Anyway, my point is, is that I'm waiting for something bad to happen. Not just a little thing, but something just exploding in my face, since everything else has gone so well.
Sorry, my purpose was not to worry and rant so much. Rather, my passport with the visa inside has finally been returned!! Apparently it was supposed to he here last Friday, but it's OK, since I still have two weeks. Even though I never like having to look at pictures of me, but the visa and passport and everything are so awesome! Though that's probably just because its my first time even seeing one, let alone owning one. I also got the email with the insurance card I need to print out last week sometime, though I still haven't made it to the library to actually print it out. I'll do that sometime this week. Oh, also, a Certificate of Eligibility came staples in it, on which it states that I'll need to give it to some Immigration Inspector once I arrive, which will probably be when I go through customs. Other things that have gone surprisingly smoothly: my financial aid--though I'm STILL waiting for the JCMU scholarship to be applied; getting into the elective class I wanted; buying all the things I need and making sure it all fits in my two bags; and basically everything else. Well, I know I asked to make sure I know how much I'm getting from the scholarship each semester, but I'm still worried that that's going to blow up in my face. I'm also worried about my checked bag being over the weight limit, but I guess I did have a lot of extra room in my carry on still, so I can divide it all up better.
Basically, studying abroad through JCMU has been the least stressful part of my time in college. So far. And it's the first time that I haven't had to take out so many loans, and that finaid stuff has gone at all smoothly. I still made a ton of phone calls, but in the end, it really wasn't that bad.
All right, can we take a moment here to just completely freak out about the fact that after this short week is over, there is only one more week, and then not this Sunday, but the next, I'll be on a flight to another country? Sure, I've been to Canada--which doesn't count--and I've flown in technically three different small planes on m my senior trip to Disney, but that's it.
I probably already talked about this, but I'm going to again, because this whole thing seems so surreal.
Back in high school, I was was almost a completely different person--both mentally and physically. I didn't have much confidence, and only my stubbornness kept me going, I think. I'm still shy and quiet, but believe it or not, I'm so, so, so so so so much better now. I'm still awkward and am still trying to figure out how to hold better conversations with strangers and acquaintances, but at least I can do it. I don't shy away from talking to complete strangers or people I barely know. Rather, I almost enjoy it, and the feeling that I could make a new friend or something. Since I've been in college, I've gained so much confidence and I feel more at ease with the world, instead of wanting to hide away somewhere with my books. I don't even really look the same, since I've, well, slimmed down a bit, anyway. So, even though I've been interested in Japan and Asia in general for ages now--thank my cousin for getting me into anime a while back, which started it all--and especially after I took Japanese my senior year and loved it, I soft of wanted to someday travel abroad, but I and everyone else never thought it would really happen, or maybe just that I would ever be brave enough to do it. It just wasn't in my personality. So now here I am, just about four years later, my whole self having changed so much to the point that I even transferred to MSU to study languages and am now about to leave the country to study in a place with a completely different language and culture almost on my own. When I graduated high school, who would've thought that is be doing this in as little as four years from then? Certainly not me, though it was always a distant dream. I'd considered going somewhere for Japanese, but I decided to start at a smaller school that wasn't quite so far away. And then, I'm also intending to go to China for the year the year after next. And then I'll graduate that summer, unless by some miracle I'm able to afford changing my Chinese minor into a major, which I would love to do, but...We shall see. In any case, I meant this paragraph to show how little time it takes to change and for plans to change. Sometimes I think about what would've happened if I'd started at MSU or somewhere for languages right away--i probably could've been graduating this year, or have been using these next two years to finish up my Chinese major, if I'd done that. But really, I still love NMU and am so glad I started there--because of the friends I made and the experiences I had that led me to where I am now. Those two years at NMU let me grow and and become who I am now, and allowed me to discover just how much I love languages and that I do like languages other than just Japanese--by taking a year of Chinese. I'm not sure I would've thrived this much if I hadn't started at NMU. And we can't forget that I had my first real job there, too. They were kind and patient enough to deal with me for two years--and it would've been longer if I'd stayed at NMU--starting from when I was still the old me. It was a good first job that allowed me to experience being in the work force a bit. I think I will only improve from here.
Sorry, that ramble went longer than I meant it to. I guess that was about it, anyway, so I'll stop boring everyone now.
I wonder if I'm more excited about getting my passport and visa than I should be...Oh well, I'm a first time traveler, so of course it's exciting!