Dear Family, Friends, Professors, and everyone else:

Greetings and peace!  First let me say that I miss you all already!  While I am still two weeks away from departure, I thought that I would write to you all to update you on my life and to the months ahead.  This has been an interesting yet mostly uneventful summer for me.  I have been working full time at a photography store near my home, following up on my interest in that artistic medium, and trying to save up some money for my year in Japan.

On August 22nd, I will embark on probably the most life-changing journey in my life so far.  I’m spending two semesters in Japan, with a short break in between.  The first semester will be at Nanzan University in Nagoya, a medium sized city in central Honshu.  The second semester is still somewhat up in the air, but most likely I’ll be in Tokyo, at either Temple University or Sophia University.  For the first semester I’ll be in an intensive language program of four hours of language class per day, a homestay, and of course general immersion in a foreign culture.  The second semester will continue my language study and also add in various arts and culture courses.

During my time abroad I am already planning to travel to Seoul, South Korea, to visit my sister, Hokkaido in the winter for the ice festivals and snowboarding, to Okinawa for spring break, Kyoto, and of course Mt. Fuji.  And that’s only the beginning! Who needs sleep anyway?! I have been looking forward to this time for years, since my first experience with Japan as part of an exchange program in 1998. Nevertheless I am nervous; not only of what experiences and challenges I will have, but also how my relationships with my current friends will evolve.

This is one of the first times in my life that I have truly decided on a path . . . and it’s inevitable that whatever happens, I will emerge a changed person, a hopefully more thoughtful and understanding person of not only one other culture, but humanity in general.  If anyone (specifically my professors) has any contacts, leads, advice, or just thoughts they think I’d benefit from, I would love to hear from you!  Time only seems to be moving faster as I try to understand a greater and more complicated world.

Treat yourselves well, may peace be with you in mind, spirit, and politic.