IM HERE!

So...I'm here! After a loooong time flying, I've managed to get myself to a hostel for two nights and then moved in to my dorm (which you may already know about...funny story I'll get to it).

The flight to Doha was pretty awesome - made a friend and spent the hours chatting, drinking free alcohol and watching movies. YEY. (Divergent was a good watch...as was The Other Woman). So by the time I had to change, I was feeling pretty good. Then came the second flight,  the longer one...9 hours sat on my todd unable to get to sleep, and eventually putting on The Fault in Our Stars...bloody hell bad choice for my state of mind (though the film was really good)! Eventually the time came and we landed at Kansai International! Phew.

As soon as I was off that plane and making my way to the hostel, I was buzzing to use my Japanese and see Japan. Got a little chat in with the taxi driver which was cool (I was just happy I was being understood). Having never been to a hostel before, at first it was a bit daunting but I met another friend there in my room and managed to Skype a few people from home! Jet lag has not been as big of an issue as I thought it would. From other people's stories, I was expecting to be randomly falling asleep during the day and have a complete lack of energy - which would have made sense considering just how little I slept on the plane. BUT, it was not too bad at all.

However, that does now mean that I cannot blame jet lag for my stupidity and goofiness. Damn.

Which brings me onto my taxi incident, going back to before - basically I moved into my hostel during the night, therefore did not manage to take in my surroundings whilst in the taxi....bear this in mind before judging me haha! So I get there and at one point I try to ring a taxi for the next day to my Uni dorm (the only thing I hadn't sorted beforehand). ..Turns out the dorm is literally opposite the youth hostel I was at. Imagine if I had been successful with the taxi and it turned up...there's me asking to go to my dorm and he would have driven out the hostel's drive, across the road and onto another drive. The embarrassment. Luckily, I got nowhere with the taxi over the phone as you had to book it on the day (which took me a while to work out that's actually what the lady was trying to tell me...). In my defence, she didn't explain in the clearest way. "Call me once more."  I'm thinking....You want me to call you back? But she was lovely and helpful and..we got there in the end.

So here I am! First night in my dorm and already met lots of cool people. みんなはやさしいーー！
More to follow :)

I'll leave you with this picture I took in the youth hostel, just chillin in the lobby.

またね！

Welcome to Nat Stan in Japan!!

Alllllrighty then! So never done this blog malarky before so bear with me (talking especially to my uni buddies who've created awesome blogs that I can't match in the slightest. You guysssss I miss you all my lovelies) - but giving it a shot for my year abroad! 

So I'm a third year language student at the University of East Anglia (oh UEA) studying Japanese and currently waiting to jet off on my year abroad in Kyoto, to study at Ritsumeikan Univeristy! There are quite a few of us going to Japan, dotted about all over the place - hoping to visit people once we're settled - such as Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo, Sapporo, and more that my tired brain can't remember right now. Mega excited for all my Japanese class buddies and hoping to meet up. Definitely paying a visit to Tokyo to go to Disneyland (well..it's Tokyo so I want to go generally but...Disneyland). Yeah, people who know me know that I love all things Disney and this is something I will be doing at some point during my year abroad - my year abroad friends in Japan (Tokyo especially), will hopefully be up for that! 

Anyway, it's been a lot of organising, with more to come but it's all going to be so worth it - and it's sooo close! As you can imagine there are the usual stresses surrounding travel abroad (not that I've done a lot..), but a few added ones considering this is a study abroad trip and we are the first at UEA to go to Japan in particular, eek.

However, seeing as I've started this blog fairly far into my year abroad prep, there isn't much left for me do to at this point! YAY. My list currently stands as follows:

• Apply for Visa
• Pick up Visa
• Say my goodbyes and cry a bit ...a lot.

At least that's how I can see it going ha! So yeah, introduction to my year abroad blog which I hope will be a good read for those interested. :)

Hakuna Matata, people. (Two of my fave things: Sunset Orange and...well you know)