Let me introduce myself for a bit. My name is Steve, I'm a 21 year old senior at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA. My major is Japanese, and my hobbies include music, books, movies, general geekery/nerdlery, and long walks on the beach. When I was in kindergarten or first grade, we had "culture week/month," where we learned about a new country everyday. This is not only where my interest in geography started to bud, but also I learned of a tiny island nation called Japan. I immediately became enamored with the country, and have tried to learn much about it's culture, history, people, and language. As time went on, I was always dismayed when I arrived at a new school and Japanese was not offered as a class. Finally, upon my arrival to college, I had my opportunity to take Japanese. Being the only thing that truly interested me, I not only took classes, I majored in it. Now, I finally get to achieve one of my dreams of going to this seemingly mystical, far-off land. And this blog will server as my chronicling of my adventures and journey.
I've got my visa, my bags packed, my ticket, and I leave in 11 hours.
I can’t really describe how I feel. I’m not anxious, I’m not sad, I’m not really all that excited. I’m in a state of disbelief. I felt somber after leaving Athens for the last time, but that faded. I feel like I'm letting my friends down by not being there this year. They've done so much for me, and I don't think they'll ever realize how much I'd be willing to do for them. I don't like that I have to miss out on so much, but it's a necessary evil. I'm a Japanese major, if I'm not fluent, I'm a failure. I'll have a blast, I'll make sure of that. But I can't help but feel selfish about that.
I’ve got everything in order. I’ve had to take some things out of my bags because they were too heavy. My backpack weighs 30 freaking pounds. I’m just …ready. I even ate all the food I won't get much of there, I've had fried chicken, krispy kreme, steak, cheesecake, ben & jerry's, southern comfort, my last guinness 250. Nom.
One more step towards conquering the world, I ‘spose.
I've got everything under control, but once I get there, I know I'm going to have trouble getting to the hotel, then back to the hotel, then to my plane to Osaka, then to another hotel, then to the meeting area to finally meet my host family.
My host family is a 69 year old woman and her 41 year old son. I hope and pray that he's not an Otaku, and that she won't see my purpose of being there is to do chores. I feel my host family could either be awesome or terrible. Only time will tell.
In the meantime, here's the theme song to my exit:
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