Megumi Kawamura (Japan 2018-19)

When I first got on the plane to embark on my year abroad, I had no idea just how big of an impact the upcoming year would have on me. I anticipated an exciting year full of new adventures, but something I could have never predicted was just how much I would learn about myself and the world and transform as a person. This past year that I spent in Tokyo was truly the best year of my life, and I can confidently say that the decision to spend my third year of college in Japan was the best decision I have ever made.

Being someone that was very attached to family and home, what surprised me the most about living in Japan was just how much I fell in love with living there. Everything from the kind people, being able to walk anywhere, the 24 hour convenience stores, feeling safe at all times, the cleanliness and efficiency of the train system, the buildings, the amazing food, and vending machines on every corner — to name a few things — made Tokyo my favorite city in the world. There is not a day that goes by that I do not think about how much I miss living in Japan. In California, you have to drive hours to get to and from major cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. But in Japan, everything is so close together that you can go from the major wards of Shibuya to Harajuku to Roppongi to Daikanyama to Ebisu with just a short train ride, sometimes even on foot. I love that Tokyo is one big, lively city but the 23 wards that it is comprised of are each so distinctive and unique. Every week was an adventure, getting to explore new places and restaurants with some of the best people I’ve ever met. I never thought I would find a place that felt just as home-y as the city I grew up in, but Japan quickly became home to me. Even now, I find my heart aching when I see old pictures and videos of my time abroad, and I cannot wait until I get to go back. Frankly, I’ve never missed anything as much I miss living in Japan.

Growing up, I always felt extremely Japanese. Having grown up in a Japanese-American household, speaking Japanese with my mom, and visiting Japan every few years to see my grandparents — I always felt very closely connected to my Japanese heritage. What instantly took me by surprise when I moved to Japan, however, was how overwhelmingly American and like an outsider I felt. Things about me such as my mannerisms, not being perfectly native in Japanese, and the way I dressed made me feel extremely distant from the culture that had always been my source of identity. Though this was an unexpected realization, it made me appreciate aspects about my upbringing in ways I had never considered before. I thought of it as having the best of both worlds and was so grateful to have both a Japanese and American parent that made me go to Japanese school every week when I was a kid. I joined a Waseda tennis circle called MatchPoint where I was the only foreigner, and the other Japanese students thought it was so cool that I could speak fluent English and Japanese. I would always laugh when they would ask me to say things like “squirrel,” a notoriously hard word to pronounce with a Japanese accent because of the combination of “r” and “l.” Being Japanese-American has a new and greater meaning for me, and I ultimately left Japan with a stronger sense of self, identity, and deeper appreciation for Japan that I could have only obtained by living there for a year.

Though I’ve always been told I was mature and independent for my age, I feel as though I “grew up” a lot over the course of the past year. In some ways, I think the person I was before I left for Japan and the person I am now are very different. For the first time in my life, I was truly by myself — my parents, friends, roommates all on the other side of the world. Navigating a country where the predominant language was not English was challenging, but it ultimately made me a more confident and capable person. During my year abroad, I was also lucky enough to be able to travel Southeast Asia for the first time in my life. It was truly an eye-opening experience getting to explore such beautiful countries that were so different from America and Japan. The challenges and stress that can come from traveling to a foreign country enriched my entire experience and stick out as some of the most unforgettable parts of this journey. In Bali, my friend and I became friends with our driver as we bonded while we were stuck at the airport until 6 am because he accidentally dropped his car keys down the elevator shaft. Because of this experience, our new friend offered to be our driver for a whole day at a fraction of the price it would have cost us to hire a real driver, and took us to all of the best local places in Bali. In Malaysia, two kindhearted strangers who were dining at the same restaurant as us offered to drive us the twenty minutes back to our hotel when we learned that our only way home — the rideshare app, Grab — did not offer pickups in the rural area our restaurant was located. I am so grateful that I not only got to spend one year exploring Japan, but also got to see a little bit more of the world and experience all that Southeast Asia has to offer. I left Japan as a more worldly and open-minded person with a newfound passion for experiencing new things and seeing as much of the world as I can.

Living abroad for a year taught me so many valuable life lessons that I will treasure and use as a foundation for the rest of my life. My world was expanded significantly, which really allowed me to see the bigger picture and adopt a more positive, worldly outlook on life. I used to get stressed very easily over little things, but living abroad showed me what is actually important in life and what is not, teaching me to stop stressing over minuscule and insignificant things because they just aren’t worth it. I’ve made lifelong friends from all over the world, traveled throughout Southeast Asia for the first time, and experienced life outside of America. What has stuck with me the most, however, is just how important it is to get outside of your comfort zone. I wholeheartedly agree with the quote, “life begins outside of your comfort zone” and will embrace this concept whenever I am faced with a challenge or momentous decision throughout my life. I look forward to what the future holds and am so grateful to be able to use the valuable lessons I’ve learned while abroad as a guide for the rest of my life. Thank you so much to Ray and Verena Borton and the entire foundation for this opportunity.

Isabella Silva (Japan, 2018-19)

My year abroad in Japan has finally come to its close; this last semester seemed very long and very short at the same time. At the start of the semester, I was quite sad to go back knowing that my best friend would not be there to greet me and go on more adventures with me as she was only a semester student and had returned to her home in the Netherlands. However, with the close of that door brought new students, who would become part of our family, to the dorm. That is one of the beautiful things about studying abroad, in this past year I have met more lifelong friends from so many unique backgrounds than I have in my entire life. I now know that there are homes across many countries just waiting for me to come to visit and reconnect with my friends.

The excitement of starting new classes last semester also helped me move past the sadness of missing my friends.  I continued to progress with my Japanese language abilities by taking Comprehensive Japanese 4 and Kanji 4. I also took a beginning Korean language class taught in Japanese which was quite difficult at times but helped me to reinforce both my foreign languages. In the SILS lecture department I took a Korean Media course, a Korean literature course, and a Gender Studies course—this being my favorite class I took at Waseda; I had taken gender studies courses before but this one was unique in that it focused on Japan and offered me new insight. In the extracurricular field, I joined a dance circle called WIF (Waseda International Festival). The branch of WIF that I joined focused on learning Kpop dances which was really nice for me as it was similar to the club I am involved with at UCSD called KOTX. This circle was one of the first opportunities I had to interact with the Japanese students and allowed me to use my Japanese language skills outside of the classroom setting in a more colloquial way. Outside of school, my weekends were filled with going to fun events held in the city such as Tokyo Rainbow Pride, a Taiwanese festival, fireworks in Asakusa, and going to an amusement park.

Looking back at my life before coming to Japan really shows me how far I have come not only with my language skills but also as a person. I feel more independent, confident, and mature. I have come to see the truth of Japanese culture is far more complex than the crazy anime culture of Akihabara or super traditional ways of the past as primarily shown on television. I have also noticed a lot about America and have come to a newfound appreciation of my home country through studying abroad. While my experience was not 100% what I had expected going into it, if given the chance I would do it all over again and would encourage others to study abroad as well.

Alex Slone (Czech Republic 2018-19)

One moment I was taking in the beautiful national park around me, the next moment I could not stop thinking about the bone chilling cold and my soaked clothing. My landscape sociology class concluded with an amazing (besides the cold) trip to the bohemian paradise which is a beautiful national park in the Czech Republic. Never before had I taken a class about landscape sociology let alone taken a 3 day school trip where we spent days hiking in 40 degree weather and the nights sharing beers and stories with our professor. This trip was a perfect illustration of a different type of education, culture, and ultimately way of life I discovered while abroad.

It was a beautiful landscape until we reached the cafe and souvenir shop. Tourism on the one hand brings protection to beautiful landscapes thus helping maintain their beauty. On the other hand tourism is also responsible for the cafes, souvenir shops and degradation of the landscape. Seeing this in person made me understand the pros and cons of tourism better than any in class PowerPoint. Our professor simply decided that he would organize this trip so we could experience landscape first hand. Everything was not perfectly planned out and we were often cold and miserable yet it was a great trip that provided examples of many of the theoretical aspects we had been learning in class. We didn’t fill out a million release forms either. The point I’m making is that this would never have been done in the US. Although this is a generalization they most likely would have cancelled the trip because of the rain and freezing weather. Instead our spry 65 year old professor made us all look like babies as we complained during the walk. Europe and the Czech Republic have a different way of life than in the US. Each has its pros and cons but what became most important to me was learning about the different ways of life that exist. This is because the contrast they create leads to questioning. As you experience more and more, some things that seemed so certain such as a path to law school or med school for example suddenly become very uncertain. Until you have that contrast you never know to question. Now I constantly ask myself if what I am doing is what I (emphasis on I and not others) want to be doing. This is because I spent a good amount of time traveling alone and experiencing completely new cultures surrounded by foreign people and a foreign environment. It’s hard to explain but when you are surrounded by something that is completely foreign you start reading your own book and begin to learn more about what’s going on in your own head. Gone is the routine of back home that keeps you distracted. This is what I learned while studying abroad.

 This summer I will be heading to Jordan and Egypt to backpack around. Is it crazy and will it be unbearably hot? Most definitely. But these previously crazy ideas don’t seem so crazy or scary anymore which is why my summer backpacking trip will include Egypt. This is because my time abroad normalized uncertainty. Study abroad is when you learn about completely new subjects such as communism and a completely new language such as Czech. You visit exotic places and meet all kinds of people. At the end of the day, life will not seem so linear anymore.

Yulin Ma (Scotland 2018-19)

Studying abroad had been something that I felt I was sure of in the midst of all the uncertainties of college. Despite my certainty and excitement towards studying abroad, I came in with no expectations toward my year in Glasgow. I think a large part of it had to do with studying abroad being contingent on many factors that I did not want to build my hopes up in fear that Scotland wouldn’t work out. It took my mind a long time to register that I really was on the other side of the Atlantic and in Europe.

It’s difficult to summarize the way studying abroad has been life-changing. There were many challenges that came with studying abroad; some were expected, like learning to be independent and experiencing loneliness, while others were unexpected and I feel I would have never experienced them outside the context of studying abroad for a year. At the end of my first semester, new people moved into my flat after many of my international flatmates left when their semester abroad came to a close. It was unsettling being in the same exact same space but seeing it inhabited by an entire new group of people who didn’t know the history and the exchanges that took place there. It was challenging having that knowledge that others didn’t and trodding what felt like a different timeline from everyone else. Sometimes I felt that way towards home too, but these were all challenges that I needed to grow into the person I’m supposed to be.

It was also strange establishing certain relationships with the knowledge that my time in Scotland was temporary. Sometimes it felt like Glasgow was a space without constraints or consequences because California was my “real life” and Scotland was not. That, of course, was not true but I feel lucky to have been able to experience something that felt that vast and limitless. I feel lucky for all the times that I felt vulnerable and lost too, and for all the people that have guided me and allowed me to experience human compassion during those times: the uber driver that said to call him if I needed help because he knows what it feels like to start over somewhere new, the old man in France that communicated to my friend and I using Google Translate and later walked us to the station, and the Filipino man who I bonded with because we were both immigrants. I feel a shift in my perspective in the things I had considered important and I feel grounded knowing how much the world and the future were ours to make. I had always thought that studying abroad would be “life-changing” in an intense, but ambiguous way but what it had really done was given me clarity that I couldn’t have achieved staying in my hometown. I think the only thing I wonder about is how much greater I would have changed had I chosen a destination whose culture was not Western, but I think I still have a lifetime to explore that aspect of the world.

Scotland is a place I will always look back on it as the place that took care of me when I was 21. I’ll miss my life in Glasgow and I’ll miss the Maryhill community that I got to know through volunteering at my thrift store. I’ll miss the routines, the friends that I made, the quick train ride to Edinburgh, and even (to an extent) the unpredictable weather. Closing this chapter abroad, I return to California feeling more inspired and hopeful, for all the possibilities that exist in this world, for all the people in the world who share common struggles, and for all the experiences that have yet to be had.

Thank you again to the donors who have made this experience possible for me.