Ok this is long overdue (but yet again maybe it's not).
Anyway, this will become one of those blogs that almost everyone sets upon leaving for SEP. I'll be spending a (rather short) semester at Rikkyo University （立教大学）in Tokyo - which really is a dream come true for me (a big reason for choosing NUS). And despite the difficulties (stemming from being the pioneer batch to go to Rikkyo) and small setbacks (failing to get any sort of grant despite having worked my a** off in trying to earn decent grades), I'm more relieved than anything to be finally embarking on my exchange. As you may be able to tell by now, I'm quite inclined towards using brackets to add more (unnecessary?) comments to whatever I say, so do try to get used to it ya?
The thing was, I only received the acceptance letter from Rikkyo in mid-February, so I had barely more than a month to start preparing and get excited. I didn't dare start before that in fear of being totally disappointed if something had gone wrong, but on hindsight maybe I should have at least done some research...
My past few couple of weeks have been packed with
- planning and preparing for the trip (of course),
- intermittent movie outings and dinners and
- going to school occasionally for work and meet-ups.
In my search for cheap and good accomodation, I've realised one can judge a place's classy-ness just from how impressive the website is.
The cheaper ones look like they've been made by a very old version of FrontPage (Station Ryokan Seiki), while the more expensive ones have fancy java applets with traditional Japanese music in the background (Hoshokaku). Of course I'm happier to chance upon the former while surfing, due to my current (very) limited financial ability.
And I've finally booked my flight - leaving on Good Friday night - barely two weeks from now. I should have expected this, but there seems to be an infinite number of things to do. Settling accomodation, applying for my student visa, mapping modules... I'll probably take a while to pack too.
Will post more updates soon (I sometimes tell myself that I have to blog something but I usually forget by the time I get home).
Leave me shoutouts at the shoutbox! =)
