Hello all, sorry this post is late! IES took a long weekend to travel to a city called Xi'an, which is a very beautiful place filled with historical and cultural wonders. In lieu of this trip, I've decided to take a break from my normal style of posts and instead give a photo essay of the trip. Hope you enjoy!
Oh my gosh, this week was probably the best week I've had here so far. We survived the Outback! It was honestly, probably one of the coolest experiences of my life. I've never been camping before and I really got to go for it with this trip. I slept under probably billions of stars, I showered in an outdoor shower that had no door, the bathroom also had no door, cooked marshmallows in a campfire, collected firewood in the desert, hiked so many trails and mountains, and had the most amazing time with everyone in the group.
I cannot believe how quickly these six weeks flew by! It seems like just yesterday I was getting out of the cab into my new homestay. I'm so sad to leave this beautiful city because I feel like I have yet so much more to experience here. I think I'm going to miss these things the most:
When I received a text this morning from one of my friends at home asking me how I was, I responded, "My mouth isn't capable of yawning wide enough to explain how tired I am". It may sound silly, but burning the candle at both ends isn’t really good for anything other than unhinging my jaw. Sometimes I’m not even lighting my candle at either end: I’m just letting it burn down until it’s nothing more than a pile of wax lying on my desk.
Hello from England!
Whenever people talk about the amazing modernity and efficiency of Japan, almost 10 times out of 10 the train system here in Japan is mentioned, and rightfully so; the timeliness of the Japanese trains are legendary. They almost always show up exactly on schedule and if they are early, they’ll sit in the station just to make sure they get back on schedule. It’s not often that a train is delayed and if the delay is long enough they’ll actually give you a piece of paper that you can give to your professor or boss as proof of why you were late.
Kanda University of International Studies is a really awesome place. I especially love it because I can focus on my two major interests here: Japanese and international relations. The 2,000 students that attend Kanda are mostly Japanese, although there are multiple study abroad programs that send students here besides IES. Kanda is pretty well-known for being a good place to learn different languages, and especially English.