Years later, when I found out that I was accepted to the program in Tokyo, I felt so excited! That summer, I spent all of my time exploring the busy districts of Tokyo, eating delicacies like Japanese crepes and sake don (salmon rice bowls) and improving my language skills in all of my fun classes.
A little over a year later, when I got to college, I knew I wanted to study abroad at every possible opportunity. I have been taking French classes since first grade, so for years, it has always been a dream of mine to visit Paris. This past spring, my dream came true! For two and a half months, I lived with a host family and took classes with other students from my college. The scariest part of this study abroad? Everything was in French. My professors wouldn’t speak any English to us, and my host family only knew a handful of English words. Even though living in such a French-intensive environment took some getting used to, my language skills improved more during this study abroad than it did during my other 14 years of French classes.
After studying in Paris, I wanted to go somewhere where I could really spend time focusing on my philosophy major. I am majoring in philosophy because I love reading and writing, and above all, thinking about big questions. Right now, I am taking classes at the University of Edinburgh, and I can’t imagine a better place to immerse myself in philosophy for the next few months. A fun fact is that David Hume, who is considered one of the greatest philosophers of all time, was born in Edinburgh, attended school at the University of Edinburgh and even died in Edinburgh.
