What Have I Missed?
I think that there’s two things I have missed the most while I was gone.
One is food. As much as “American Food Culture” is an ever-debated topic on the internet, I have missed the foods that were normal to me. Of course, I’ve become accustomed to much of the food here, but I miss things like my mom’s cooking, and the restaurants I used to frequent, both in Bellingham (The Black Cat!) and in my hometown.
More importantly, I have missed people. As much as I have enjoyed (nearly) every second of my time here, I do feel ready to go back home and spend time with friends and family. A few of my friends started going to school, and another moved into a new place, and I have missed these things which I would’ve preferred to be around for. This is a natural concession of going abroad (luckily, nothing bad has happened while I was here) but I think it is important to make sure to stay in touch with people while you’re away!
Reverse Culture Shock
To answer the question; I’m not sure if I will experience reverse culture shock. I initially believed that I wouldn’t, but a friend of mine (a fellow Western student who was also studying abroad at the same university) told me that he was feeling some upon his return.
Regardless, I’ll have about a month after I return before I go back up to Bellingham, so I should be able to readjust back to the US (and fix any jet lag) with no real problems. That’s the goal, anyways!
Study Abroad as a Memory
Many of my friends unfortunately left at the end of Fall, so there are only a few people left as of now. Just last night another friend of mine went back home for Spring, so I had to say goodbye to him. The rest of everyone I talk to is staying for Spring, so I will be saying my farewells over the next few days, as I head home in about 48 hours, as of writing this.
I plan to continue studying Japanese for the foreseeable future. In December, I’m planning on taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, a government recognized test for (as you can guess) Japanese language proficiency. In the future, I want to teach English in Japan, but I am also considering applying to graduate schools here.
I want to try my best to maintain connections after I leave. I am making sure that I let everyone know when I leave that if they ever end up in Washington, to let me know, so we can try to meet up again. I want to try to at least message people occasionally, as I’ve met many cool people here that I hope to remain friends with in the future.
Wrap-Up
Apologies for a bit of a short entry, I’m pretty busy packing up and meeting up with people in these last few days. This has been a wonderful experience, thanks in no small part to the people who make WWU Study Abroad run smoothly!