As I write this entry, I'm watching people either cramming for their last finals or moving out of their dorms for the summer. I have one more final on Tuesday, and then I'm done. And I have never been *so happy* about the end of a semester - this has easily been the worst of my three years at Wash U. A lot of it has to do with the fact that my schedule was an absolute terror - I signed up for extra credits and hard classes, and halfway through the semester I signed up for LSAT classes as well, which took a much-needed 12-hour chunk every week. Just survivinhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifg classes was hard enough, and then I struggled to cram in the "unnecessary" stuff, y'know, things like friends, extracurriculars, sleep, food, etc. Even if I hadn't left Wash U, I know I still would have had a miserable time just because of my schedule.
As always though, in the interests of being completely honest, a part of my problem was re-adjusting after being abroad. I luckily re-connected with most of my friends easily, but my relationships with some of my "not so close but still significant" friends definitely weakened, and it's been hard trying to re-establish the former bond. Then I also missed the friends I had made in Japan, and though I was pretty good about keeping in touch through Skype and AIM initially, I lost a lot of contact with them too as I got busier. There's a certain, undeniable sense of loss, and I still periodically find myself longing for the past life with both my Wash U friends and my Japan friends.
The academic adjustment was especially difficult. KCJS classes were less about paper-writing, book-reading, and library-researching, and much more about first-hand experience. For my Wash U Japanese class, I had to research and plan a お花見旅行 (flower-viewing trip), using info found on the Internet. At KCJS, I got to interview Japanese students about their eating habits and find out how many times a week they haunted their local McDonald's or Mos Burger. Both presentations/essays were of equal length and had similar requirements, but I admit I enjoyed the research for the KCJS project more. It was the kind of experience I knew I'd only be able to get while I was in Japan, and I loved it. Why spend hours reading detailed descriptions of Noh on JSTOR when you can just go to a performance and experience it for yourself?
And, well, the workload at KCJS was lighter in general too. Here's the final project I did for my pre-modern Japanese literature class: a Wikipedia entry on Ukiyozoshi, a genre of popular literature. I'm proud of it and had lots of fun with it, but it wasn't exactly strenuous. On the other hand, just last week, I submitted three 10-page papers, did a final presentation, and took an exam. KCJS definitely was no vacation, and I still had tests and papers regularly. But at the same time, I think most of the faculty realizes that the students aren't in Japan to spend time at the library or in the classroom. It's definitely a different atmosphere here at Wash U.
I didn't experience much in the way of (reverse/)culture shock though. Yes, I do miss many things about Japan and my life there, but one thing I realized is that every culture and country has its good points and its bad points. A lot of people idealize foreign countries (greener grass and all), and there are many, many things that I think Japan does better than America. But it's extremely biased and narrow to think that Japan, or any other country, is perfect and can do no wrong. It's important to stay in perspective about both foreign places and one's own home. And darn it, I missed my greasy American food!
Do I regret my decision to stay for just a semester? Well...yes and no. Despite all of the stress that I went through, this past semester at Wash U has been extremely productive, and I know it'll pay off in the long run. I also missed my friends here terribly while I was in Japan, so I'm happy I got to see them relatively soon. But at the same time, if I'd stayed in Japan, I could've spent even more time with my friends there (and I do miss them an awful lot), and I could've had so many more amazing experiences. While working on a paper or project late at night, I'd look at the pictures the other KCJS students had posted on Facebook, and I would really regret my decision not to stay. It was a hard decision for me, and I still don't feel like it was a real right-or-wrong choice for me. Either way would have had its ups and downs, and there are so many factors to consider (friends, academics, work, culture, etc.), so I'm afraid I really don't have any clear-cut advice. It's something that's ultimately up to the student and the individual situation, I think.
(A side note: if you're thinking about doing just one semester, I'd probably recommend going in the fall. It definitely worked out well for me - I had just enough time to recover and re-adjust back home over Christmas break without getting bored, and then in the spring I had time to think about summer jobs, honors projects for senior year, planning for law school, etc. Just something to consider!)
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