During the fall semester, I learned about the opportunity to participate in two different study abroad trips, one to Japan and on to Zambia. Two places I had never been to nor knew much about either country past what I learned in my history classes. Initially, I intended on going to Zambia because I had previously taken a History of Africa class so I thought it would be great to spend more time learning about African countries, however I still wanted a class that fit more with my interests and my current class schedule, and Zambia focused more on theater and music, so I wanted something that was more about history, so I started looking into the trip to Japan more. Going on this trip was a complete whim. I absolutely love traveling and going abroad, so when I started hearing about these trips, it was really a matter of just applying and going for it. Especially going into education, I don’t know how many more times I will be able to afford going abroad again and so I wanted to take any opportunity that was presented to me to go abroad and have an experience like this. I want to be able to learn about as many different places and cultures as I possibly can before starting as a teacher in order to have more real world experience to bring back to my students. Much of what we learn about Japan is focused on World War II or the Meiji Restoration, but I want to go beyond that and learn and experience as much as I can. Additionally and maybe superficially, I just want to go and have a good time. I want to go to another country and just be there and have a great two weeks and I cannot wait.
If I had to pick the two things that I am worried about for this trip, I would have to stay it is the food and the flight . I have flown a lot so that is not the main issue and is not something that I’m concerned about. I am not a travel expert by any means, but with the amount I’ve flown over the past couple of years, it’s not something that really stresses me out anymore. The things that do stress me out are how many of us are going and the length of the flights. I hate traveling in large groups of people. I like being able to do things on my own terms and being by myself makes things easier to get stuff done and make it through the airport. Everything that is stressful about traveling gets multiplied when you are in large groups so it is just something that stresses me out a little. The longest flight I have ever been on was six hours long and the longest car ride I have ever been on was 12…the flight to Japan is supposed to be around 20 hours once travel time and wait time is factored in. I have never been on any flight that long or have had to travel that long at one time, so this is something that I am stressed out about because it is something new and I don’t know how I’ll adjust to the time change and since I won’t have any research papers that I’m working on, I don’t really know how I’ll spend my time! The next thing I’m worried about is the food. I don’t really like sushi (not even Americanized sushi!) or rice, and I know those are both stereotypical things, but still it is a point of concern. Additionally, I have been going back and forth between vegetarian and not, but recently I’ve been sticking to it pretty well, but I don’t want to inconvenience anyone by having to ask for anything additional. I am really excited to try new foods and new things of course, but I am still nervous about what the food will be like while we are there!
Similarly to when I traveled to the Dominican Republic last summer, I really do not have any expectations about a lot of the trip. I know I’m going to take a lot of pictures and try new things and go to the different locations, but I try to keep as much as an open mind as I can, and for me that means not expecting anything. I want to learn as much as I can about Japan and its culture and have a great experience, but I don’t want to define what that means because I want to let anything that might happen, happen and just go with it for the two weeks that I am there! I think by having no expectations allows people to go into things with an open mind and just experience things as they are, and I think that’s the most important part of any experience like this, or really any experience overall. Too many times have experiences been ruined by too high or low of expectations, or when you try to compare two experiences to each other, something I am working to avoid going into this trip.
While these blog post are actually part of a school assignment for the class and as a way to reflect on my trip for the Honors Program, I am really happy to have something forcing me to keep up the blog, since yet again, I’ve fallen off the track. My next post regarding Japan will be coming during May while I am actually there, but I do have two posts planned for between now and then!
Preppy In Ohio 