My name is Cierra M. Hall, class of '05, from our school, Urbana High School. I have been in Saitama, Japan since August 19th 2004 through the Rotary International Youth Exchange program. I decided to go on this exchange because I feel that it is becoming more and more important to foster internatinal understanding and to be able to understand other international viewpoints and life from another culture's viewpoint, living it, instead of just observing it. Another concern of my was the stereotypical image of Americans abroad and how I might do something to help break that and assemble a new, more positive image. When I found out about this program, and it all kind of came together.

At first, in a foreign country, of course its different, but depends somewhat on the open-mindedness of the person as to whether you have a rough time or not. Of course it is a shock, in fact there is a recognized phase called 'Culture Shock' that exchange students go through, and it takes you a good 6 months to fully be able to relax and feel at home in your culture, if not more. You are able to adjust more and more after around 3 months but it really does take time. I wasn't home sick but at the beginning I was a bit frustrated with all the time people spent doing stuff, saying hello's and goodbyes were legnthy and annoying, people talked a lot about nothing, just general misunderstandings like that that I soon got over. Not just that but that's some of the things that I noticed. I feel rather at home in the Japanese school system, Japan/the Japanese/the Japanese school system is probably 99.99% different from people's pre-conceived images, I knew I was glad to be able to experience them for myself and to be able to form a realistic, first-hand opinion about those things.

If you have seen "The Last Samurai" you might know a bit about stereotypical images of the Japanese, the quiet, all-obeying, all-forgiving wife, the selfish, over-masculine, domineering husband and the extremely ironic image of the Japanese women falling for the big strong (stinky and vulgar, but so attractive!) foreigner. These are all classic, chronicalled images that we unconciously pick up through American culture and I didn't realize how deeply these were ingrained on even on me (many people consider themeselves immune to these images, inculding myself, before this exchange). I am so glad I had a chance to break those long-standing, fallacial images.

At school we have 6 periods a day (it depends on what school you go to) and I am taking Computers, Math, English, English Reading, Biology, P.E, Calligraphy, Art and Japanese Translation. I was able to get 9 credits last semester, and probably will again this semester. I go to the library during my free periods and study (or sometimes read the newspaper if the librarian isn't looking.. ehehe). I am a member of my school's Karate Club and am a certified brown belt from the Japanese Karate Federation and if I had 2 weeks longer to spend here in Japan I would become a black belt. But you can't have everything <(^ ^)v We practice until 3:45pm - 7/7:30pm every Tue-Friday and have Saturday Morning practice 9-12am >< . I love it although being punched in the face several hundred times a week, even with a helmet and gloves, still hurts, especially from the high-level black belts, but my kick is awesome I do say so m'self V(^ ^)v

If I could stay here another year with a 2 month break I would definitely do it, but trying to balance club, friends, exploring Japan when I have the time and studying is very difficult (and eventually tiring) and just the fact that you speak another language all the time in itself causes you to get tired really easily for the first 2/3 or 3/4 of your exchange. It feels like you use your head like 3 or 4 times as much just speaking. I love Japanese and consider it ... fairly easy I guess (I'm being serious, its not as bad as its made out to be) .It may sound strange but if you consider the fact that the verbs in Spanish are full of irregularities (not all, just a lot) and English is full of funny ways to conjugate stuff then you may realize that Japanese is, in contrast, easy (in grammatical terms). But I hear from my friends that it depends on how you look at it... when you're angry sometimes you can't pick a language and you just start to sputter mixed words and dance in frustration, very funny looking back on it, amusing when it happens <(^ ^)b

I hope that if you have the chance that you will go on exchange and experience the world first hand, its not just good for you, its good for people who are able to come in contact with you, and for them to see foreigners in a real-life situation.

(Speaking of being able to have a valuable international experience, I really am in debt to the staff here at my school, my Rotary culb, my hosting club, my host families and my friends for being so supportive, forgiving, and accepting, and for giving me the chance to grow and become an entirely different and more mature person. I would not have had the same great exchange without them. Thank you!!!)

- Cierra, Saitama Prefecture, Japan