"Boarding the train, I take one last look-- I'll keep these memories with me forever." -Hyde, Secret Letters Probably another lengthy entry lies ahead, for which I must apologize. I know the intended purpose of this blog is to document my travels.. But the memories that lie behind the travels are equally as important to write down. They are what make places special, after all. In eight days it will be exactly one month since I left Kansai Gaidai. And.. at this point, those snatches of memories that I still cling to seem nothing more than a dream. Or, more like, [View Full Entry]

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And summer has officially begun. With a most welcome vacation. The past three weeks have been incredibly dull, being basically filled with a desperate search to find a full-time job (or at least a few part-time positions - either way, money is money right now). Every year my father and I go to my Grandmother's family reunion in the Georgian countryside on Father's Day weekend. It's been held the same set of three days for the past forty years now. The crowd has thinned in the years as I've grown up but it is still an event I enjoy immensely. I [View Full Entry]

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Today has simply been lovely. I don't think I've ever been more estatic in my entire life. For the past month or so the thought of working on my visa application for Sweden has been both daunting and terrifying. Mostly because when it comes to authority figures I'm not at my most stellar. I mean, I can move to a foreign country at the drop of a hat and be perfectly fine, but speaking to the members of an Embassy about actually accomplishing that? But I've done it, and now I've gotten a lot of things straightened out. For starters-- What [View Full Entry]

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Not to deviate from my discussions of experiences from Japan, or my plans and ambitions to be in Sweden by January, I felt it necessary to review the things that will occur in my life this coming summer. Because as much as I feel a stranger to America now it has been my home for the entirety of my life, and the people I have met here have shaped who I am today. So it is important to note them, the experiences I’ve had with them, and the ways their own lives will change in coming days. Firstly, I believe the [View Full Entry]

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I went to Japan with a lot of expectations about the culture, the people, and the experiences I would have while at Kansai Gaidai. The outcome of these anticipations was pleasant in the fact that they each expectation was completely wrong. For starters, I figured that the majority of my semester would be spent studying, applying for jobs, and being otherwise wrapped up in my studies like I had been doing at my previous university. But I would soon find that it was much more fun to finally act my age for once, and to discover who I was meant to [View Full Entry]

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This is probably the most serious I will be in this journal. But isn’t it appropriate to start things off in this fashion? Without reflection, without thoughts, without understanding where someone is coming from, how can you begin to understand the changes that they undertake in their life? My experience at Kansai Gaidai University was an eye-opening one. Never did I think I would change so drastically from the moment I walked through the doors at Seminar House Three to the time I left with suitcases in hand. Though the changes are subtle from my perspective, the people I have r [View Full Entry]

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