Moving Into My University Dorm (in Japan!!!)

It's been a while since I've shared my life online because basically my life has been quite uneventful for the past few months at home.  However, if you haven't already found out through Instagram, just last week I officially moved to Tokyo, Japan and (if all goes well, of course lol) I'll be here for the next few months studying abroad at a university here.  I arrived via Asiana Air after 24 hours of travel including a 10 hour layover in ICN (more info on that in a later post) last Thursday and felt a surge of pure happiness and excitement for my new life.  I stayed like that in vacation mode for the next 5 days, exploring the city with my dad, eating all of the foods, and generally enjoying the atmosphere around me.  It was not until the day I moved into my dorm that these feelings of homesickness began to hit me.

They say there are three stages a study abroad student goes through:
1. I love Japan!!!
2. I hate Japan!!!
3. I’ve come to understand both the good and the bad about Japan and my home country.

I’m not sure what stage I am currently in.
Some days I feel pure joy that I am here in Japan, my dream country with beautiful people and beautiful places.
Other days I feel a sudden depression overcome me as a result of me feeling like an outsider lost in a foreign country.

But I need to believe in the beauty of change and learning to adjust myself in new environments.  Watch me struggle but see me grow.

I think that my only complaint these days has to do with my dorm.  I heard it’s the dorm with the worst wifi signal and the only dorm with no kitchens whereas the other dorms have complete state-of-the-art communal kitchens with rice cookers and stoves and everything.  My dorm (the short-term international student dorm) doesn’t even allow us to have our own rice cookers in our rooms.  Like… do they think us foreigners don’t know how to cook??? lol  I may be overreacting but I just really wish we had a kitchen or were at least allowed us to have a rice cooker…
Okay, time to move on…

So, I’ve been feeling all kinds of emotions since I’ve moved in.  Right now, at this very moment, I’m feeling quite thankful.  I met some kind people with whom I’m beginning to feel comfortable with.  I also bought a bike yesterday and rode it back to my dorm from the station in the drizzling rain and haven’t felt so free in my life before.  Haven't ridden a bike in months and damn it was scary lol.  But everyone rides a bike in this town so I'll have to get used to it... Not everyone has insurance but damn I might need to get some considering how accident prone I've been in the past ah...

Wifi is slow and I’m not pooping regularly (possibly because of my lack of fiber?) but I think I'm doing okay?

I love how beautiful my campus is though~

I hope to update this blog a lot more during this school term!  I have so many photos I want to share and so much I want to say lol.  Let's keep in touch~~