I've been quite sentimental lately about Japan and my trip there last year. Isn't it always like that? How you really start appreciating how good something actually was, sometime later after it happened? I love looking at photos from there, and I can really remember the feeling I felt when I took it. The smells, the sounds, the air, even my mood that day. Many of these photos are from around Kyoto, both from Gion - the traditional geisha district - and the Fushimi Inari shrine, and the days we spent there were easily some of the highlights of the trip.

I'm definitely going back there someday, Japan is by far my favorite country and I felt so at home when I lived there. I miss my host family as well, the district I lived in, my class at the school, evenings in Shinjuku, the trains, the polite people. All those stereotypical things that don't get enough credit for how amazing they actually are. Everyone should go to Japan at least once and experience that, it's absolutely marvelous.

 

Okay so by the time I write this, it's exactly one week left until I'll board a plane to England and won't come back. At least not for a while.

Maybe you've already read it here, maybe you're new and haven't, but that doesn't matter really. Because even if no one will read it I still have to write it, because the surreal level of this is pretty high right now.

I'm moving to England in a week. To a borough called Torbay in the south west county of Devon, where I'll study for (hopefully) three years. But I'm going to start with this first year to see what the frick I've gotten myself into. The purpose of this slightly spontaneous blog post was mainly just to give you - and myself - a little update about this whole thing. And to share some thoughts that have been keeping me company lately. The first one is pretty simple;

Nothing at all. And no, I don't mean it in a dramatic and philosophic emo kind of way, but in a what-is-going-on-please-help-me-way. I simply just don't get it. And it's a bit scary actually, knowing that all your friends have gone back to school and their lives keep moving on and you're just sitting there in your room, asking about their day and staring at the freakishly large suitcase, whose lack of content adds itself to your mental to do list.


I'm one of those very human kind of humans. Change freaks me out, and that's literally what everything's done lately. Even if I don't fully get what I'm about to do, it still feels like the end of something. Not my childhood really, but up until now everything has, regardless of small changes, been the same. It has always been my same old house, same parents, basically the same friends, same bus, same grandma, same town, same meatballs. But what'll happen when those kind of things won't be around anymore?

Those things have always been like a safe ground for me. Not having them in my everyday life equals telling me the world is shaped like a pineapple and the clouds are actually giant cats (let's just face it; we are all thinking about the same picture right now). Or something like that. I'm terrible at putting feelings into words when it come to this so I'm sorry if I just unintentionally lied to you. :(
But it's the exact same feeling you have when you wake up after a nap, not knowing where you are or what's going on. Imagine living with that constant feeling for weeks, and you get what my summer break has been like.

Don't get me wrong - I'm crazy excited about this. And I'm sorry if I make it sound like I'm an ungrateful, spoiled little brat. I'm really not. I know this is an amazing opportunity that I've got and I'm so incredibly thankful that my parents are so supportive. To me this is a huge deal, and I think no one can really blame me for being a bit scared.


But one of the things I'm looking forward to the most is definitely the fresh start I'm going get. I feel like I need it right now as well, so it's very convenient that I'm going to leave the country soon and move in with a new family (which by the way is the loveliest people ever, couldn't be happier with my host family) and start a new school and meet new people and grow as a person and allow myself to be happy and all that. I'm sure this will be great, especially after I've processed it a little.

I'm also going to keep this blog updated from now on. I have an idea about how I want this little space of mine to be, and lately I've learned that I actually don't have to do everything the way I expect people wanting me to do it. For a while I actually believed that I'd lost my personality completely, but apparently it still exists so I'm quite happy about that. One of my personal goals that I've set for myself is to start doing things the way I want to do them. And it is with this mind setting that the world suddenly appears to be so much bigger. And in colour. And brighter. I'm looking forward to start doing things this way, and my blog is definitely on my priority list when it comes to that. I'll do better this time, and I have a good feeling about it. :)

So now I'm going to show you something I should have done way earlier... Dramatic, huh?
No but seriously, I think it's finally time that I show you pictures from my trip to England with dad during autumn 2013! The main reason why we went in the first place wasn't necessarily just for fun, but visiting the school I'll start study at this autumn! But that was definitely fun and it was after this trip we decided to do this for real, and now everything is sort of done. I'll move this year. All by myself. To England.

Here is some pictures from the area I lived in. It sure brings back memories!