New blog!

I meant to tell this a couple of months ago, but I haven't had time before now! Sorry :(

I have chosen to close this blog, however, you will be able to follow me and my exchange here:

Xenia i Japan 11/12

The blog will be written in Danish, but there's a link that will translate it to English. It is through google translate, so the translations are a bit strange, but they are (with a bit patience) understandable!

I'm sorry for those of you who have already started to follow this blog. The Danish blog is mainly meant for my friends and family to keep them updated, and therefore the updates and entries will probably be a bit more "personally" than this one would have been - but I hope you won't mind that :) I choose to do this because I've seen a lot of exchange blogs die when the student go on exchange, and I don't want that to happen to any of my blogs. I don't know how much time I will get to update as soon as I go on exchange, but I'm quite sure I won't be able to keep two blogs updates, and the Danish one is a bit more important than this one - plus, I have this idea that I'll get to use my English a lot more than my Danish in Japan, and it'll probably be a good way for me to remember how to speak Danish :P

I hope those of you who already follow this blog will keep following me :)

- Xenia

No longer hopefully!

Apparently my mother and I thought wrong about the time I would get the answer - or YFU was a little late. But no matter which of the reasons, I got the answer yesterday, which made me smile quite a lot.. And almost cry with joy.

As you probably can guess, the letter told me that YFU has a spot for me for Japan 2011! :D That's pretty cool, ha?

My mother actually called YFU Monday (it was Thursday yesterday, if one doesn't know) and they told her that we are three who are going to Japan in March - I know one of the others is Johan (one of the other Danes I know who have applied), but I'm not sure about the third. The girl I know who has applied is, as far as we both know, on vacation right now, and she hasn't answered the message I sent her. I hope that one of us will get to talk with her soon, because if it is her, she'll have to accept the exchange before a week. But so far, I can't really do more than I've already done.

And as my mother called them, I already knew the answer Monday - I just couldn't really believe it before I got the letter.

The letter was a whole bunch of information about the exchange, that I have to get something that corresponds to 4 (about a D) in my Japanese school to keep being on the program, a whole lot about assurance, money, scholarships etc. It also told me that I have to go on a culture weekend in October, from the 29th to the 31th on Fyn (island in Denmark), which I'm looking very much forward to :D


For the moment I have holiday, which is really nice. I have almost four weeks left, and because I didn't have very much time to study Japanese in the last part of the school year (exams and such), I'm planning to use much of the time with studying Japanese, and then I also have to pack all of my things, because our house has finally been sold. We still need to find a new house/apartment (we have to hurry a bit), but it’s still great! :D

And I will have to look more at the placement papers, which I have to send in before the 1th September. I have to go to the doctor, who has to write a lot of Xs (there's a looong list about my health and if I've had certain illnesses etc.), the dentist (wtf?) and so on.

.. And I'll probably try to make another layout for this blog. But so far, everything about my exchange is great!

Introduction~

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