Define acceptance…

ヤッタ！I have been accepted by Kansai Gaidai University, and it seems that I will be going in August off to this land of vast language barriers and culture clashes. Yes, I’m not going to hype this up too much because the whole application has all become rather tiny in the long run as the real problems I will face will not involve “what shall I write as my motivation for studying in Japan”‘ etc etc, but rather much bigger and complex issues. At the moment I’m really trying to get my Japanese up to a speed that will allow me to communicate at least on a very basic level, whilst at the same time cover the points necessary to get past the level I want to in the JLPT (which would have originally been to pass 3, but now with the new system (that isn’t that new?) I’m a little confused as to what to aim for, and as such I am just いっしょけんめい勉強している for now). Perhaps I am expecting a little too much for someone at my level, I have either been achieving top mark or close to in my class’ tests, and am not by any means in the bottom section for my speaking. But having friends who are in a higher level I think has meant I’m comparing myself to what is for now the unachievable.

Digressing no further, point of this post being that from here on it is now another wait for my Certificate of Eligibility (CoE) from Kansai Gaidai University, so that I can apply for Visa. Apparently this comes towards the end of June or so, though  no certainty on that, could be July yet, no one knows (which apparently seems to be the fun of this entire process??). And on another note I did write “Define acceptance…” (with a negative nuance if you did pick up on it?) for a reaason, because it seems that all the spots for the JASSO scholarship have been taken, I have heard from numerous people around the globe that their exchange advisors have said the scholarship is not available to anyone this semester, or something along those lines. And continuing with the rumours, something to do with over-budgetting and now they have to cut back this semester. Perhaps I can still hope for a miracle, but at the moment it would seem in vain. The news is actually rather crushing knowing that I can’t get it at all, as opposed to never having had the chance in the first place, which now means I will have to look into other financial support options for sure. Gotta love money issues.

Well, either way main priority seems to be on my Japanese none the less, exams and such coming up at the moment so it’s not like I got the time to be worrying about “paper” issues, when I have many things to feed my brain! Anyone reading who is planning on applying, I give you this advice: Until you actually are IN Japan, you will remain in a state of “waiting”, whether it be for application results for your uni, the uni abroad, the consulate (visa) and anything else you decide to apply to during this period to add to the fun of it (such as summer/winter jobs etc). So learn to push things aside easily, no point sitting idle I guess…

じゃ、ピース！