Beginnings and endings
Well, it's three days before I'm scheduled to leave for Japan. I leave from Chicago about noon on the 6th of September and arrive in Japan in the late afternoon of the 7th (local time). Because my scholarship arranged my ticket, I'm flying on Northwest to Detroit first, and then going on a direct flight from there to Kansai International Airport. That flight will be about 14 hours long. :( I spent all afternoon today running errands on campus, and tonight I'm going to have a nice dinner of Korean food with other university people that either are Japanese or study Japanese. They'll be surprised to see me though, since before I went traveling I went to what we all thought was my last Japanese Conversation Table for this year. Tomorrow I'll go to Olive Garden for my last Italian meal for a long time probably.
I have most of my luggage packed already, but since I moved out of my apartment in a hurry on August 7th when my lease was up, and went traveling for three weeks, I had to pack everything I needed then and put the rest in storage. I'm sure some things got overlooked in the confusion, but I should be able to buy supplies there if I need them. I'm getting a nice scholarship that should basically give me all the money I need while I'm over there, and I'll save whatever I don't use and reimburse my mom, which basically means saving it toward future tuition I think.
I'll be living on the west side of Kobe it looks like, and taking classes at Konan University, located between Kobe and Osaka. There will be about an hour commute by train every day, but that's not unusual for Japan. I'll probably be able to study kanji on the train at least. I won't meet my host family until the 10th of September though because we have three days of orientation first. I hear we'll get to stay in a nice hotel during that time, so it should be fun. I'll write more when I know more, so I'll probably post next from the other side. ^_^
I'm planning on sending postcards periodically to a bunch of people. If you don't get one in the first month and want one (or several), leave a comment or email me. I'll have a Konan email address that I'll post when I know what it is.
If you're wondering what my username means, aero is from my major, aerospace engineering, and rei is from Reiko, the Japanese name I use online. Actually, I'm double-majoring now because I'll get a lot of credit toward an EALC (East Asian Languages and Cultures) major from going overseas for two semesters. I'll only have a couple classes left to finish that when I get back.
I have most of my luggage packed already, but since I moved out of my apartment in a hurry on August 7th when my lease was up, and went traveling for three weeks, I had to pack everything I needed then and put the rest in storage. I'm sure some things got overlooked in the confusion, but I should be able to buy supplies there if I need them. I'm getting a nice scholarship that should basically give me all the money I need while I'm over there, and I'll save whatever I don't use and reimburse my mom, which basically means saving it toward future tuition I think.
I'll be living on the west side of Kobe it looks like, and taking classes at Konan University, located between Kobe and Osaka. There will be about an hour commute by train every day, but that's not unusual for Japan. I'll probably be able to study kanji on the train at least. I won't meet my host family until the 10th of September though because we have three days of orientation first. I hear we'll get to stay in a nice hotel during that time, so it should be fun. I'll write more when I know more, so I'll probably post next from the other side. ^_^
I'm planning on sending postcards periodically to a bunch of people. If you don't get one in the first month and want one (or several), leave a comment or email me. I'll have a Konan email address that I'll post when I know what it is.
If you're wondering what my username means, aero is from my major, aerospace engineering, and rei is from Reiko, the Japanese name I use online. Actually, I'm double-majoring now because I'll get a lot of credit toward an EALC (East Asian Languages and Cultures) major from going overseas for two semesters. I'll only have a couple classes left to finish that when I get back.