Nine Days

That’s it. That’s all the time left I have in Australia. While that’s a pretty scary thought (and not seeing the faces of my friends and family in the flesh will be pretty hard, I think), it’s also an undeniably exciting one. In approximately 9 days, I’ll be in another country, away from home, experiencing a completely different culture and living with a totally different family whose mother tongue is entirely different from mine. And I really can’t believe that the final hours are approaching (they are? No, no… they can’t be… but it’ll be alright… I just have to remember, “Don’t Panic”. That, and to keep my towel close… wait… did I even pack my towel?! Not even one of those teeny face washer ones?! Good god!).

Anyway, my name’s Lucie (nice to meet you, my very intelligent and attractive readers! No, there’s no sucking up here whatsoever! No siree! xD). I’m 18 years old, and last year, November 2009, I graduated from my final year of high school in Sydney, Australia. Whilst I’m all rearing to go off to University (where my friends are all off to at the moment, partying whilst complaining about their workload… alright, I’m a little jealous, can you tell? xD), I thought I might do something a little different this year, and that very 'something' will be going on a ten month long student exchange to Japan from the 24th of March, 2010 up until… uh, sometime in January, 2011 (I’ll have to check up on that date… hey, I’m more excited about going to Japan than leaving it right now, you know!). 8D

A lot of people have been there, done that, I know, and a wide variety of “Japan Adventure” blogs with posts about strange foods and places and crazy exchange student hijinks have already been released out into the wild (aka, the internet), but I thought it would be nice to document some of my "adventures" (aka - more of those wide-eyed tourist trips into the supermarket...) just to let my friends and family know how I’m doing. :>
Too, when I found I was accepted into AIIU’s Japan exchange program, I remember spending days upon days, hikikomori style, searching the web to read absolutely every single blog, or vlog, on Japan that I could lay my eyes on. And I found that even if I was reading the same kind of stories over and over again, it was still fascinating stuff, especially to see how different people viewed and shared their exchange experience in different ways. Many had different opinions about the same things.

Some of my favourite blogs/vlogs include:

Ashley-chan’s Blog – Written by a student who also went on a ten month exchange with the company I’m going with, AIIU, the year before (2009-2010). I found her blog extremely informative as she was basically blogging what I will soon have the chance to experience myself in nine days time, if that makes sense (going with the same company, and all :D). Reading her blog also influenced my decision to try out for AIIU’s exchange program. <3

Katrandom's Youtube Channel - She’s in Japan right now, at the time of my writing this. Her videos are all really varied and informative with all sorts of awesome Japan exchange related goodness.

Akitatom's Youtube Channel – One of those more ‘famous’ Japan Exchange vloggers, if not one of the best! Has a treasure trove of videos to check out. :D

Iyobeck's Youtube Channel and Blog – Has some really eye-opening and interesting commentary on exchange in Japan. I enjoyed hearing her perspective about exchange in Japan, and how there's "the good and the bad" when you choose to go on exchange.

These guys (and there are probably others, but it’s really, really late right now and technically Tuesday so my brain now not so working good ) have really been inspiring and I really enjoyed watching/reading their stories. So I thought that perhaps if I write about my exchange a little here, maybe my blog could come in handy for any other potential jetsetters! I hope it does (hmm, is that the sound of my voice echoing in the empty hallways of my blog, as I realise that nobody is reading this but my mother?... hi mum :D ). But this blog is also for my personal use, so… sorry if I write boring stuff, too. 8D

Alright, all that’s left is to keep this blog up and alive! >:D

Thank you for stopping by, even if only temporarily. Hopefully I’ll have some more interesting posts/ information up soon (I know where I’m going and know a lot of information about my host families, being only 9 days away from leaving, so I’ll definitely make a more informative post about that tomorrow… until then, おやすみなさい)! :D