Hi Everybody!
Its bee a while ago since I wrote here. For those who don’t know yet, I am not in Japan and I will not go this year.
Where shall I start?
3 days before my departure everything went wrong: an earthquake and a tsunami. We did not immediately knew the concequences and where still hopeful. Saturday afternoon we received a call from YFU that the departure was postponed for a week. Later this became a month.
We received a new departure date, april 27. When we learned more and more about the situation in Japan, particularly about the radio activity, we asked ourselves if it was realistic to go. Especially the area where I would go. Every day there were a number of serious earthquakes and the news about the Fukushima nuclear power plants but was not getting better.
Me and Zie, the other girl who would also go, started talking on facebook with the other students who were also awaiting whether we were allowed to go. We were also offered the possibility to attend the half year program that starts in August. or to go to another country. Some people had already decided to go to another country. Some people launched the idea to go next year. Eventually there was again delay. Some countries set the departure on April 27, other countries decided not to go. The information we got from YFU was moderate so we were in much uncertainty.
We were offered to cancel the exchange. When we did that before march 30 we would have have no costs. My parents spoke with the parents of Zie and Daniel. Zie and her mother canceled already but Daniel decided to go. He would be to old next year and he would stay in Osaka, far away from the disaster area.
Zie and I wanted to know if we could attend the next year program, we would not be too old but we would be in our HAVO exam year. But that was feasible. First YFU told us that would be ok, a week later we were too old. It was not clear what the options were. Besides that Chiba was too close to the disaster area. Well, finally we decided to cancel.
In the mean time we contacted AFS, the other exchange organisation and the told us I could attend their year program starting in August. We registered for their program but due to all uncertainties the August program was reduced to a half year program.
We asked if AFS would ask the Japanese AFS organization for an age exception for us and they managed to arrange an exception so we will go next year !!!!!
Zie and I both registered for next year. I am so happy that AFS arranged our exchange but I am sorry that I possibly get another guest family since this is not YFU. I am happy that I will travel together with Zie. We are both in this situation and can luckily support each other.
Daniel decided to go and has left on April 27 and is now in Osaka. Daniel, when you read this: HAVE A LOT OF FUN!!! and I am curious for your stories 😀
It took a while since I wrote here but that was mainly because I had to pick up everything at school again. It was quite difficult to go back to school and return to normal life, but fortunately Gerdi, Ida and Martine took good care of me, haha, thank you very much!
In my mind I was already in Japan .. Fortunately we now have May holiday and I have finished a lot of school work. So now I feel a lot better and it’s almost summer again!
And now?!
During summer holiday I will focus on Japanese lessons and prepare for my exams in HAVO5 and my new opportunity in Japan. I learned to stay focused on school for 100% until I really go to Japan. I expect everything will fall in place next year.
Oh.. I almost forgot the most important news
After returning from Japan we would also like to have an exchange student for a year. But since my exchange is delayed for a year we decided to have an exchange student this year. We asked AFS and they said no Japanese students would come this year but AFS said to have at least an Asian student. Soon we will receive information so that makes me very curious.
I expect not to post that much in the coming weeks since I am very busy with school. But I will of course write about my AFS preparations for next year!
