Reflection

My first semester as a college student has officially ended, and I am currently home for the holidays. My decision to come home for the holidays was quite sudden and unplanned. Considering the local weather and my health conditions back then, I decided to go back so that I could recover myself physically and mentally. Coming home urges me to re-evaluate myself and and see how much progress I've made, which is what I'll write about now.

As I look back, I realized that I gained numerous memorable and unforgettable experiences during the last 4 months. I went through a lot of things that I would not be able to experience if I decided to study in my home country. I met the most wonderful people with the most beautiful minds and interesting personalities here, not only Japanese or Indonesians, but people from across the globe, whether it be professors, fellow students, seniors, and the local people. Since practically I had to do almost everything by myself, I had the opportunity to become a more independent person. Ordinary daily stuff like going to the doctor's and reserving a bus ticket is not easy when you have to do it in a foreign language that you've just learned for a few months.

Several of my biggest achievements, I think, is being able to speak and read conversational Japanese, and being able to cook a proper meal, something that I have never been able to do during high school. I love the fact that I am able to speak in a second foreign language; though I do wish I'd become more fluent. Living in Japan encourages me to speak the language a lot more, and I do hope I'll make more Japanese friends in the future in order to increase my language abilities and to get to know Japanese people a lot better. I also had the privilege (or so I call it) to read a Japanese manga firsthand in its original language without having to wait 6 months or more for the translation to come out. Even though I couldn't understand every single word, and I still used a dictionary while reading, but overall I understood the story, and I couldn't be more satisfied.

During high school, I've always dreaded cooking. No matter how many times my parents taught me, I never managed to master that certain skill. Also, during my senior year I was too busy studying so I didn't have time to spend in the kitchen (Nerd alert!). I never thought of studying abroad back then, so I didn't consider it was necessary. But since I decided to study in APU I had to be able to cook no matter what. During my first weeks I had completely no idea of what to cook since I couldn't cook a nice homemade dish and all I could do was just fry stuff like meat and eggs. But thankfully a senior taught me a bit about cooking and I started experimenting in my dishes, chopping veggies and mixing food altogether. Slowly but surely I began to like cooking, and it eventually became a new hobby.

All this made me realize how lucky I am to be able to have the opportunity to study abroad. If I had chosen to pursue my undergraduate studies in Indonesia, I wouldn't have gotten this far. I'm really looking forward to what awaits me in the next semester.