Author Archives: xvz5020

Update

Hey guys, I promised I’d make an update entry, so here goes!

I have everything [almost] finalized. I bought the plane ticket and I’ll be flying to Tokyo, Japan on August 30th, and arriving the 31st. I will be leaving Japan on December 19th. I also completed all the required forms (except visa) for study abroad! Everything was due on June 1st and I mailed it in a few days before that, but all the forms weren’t processed until June 3rd! They prioritized on processing the Bank Letter first since it was required for the COE form (required for the visa later in August.) I should have started all these forms a long time ago. Luckily, I didn’t have any problems so I’m glad for that. I also applied for the Field Placement Program, which will [hopefully] match me up with an organization so I can go in once a week to ‘work’ and observe. I heard good things about it so hopefully it’ll be something meaningful for me as well.
Another news is that I applied for the Gilman Scholarship back in April and I finally received an email from them, and they’ll be supporting me! I also got a letter from the Bridging Scholarship, but no luck. 
The next thing for me to do is to contact my consulate and wait until I receive the COE form to complete for the visa! Everything will be going on 2-3 weeks before the start of the program!
Alright, that’s all for now! The next time I update will either be a few days before I fly to Japan or when I’m in Tokyo!
See you next time!

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Introduction – Study Abroad in Tokyo, Japan!

Hey guys! I’ll start off this blog with an introductory entry.

My name is Xue Wei Zhang but everyone calls me Davy. I’ll be studying abroad in Japan in Fall of 2010! I got accepted into the Tokyo, Japan: Society & Culture program. The host university will be Kanda University. I have been looking forward to going to Japan and learning about its language and culture, and this is a dream come true.

There are so many things to do before I can fly to Japan! I have multiple forms to fill out and turn in. I’ll also have to get the visa. I think I have until June 1st to get everything turned in, so as the semester’s over I will begin to take care of all these forms.

There is only one thing I really worried about (well, maybe two). Studying abroad in Japan is VERY expensive. I’m fortunate to have receive some fundings, but it is still not enough! So that’s why I have been applying to scholarships and waiting on their response. Anyway, the second thing I worry about is my experience there. I don’t really know what to expect, and plus, my Japanese isn’t that great! I only took two semesters of Japanese and I haven’t been practicing! So I’m not too confident about my speaking skills (I guess I’ll be practicing Japanese in the summer!). But then again, I have always heard about people who go to a new country and pick up the language fairly quickly…so I’m hoping it’d be the same for me as well.

Anyhow, I won’t keep talking about boring stuff. Hopefully, I will be able to post about some really really really interesting stuff about Japan.

See you next time!


Location: University Park, Pennsylvania