Everyday Life

It's so easy to get caught up in the spirit of excitement and adventure when thinking about study abroad, and really, my time in Japan was so full of grand new experiences that it still boggles my mind to look back. But oftentimes, it was the small, seemingly minor changes in my everyday life that affected me the most and caused me the most stress as well.

Perfect example, and one of my favorite stories to tell when people ask me about adjusting and such: I had successfully survived my first day of school (found my way to school by myself, arrived on time, survived classes, etc.), and to celebrate, I accompanied another student on a shopping excursion, hoping to explore the city a bit. After we parted ways, I realized I still didn't fully grasp the bus system, so I decided to take a taxi home - a bit expensive, yes, but it was the first day, I knew I wasn't too far from home, and it looked like it was going to rain soon. I directed the taxi to the train station that was literally five minutes from my house. I paid the fare, got out, started walking down the road...and realized I didn't know how to get home! I was walking along a main road and knew I had to turn left at some point, but I didn't know exactly where. I also had only a vague recollection of what the house looked like - I had seen it for the first time the night before, after a long, tiring, nerve-racking day, and when I left the house that morning, well... I guess I just kind of assumed I knew what my own house looked like and where it was. At this point, the rain was pouring down hard, and I was already late for dinner, with no cell phone and no way to contact anyone. I ran up and down the street, breathlessly accosting a few confused strangers and showing them the now-soggy sheet that had my address. I eventually did find my house, but not after an extremely tense and seemingly endless search (by the way, in my defense, it was a small, gray building sandwiched between other equally nondescript buildings and tucked a little way away from the road). I got to my room, cold, hungry, exhausted, and dripping wet, and I knew I had to change my clothes right away and eat dinner with my host family, where I'd have to try and pretend in an unfamiliar language that everything was absolutely fine. I'm not much of a crier, but it took every ounce of strength and a lot of deep breaths not to break down right there on my bedroom floor.

Things that everyone normally takes for granted - having a cell phone, being familiar with the transportation system, knowing where your freakin' house is - that all gets thrown out the window when you move to a foreign country. It's easy to forget or be unaware, but it's jarring how much of an impact these things can have. All the other differences and changes pile on too. The weather was a big thing for me - the temperatures were pretty bad but nothing unbearable, but what really got me was the whole restriction on fan/heater usage. In the beginning of the semester, when the summer heat was still lingering, I'd take a shower at night, cool off with the fan for a bit, then turn off the fan and fall asleep comfortably. But without the fan on, I'd wake up feeling soaked in sweat and feeling disgusting already (great way to start the morning!). I tried leaving the windows open for a few nights, but that barely helped and I'd inevitably be woken up several times throughout the night from the sounds of traffic (oh god how I hated motorcyclists and garbage men). Leaving the window open also invited a host of mosquitoes into my room, so I spent my first weeks of the program feeling perpetually dirty and itchy. This, of course, didn't exactly help with my initial adjustment!

This is turning out to be a pretty negative post, but I think it's really important for people to fully realize how difficult study abroad can be. I'm sure schools generally do a good job of preparing the students, like with Wash U's mandatory study abroad classes and info sessions. I certainly wasn't expecting a relaxing vacation either, but I still found myself caught off guard somewhat at first. On the plus side, as difficult as things can be, I genuinely believe that any student with sufficient drive and interest can manage and learn to deal eventually. For my part, while I do remember the hard times pretty distinctly, those times are easily overshadowed by all of my positive experiences. Whenever someone asks me how my semester abroad went, the first thing I think about is never the mosquitoes or getting lost - I think about my friends, my host family, the field trips, the plays, the Daft Punk concert, hanging out by the Kamo river, chilling at bars... the list goes on.