By Tiara Clarissa
This time I will tell you about a month being “the real exchange student”. Even though I arrived in Japan on October 1st. But I just felt the real Japanese life on October 16th
October 16th, 2021 was the first day I met my host family. Previously we only contacted through line only, and had never met face to face. Honestly, that day I felt scared, tense, happy, nervous, all mixed up.
Happy because I finally felt the real Japanese life, afraid because I was afraid that it would be difficult to communicate because of the language barrier and afraid to do something that would be unpleasant for them, tense and nervous because that was the first time we met face to face.
However, it turned out that all my fear, nervousness, and tension were replaced with excitement and pleasure. Now, I am very grateful to be part of this family. I was really shown Japanese life and culture from everyday life to Japanese traditions on certain days. They really thought I was a child and didn’t discriminate, even though I was a little awkward at first.
Long story short, I started school on October 25th, 2021. At that time, it was still difficult for me to make friends with my classmates, only 1 or 2 people were my friends to chat with. The language barrier is the main reason this happens.
Praise to God, I have been able to overcome the language barrier a little. Now, I’m familiar with my classmates and we can communicate smoothly even though I still stutter. So far, I’ve had a lot of experiences and changes during this month. There are so many, it will not be enough if I tell one by one.
I will close this story with an earthquake that I just experienced. October 17th, 2021 at 2:54 am, I woke up feeling my mattress shaking. Not as big as the first time but quite surprising for me who is not used to it. I hope that in the next story, there will be no other earthquake stories. That’s all from me, thank you ^^
