It Begins... Sort of

It's official. I'm finally going to Japan!!! Those of you who know me understand that studying abroad in Japan has been something I've wanted to do for a long time. I made my decision the beginning of this semester and had about a month to get my application in for the early deadline. For about two weeks I scrambled for letters of recommendations, passport photos... 10 to be exact, and other random things for the application. After turning in the application the worst part of the process began... the wait.

During this time I had a realization that I probably should have had before I applied... How was I going to pay for this trip??? I figured if it really came down to it I would just take out a loan. Before it had to come to that I decided to try my hand at a couple of scholarships. I've applied for two study abroad scholarships and I'm currently waiting... again.

I sent my application off to Kansai Gaidai in Osaka, Japan around the end of February. This was about a week before the early deadline. Early applicants were supposed to find out their status by April 15th... When April 15th finally rolled around I checked my e-mail only to find absolutely nothing new. This concerned me, so I called the International Department here at the University of West Florida. Their access to Kansai Gaidai's enrollment site gives them wonderful ability to find out if a student is accepted before the student receives the news. My phone call only ended up with me even more worried. Though my status on the site said, "under review," I was still concerned. The week went on with no change in my status. The following week rolled around and still no news. At this point I had already convinced myself it was over. I figured I should just forget about it and prepare myself for exam week with a clear mind. Then at precisely 3:20pm Saturday, April 26, 2008 I got an e-mail from the nice lady at the International Department here at UWF and this is what it said.

Willy,

I just received notice that you have been accepted for exchange to Kansai Gaidai. They have taken so long to review your application due to your high level of Japanese proficiency. They may waive your requirement for Spoken Japanese and have you take a high level of reading and writing. I will let you know what they decide.

Congratulations!

****

**** * ****
Office of Diversity and International
Education and Programs
University of West Florida
(850) ***-****

I'll keep the nice lady anonymous, but she helped me out through out the process and I can't thank her enough. Needless to say I was very surprised. Before I received the e-mail I thought I was done, I thought I wasn't going. The only positive thing I could think about was that I would be the Resident Assistant for the next group of Japanese exchange students, ironically enough from the school I applied to study at. With this one little e-mail all those thoughts went out the window and the only thing I could do was run to my courtyard and scream, "I'M GOING TO JAPAN!!!" followed by a fury of phone calls.

Next step... airplane tickets... visa... and money...

This is going to be an awesome trip.