Pre-departure

Greetings, everyone! My name is Courtney and this blog will serve as both a reminder of my upcoming experiences and travels and a repository of everything I learn about Kyoto and Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. I was selected to participate in an international student exchange for the 2015-16 school year and will graduate upon my return to the United States.

Before we get into it, let me give you a bit more information. I am a Senior at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, finishing up a dual major of International Affairs/Political Science and Japanese. At the time of this student exchange, I have just finished up my fifth semester of Japanese. You would think "Oh Courtney, you are going to have so much fun in Japan! You already speak the language, you won't have any problems!"  I might agree with you if I had studied over summer break! :)

My time at Florida State University has been been both the best of times and the worst of times. My first four semesters of Japanese had been a whirlwind of frantically studying for endless quizzes, hours of homework every day, and fighting off panic attacks before the many oral exams. It is a requirement that all student exchange candidates complete at least two years of Japanese language classes before being eligible to apply for an exchange. The Japanese language department has two student exchange programs, Hiroshima University and Kwansei Gakuin University. This combined with the fact that only one or two students are chosen for each program, the pressure to excel at coursework and present oneself as an ideal candidate has been immense. I got extremely lucky in the Spring of 2015 because the history department at Florida State signed a brand new student exchange agreement with Kyoto University of Foreign Studies!

I immediately contacted the Advisor, Dr. Kurt Piehler, to begin the application process. As soon as I was formally accepted, I began to search the internet for any information about my future University. To my great disappointment, there wasn't much in English. Besides the official website, there were hardly any pictures of the campus or the surrounding area. I decided that I would change that and thus begins my blog!