My Host Family

Hey all!
So I know I just uploaded a post like, 6 seconds ago, but I wanted to talk a little bit about my host family, at least all that I know. I received the email that I would be doing homestay about a day ago, which I am so excited about! If you saw my last blog post, you'll know some of the reasons why I wanted to do homestay so bad. In general, to experience the culture as close as I can, and to be able to try authentic Nagasaki cuisine! I also really want to work on my Japanese, and possibly become fluent. Staying with a host family would pretty much force me to use my Japanese as much as I can, helping me achieve this goal of helping my Japanese. My Japanese isn't too good, as I have only had 1 year of it, but most people in Japan have at least a base knowledge of English from school, so initially I think that will help. I will also have to take Japanese language courses while I am there, so that will help too!
So, my host family. According to the form I received, my host family is a 65-year-old woman named Akiko. She lives about 40 minutes away from the university by bus, and her hobbies include watching Korean dramas and listening to Korean music. She also describes her English as "fair". I'll admit, it is not what I expected, but I am looking forward to meeting her! This will definitely test my terrible sense of direction, having to navigate bus routes, but maybe it will help!
Only one other person (that I know of, only 5 of us have joined our chat group, so it's possible there are many more!) in my group is doing homestay, and she's clear on the other side of town. I am hoping there will be others doing the homestay as well, so maybe I can make friends with people in my group going on the same route as me (or at least similar!).

Well, I think that is all for now.
Clare

Pre-Game

So,  maybe I should have started this thing a while ago, but better late than never, right? Although it was official before, I'll say it again: I am going to Japan! Nagasaki to be exact! I will be studying at the Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies (NUFS for short) from late March to early August. I also received notice that I was accepted to do homestay! This essentially means that I will be living with a Japanese family instead of staying in a dormitory. I picked this for a few reasons. One of the big reasons is that I love culture (its why I am a sociology major!), so what better way to become integrated with a culture than to live with a family that grew up in the culture. I know that it is already quite different from the culture of the US, so it may be quite a culture shock. I also get to have the local food, not just something served in a cafeteria. Maybe it's just years and years of American school food (including very much my current university Marian), but I never expect it to be very good. Nagasaki itself has a very big Dutch influence, as being a port city back when Japan was pretty much isolated, they got to do some trading with the dutch traders, so there are some foods that are dutch with a Japanese twist! I have also been talking with a few of the people who are in the same program with me (We all go through a program called USAC, which connects us and our universities to the host university, NUFS), and its been very exciting meeting people from all over the US. I am the only one from Indiana, but there are plenty of midwesterners. I think, in total, there are 16 total participants in the study abroad program, from all over the US. I realize this blog post is kind of all over the place, but at the moment its hard to compile all of my excitement into one post! So this is the brief background of what is going on. So, what is the point of this blog, you may ask. It is a way for everyone who wants to know what is going on while I am in Japan to stay up to date! Communication will be especially hard (its a 13 hour time difference!!!) so I won't be able to connect with everyone. I also chose a fairly accessible platform to write on. Facebook and Tumblr, as well as Instagram you need some sort of account to really follow what is being posted, but this way I can just share the link with people and they should be able to read it! (If I'm wrong, oh well. I'm only human!). This works especially well if those who are reading this are not wanting to learn how to work a new social media, or if they do not like a certain social media, they won't be forced to use it. I will likely be sharing pictures on both my Instagram and my Facebook, as well as on here (I haven't really had a look at the photo feature here yet...).
So, thanks for reading! I'm not sure how often I'll update this... likely before I go to Japan, probably not very much, since there isn't much to talk about. If there is any major news, I'll let you all know, but otherwise, it'll probably stay dormant. Once I'm in Japan, I will try to update at least a few times a week. It all depends on how busy I am, jet lag, and access to the internet. I figure my host family will have internet, but honestly, I'm not 100% sure. Here's hoping!

Clare