Hello everyone! Nice to meet you :D
My name is Xenia, I'm 15 years old and coming from Denmark. From March 2011 I will (hopefully) be going to Japan as an exchange student through YFU. This will be my blog while I'm on exchange!
This is what has happened so far:
September 2007
I get the idea of exchange, and start to search information about it.
Early May 2009
I send in my application for YFU, and they tell me that I will be summoned for an interview.
7th February 2010
I have my interview. There's quite a long time between I send my application and my interview, but that's because I applied early, and they have the interviews for Japan in the beginning of the year before.
15th February 2010
I get a letter from YFU, saying, that they have accepted me.
Right now I'm waiting for the information about how many spots YFU-Denmark will get for Japan in 2011, which normally is two or three. It’s not many, but Denmark is also a little country! If my mom and I remember right, I should get the information in April or May.
But anyway. Because I stand as number two to go, the risk that I'm not shouldn't be that big. Therefore, I'm counting on it and planning the next years after it. I will be doing as followed:
Finish 9th grade in June 2010
Start high school (which in Denmark is three years) in August 2010
From February or early March 2011 I will take leave from school
Go to Japan in March 2011
Return around January 2012
And then continue high school when I return, in the same grade I left
I'm not quite sure what to do about the whole high school-starting-leaving-returning-thing, and I don't know which high school I'll be going to yet (think I'll get the information about that in mid-May), but I have spoken with all the three headmasters at the three high schools I've applied for, and they've all told me that I would be able to do as planned above (= Then I just hope that I'll actually get one of them, and not another one...
Before going to Japan, I will try to learn some Japanese. I won't be fluent at all when arriving, but my goal is that I will be able to have a simple conversation by then. I've taken lessons a couple of times since 7th grade, and I know how to present myself, have a very, very simple conversation and tell some... strange things (As "the cat is on the table" XD). Recently I've got the first part of the series: "Genki: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese", including textbook, workbook, student CD and answer key, which I will be studying from on my own during the last part of spring and summer, and then my lessons will hopefully continue in the autumn. If not, I will continue to study on my own (which I'll probably do no matter what, but anyway...).
I meant to buy the "Basic Kanji"-books for studying kanji, but I haven't been able to find somewhere on the internet where I could get them new. Therefore I study kanji through the internet for the time being, and I've found this site, which I think is quite amazing :D But if I find the "Basic Kanji"-books on the internet, I will probably buy them... If I have the money by then, anyways.
In the next 10 months there'll probably be some time (months) between my entries, but I will tell every time there happen something about my exchange. Next time will probably be about if it is 100% sure that I will be going.
I hope you'll survive my-not-so-fluent-English, and that there actually will be someone following my blog :D
~ Xenia
