Well, almost. Tomorrow (or today, if you will) morning I'm off to Japan, and save for a few last things that I'll do right before I leave, I think I'm more or less set to go. It seems to me I should've been busy with all sorts of things during the past few days, but in fact I really wasn't. Even though I'll be gone for almost a year, preparations didn't really seem to have taken much longer than they would have if I'd just be going on holiday for a couple of weeks (save for perhaps the whole university and visa application process, but I completed that weeks ago). It's in fact quite like going on a holiday - you just take more of everything with you (making it fortunate that the ticket I have allows me to bring 30 kilos of luggage instead of the usual 20). I've kept a list of things that I shouldn't forget to pack, which of course doesn't mean I'm not going to forget things because I tend to be quite good at that (last year when I went to South Korea to do a summer course I even managed to leave my passport at home, only to find out about it on the train to the airport)... it just means that this time I might not forget my passport.
It's difficult not to draw parallels between this time and last time I went to Japan for a year. Saying good-bye to friends and family, and not seeing them for a year is of course never fun, so the week leading up to my departure has been one with mixed emotions, just like last time. But like last time I'm sure that this time as well the homesickness will be gone quite quickly after I arrive in Japan and start to settle. On the other hand though, unlike last time there is now a new addition to the family who I'm very fond of and who will have completely changed by the time I'm back in Holland next summer. Having to miss a year of her growing up is probably the thing I regret most about going abroad. Luckily though I bought my sister a massive webcam, so hopefully I'll at least be able to keep track of her progress via the computer screen.
After the initial week of acclimating, my year at Osaka University of Foreign Studies turned out to be an amazing experience, which was mainly due to the many very good (admittedly mostly non-Japanese) friends I made there. In that sense the bar is set pretty high, as I imagine it will be quite difficult to meet so many similarly interesting people again (though who knows!). With regard to actual studying, I didn't really do a lot that year because there wasn't a lot I had to do (although my Japanese did improve significantly), but that will be different this time as there is an MA thesis that needs to be written. I did do some preparatory work for that in Leiden already, which will hopefully make my research in Japan go (relatively) smoothly. Because I intend to graduate as soon as possible after I get back to Holland, I can't really afford to do nothing all year long this time.
Regardless of the whole saying good-bye thing, I'm not looking forward to the airport and the flight itself at all, as these things usually are accompanied by long waits interspersed with occasional stop over stress (Zurich this time), feeling tired but being unable to sleep, very painful ears upon descent, and finally the inescapable jetlag. To make matters worse, today I've actually staryed feeling somewhat fluey; my nose is running and my throat hurts a bit. I hope it doesn't get worse the coming hours, especially now that everyone's panicking about the Mexican flu at airports. If I could I'd probably just skip tomorrow, but it takes some to get some, I guess!
Well, that's it for now, my next post will be from Japan (though I'm not sure when exactly, because I don't know how long it'll take me to get access to the internet there). Let the adventure begin... but first three hours of sleep.
It's difficult not to draw parallels between this time and last time I went to Japan for a year. Saying good-bye to friends and family, and not seeing them for a year is of course never fun, so the week leading up to my departure has been one with mixed emotions, just like last time. But like last time I'm sure that this time as well the homesickness will be gone quite quickly after I arrive in Japan and start to settle. On the other hand though, unlike last time there is now a new addition to the family who I'm very fond of and who will have completely changed by the time I'm back in Holland next summer. Having to miss a year of her growing up is probably the thing I regret most about going abroad. Luckily though I bought my sister a massive webcam, so hopefully I'll at least be able to keep track of her progress via the computer screen.
After the initial week of acclimating, my year at Osaka University of Foreign Studies turned out to be an amazing experience, which was mainly due to the many very good (admittedly mostly non-Japanese) friends I made there. In that sense the bar is set pretty high, as I imagine it will be quite difficult to meet so many similarly interesting people again (though who knows!). With regard to actual studying, I didn't really do a lot that year because there wasn't a lot I had to do (although my Japanese did improve significantly), but that will be different this time as there is an MA thesis that needs to be written. I did do some preparatory work for that in Leiden already, which will hopefully make my research in Japan go (relatively) smoothly. Because I intend to graduate as soon as possible after I get back to Holland, I can't really afford to do nothing all year long this time.
Regardless of the whole saying good-bye thing, I'm not looking forward to the airport and the flight itself at all, as these things usually are accompanied by long waits interspersed with occasional stop over stress (Zurich this time), feeling tired but being unable to sleep, very painful ears upon descent, and finally the inescapable jetlag. To make matters worse, today I've actually staryed feeling somewhat fluey; my nose is running and my throat hurts a bit. I hope it doesn't get worse the coming hours, especially now that everyone's panicking about the Mexican flu at airports. If I could I'd probably just skip tomorrow, but it takes some to get some, I guess!
Well, that's it for now, my next post will be from Japan (though I'm not sure when exactly, because I don't know how long it'll take me to get access to the internet there). Let the adventure begin... but first three hours of sleep.
