Facing the future and the changes it brings

Well well well, it's been a while. I haven't forgotten about this, but I've had more pressing matters to attend to and quite frankly my life has been filled with work, Netflix, sleep, and a side of horse polo. There hasn't been any time to write and I've not had the need to make time for that. Thus, I'm in no way surprised that I haven't written anything since last year. I've been working on my MSc in Social and Applied Psychology at University of Kent, and I am more than happy to say that it is now over. The year was filled with stress and work, but I managed to squeeze in a ridiculous number of flights (and a few train journeys) around Europe — for work.

Over the past 12 months I have been to at least Switzerland, Finland (x5), France, Netherlands (x2), Belgium, and Japan. Out of those, only France, Belgium and Japan have been holidays, and about five days around first of May in Finland. Everything else, volunteering with YFU or WAGGGS. Safe to say I'm quite done with the commute from Canterbury to Heathrow Airport, haha.

Itsukushimajinja in Miyajima, Hiroshima

As a result of my last trip to Japan in late June I decided to do something I've been thinking about doing for a few years now; apply for a job in Japan. After all, I didn't get funding for a PhD and if I'm having a gap year, might as well do something I've thought of doing but have never really had the time for. I spent a weekend writing job applications and got an interview for one job, the other day they called me offering a position and here we are. 

I'm moving to Kanazawa in Ishikawa prefecture at the end of November and will be living and working there for a year teaching English.

It feels weird to be going back home. I'm thrilled, of course, but at the same time a little bit terrified. It's been 6 years and 156 days since I left for exchange and a lot has happened since. My exchange was in no way a walk in the park, and in a way I am really glad that I had no prior knowledge of the challenges that it brought to me. However, as I've said a thousand times before, I don't regret it. It was one hell of a ride and I wouldn't be who I am today if it weren't for my exchange. The past years of living in the UK have of course taught a lot more, but living in a foreign country where you don't speak the language during your formative years is bound to change you.

I have no illusions that I wouldn't get a culture shock this time — I'm pretty sure I will, I mean, living and working in Japan after being a student for the past 15 years and basically having very little responsibilities is going to be a shock. As is the fact that Kanazawa actually gets SNOW during the winter. However, I'd like to think that after being an exchange student, having travelled back three times and having lived in another country for four years, it would be a little bit easier. The challenges will be different, even though this time I won't be expected to be social once I get home, I'm also going to be in charge of everything myself. There will probably be times when I wish I could just be back in England where I know exactly how things work and I feel at home, but I'm looking forward to the challenges. It will be weird to be at work on the 24th of December — at least I get the Christmas abroad I've always wanted, haha.

I'm not making any promises about regular updates, we all know those would probably not be fulfilled anyway. I'm going to try to update regularly though, but we'll see. In terms of language... I don't know, more than likely to be English, but who knows if I get a sudden urge to brush up my Finnish? (unlikely).

I'm going back to Finland for over two months in a couple of weeks time and it's going to be the longest I've been there since summer 2015. It's going to be weird and I'm already dreading the darkness of October and November, but at least at the end of November I'll be heading back home to Japan. ...and it is necessary to be back there, I need to get my visa sorted and all those fun formalities you need to do prior to moving to a non-EU country. It's gonna be a lot of paperwork, but hey, I'm going home!

xx,
Kiia