situations here. Hopefully, something in this made sense.

I remember at the end of the quarter, we were given surveys to fill out on our experience with Kyoto SCTI; basically it was feedback for the program. One of the first questions was something like "why did you decide to go abroad?" I'm not really thinking about how I answered this question, rather what other people had told me over the course of the quarter. Many of the students wanted to improve their Japanese, that language fluency was their primary reason. The other popular reason was that Japanese culture was attractive and cool, therefore, Japan was the obvious choice. A few said that this was the only program where they could fill some requirements for their major and still go abroad. And a few, like me, combined all of these and cited the need for a mental health quarter away from the stresses of campus life. The fact that there were so many reasons for why students wanted to come to this program is indicative of the diversity of students that came to the Kyoto SCTI program. The strange thing is, had I not come to Japan, I may have never met any of these people. I have made such great friends while being abroad, friends I may never have met on campus. I realized this last night when all the immediate Tokyo kids came together for dinner. Granted, I may not see all of them all the time when we go back to school in the fall, but that's not the point. The point is that I've learned so much from my peers just in 10 weeks that it's hard to believe I may never have met them otherwise. Essentially, studying abroad has given me a new community to connect with back on campus.

But these aren't the only people I have met. The amount of Japanese people I have met and befriended is a testament to that. The close relationship I developed with my host mother and host brother is also illustrative of that. Understanding another culture, especially a very different culture with respect to American culture like the Japanese culture, is so much more accessible when you are a) immersed, and b) partially guided by friends/natives. I have learned so much about Japanese culture and the Japanese mindset from my Japanese friends that I don't think book learning could've ever given me.

So, I guess what I'm concluding with is that I'm so thankful I was given the opportunity to come to Japan. I can't believe there was a time when I wasn't sure if I was making the right decision by coming. Obviously, I miss campus and all my friends, but when is the next time I'm going to be able to spend six months of my life in a foreign country with friends, working and exploring, and not having to worry about much? Yeah...I can't think of another time unless I win the lottery or something (though that's Forrest's plan A for life).

Anyway, I will bring this sentimental note to a close. I need to shower and head to bed as I'm spending my day tomorrow exploring! And Happy Belated Birthday to my Aunt Gail (which was on Sunday I believe)!