This summer I plan to study abroad through my university and I’ve narrowed down my choices to two places and subjects: Kyoto, Japan and Dusseldorf, Germany. On Friday 2/9 I submitted my paperwork and deposit check for the Kyoto program, which is Japanese Culture in Film, and was told I’m fourth on the waitlist. The application deadline is April 13th so hopefully four people drop by then!) The office did say that I could also apply for the Germany program - Germany Under Hitler’s Third Reich - since the dates for the two don’t overlap so I will try to do that this week. I’d rather go to Japan but traveling overseas at all and getting course credit for it would be fine. Actually, if I study in Germany, I can use the language skills I’ve been learning over the past year and speak a second tongue in the wild!
Wherever I end up, I plan to chronicle my progress in the process on this blog. So look for more posting activity in April and the months leading up to the summer months. And I’ll try to change the title appropriately when I definitely find where I’m going if anywhere at all.
During class today, I was thinking of the similarities between the two countries. Both were Axis nations and I guess both have a fair number of smokers among their populations. However, there are also notable differences - the first of which is the standing of each nation’s currency with respect to the US dollar. The dollar right now buys about .73 Euros while it exchanges for about 120 yen. German uses the Roman alphabet and SVO (subject-verb-object) sentence structure while Japanese uses pictograms and an SOV structure. I guess that’s just my mind wandering while I’m supposed to be concentrated on logic homework. Bis spater!/Ja ne!