First step of a New Journey

Hey guys!

Welcome to my very late Pre-departure blog post. My name is Temmi and I am a junior majoring in Accounting and International Business with a minor in Japanese. Starting from this mid April, I will be studying at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan!!

The spring/summer semester in Japan doesn't start till April so It was a perfect opportunity to complete a busy season Accounting Internship from January to March in Chicago. After all this busy season work, I am very excited to start my study abroad program!

This blog post will be all about how I was feeling before departing to Japan!

Firstly, I wanted to study abroad in Japan ever since I started university! Hearing that I made it to my top choice Waseda University for study abroad was very exciting. For almost a whole year, I was waiting for my day of departure to Japan. Once it gets closer, the excitement turned into a bit of nervousness of the unknow waiting for me in Tokyo.

I was very stressed about the paperwork before departure, especially finding time to manage everything with my internship time and finishing paperworks. There were some stuff I wasn't fully sure about and it took me a bit more time to get everything together. But once everything was submitted, it was very smooth and all I had to do was wait.

After my first day of clocking out at 5pm

I finished my internship on March 20th and left the U.S on March 23rd and now that I think about it, I should've given myself more time to relax and fully prepare for my study abroad. My advice is to give yourself atleast a week before going abroad to fully collect yourself and be fully prepared because I was super nervous about everything with so little time. However, even with this little time I was able to prepare everything I needed in 1 big suitcase, giving myself more space for my return from Japan for souvenirs and gifts.

On the other hand, I was very excited to walk around my neighborhood, going to convenience store for late night snacks and bento, sightseeing all over Japan, all the great restaurants and foods and many more!

To close out this blog, I wanted to say that choosing Japan to study abroad is one of the best decisions I've ever made and if anyone doesn't know where to go for abroad I hundred percent recommend spending a semester in Japan!

Thanks for reading my first (very late) blog and stay tuned for more blogs in the future!