{"id":20305,"date":"2024-09-02T10:13:44","date_gmt":"2024-09-02T15:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/?p=20305"},"modified":"2024-09-17T10:32:15","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T15:32:15","slug":"august-at-sophia-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/2024\/09\/02\/august-at-sophia-university\/","title":{"rendered":"August at Sophia University"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

August. The shortest, yet hardest month for me here. It\u2019s Aug. 4, and I just boarded my plane home. I\u2019ve been scrolling through my camera roll, looking for what to write about. So many funny stories, places I\u2019ve gone to and memories. The number one thing that held constant in my photos, though, was that I have always been surrounded by such cool people. My teammates who all wanted to take a picture with me after my last frisbee practice; the crew who stayed up till 4 a.m. with me watching Olympic basketball, and then woke up again at 7 a.m. to wish me farewell to the airport; the friends who I plan on celebrating Oktoberfest with in Germany in years to come. I\u2019m beyond grateful for the acceptance and friendliness of everyone I\u2019ve encountered here in Japan, and it\u2019s unbelievable how in four months I\u2019ve become some close with so many of these people, let alone now having to all \u201creturn to our normal lives.\u201d I\u2019m so thankful for technology too. I just got off FaceTime with my friend Mikuru, telling her all that I\u2019m excited about back home: my family, friends my dog. She tells me how happy she is for me to be going home, and that she can\u2019t wait to visit the U.S. one day! These goodbyes have been tough, but it\u2019s comforting knowing that my Japanese friends all convinced me to download BeReal so that I can still see them every day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It took two years of planning to make this experience happen, and it\u2019s hard to comprehend that in these short four months my semester abroad has come and went. I remember a week before leaving for Japan I hadn\u2019t even though about packing, much less what I was going to do in Japan. Now that the shock of leaving is in reverse, it doesn\u2019t feel real returning home. Despite my lack of preparation, I\u2019m so thankful for my family, who have always supported me exploring the world and especially my advisers, who dealt with me and all my questions \u2014 probably their most needy student!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My friend\u2019s mom asked me a few hours ago during breakfast, my last meal in Tokyo, if I felt like anything would be different once I got back to the U.S. It\u2019s easy to say the food. Oh my goodness, that\u2019s going to be rough not having ramen anymore. I love the hustle and bustle of the city life too, but it\u2019s the Japanese people that make it work so well. They are so respectful and considerate of everyone around them, and I\u2019m really going to miss their hospitality. The main thing I will bring back with me, though, is the work ethic. I learned from my time in their university clubs that everyone is very dedicated to becoming better at their craft and putting hours in to practice day in, day out. And of course, the style! I\u2019ve got some Japanese drip I\u2019m bringing back to the U.S., but I\u2019m definitely going to be wearing pants more often!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, this program has not only been the best one I\u2019ve ever embarked on, but it\u2019s been the best four months of my life. I dream of travelling all over the world, but I\u2019ll never be able to be able to attend a foreign university as a young 20-year-old; I\u2019ll probably never stay in a dorm with nearly each room hosting a student from a different country again; and playing for Sophia\u2019s ultimate frisbee team was once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. All my experiences in Japan were not just sensational, but unique moments that I will carry with me forever. I\u2019m excited to come back and show my friends and family my entire camera roll now! I guess with the rest of the time on this plane, I will try and figure out when I can come back to Japan!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Learn more about this blogger\u2019s study abroad program: Sophia University<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August. The shortest, yet hardest month for me here. It\u2019s Aug. 4, and I just boarded my plane home. I\u2019ve been scrolling through my camera roll, looking for what to write about. So many funny stories, places I\u2019ve gone to and memories. The number one thing that held constant in my photos, though, was that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[199],"class_list":["post-20305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-japan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20305"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20344,"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20305\/revisions\/20344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/international.missouri.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}