First, Gakushuin contacted me to tell me that I'd received their scholarship! I was so happy because I'd pretty much given up hope after I'd hearing nothing back from them all summer. Since it was late August I figured they would have decided by now, but apparently there'd been a delay in posting the letter on to me. That'll help out a lot in Tokyo, although I'll probably still end up getting a job. Any extra money I can earn out there as an English teacher or something will be very valuable and hopefully a lot more money per hour compared with the wages I get in the UK.
I'm slowly starting to get things out to begin to pack, and also saying my goodbyes to friends and relatives. Last night I went out with all my old school friends which was really fun, but made me realise how much I'll miss them! It's funny, because if I was going back to uni in Leeds, I'd probably still have gone a few months without seeing them just like I'm going to be doing now, but because it's just Japan and so far away, it makes it all a lot more emotional and scary!
I'm also trying to buckle down and revise lots of Japanese in time for leaving. It's going ok, but after watching a few Japanese films recently, as well as looking at skits on erin.ne.jp (a site our teachers at Leeds said we should use to revise spoken Japanese), I'm feeling very shaky about using the language! Japanese is spoken so much quicker in reality than what we're used to from language class, and the small collection of grammar structures we've learnt is definitely going to become a setback when I'm trying to express myself, which will definitely be frustrating. I guess I'll just have to try and come to terms with the fact that I'll be making a lot of mistakes - not great for the ego but just something you have to get used to learning a language, as I'm finding out!
Anyway, sorry for this very boring post, though it's going to get a lot more exciting come 10 days time! So watch this space. xx
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