Location

America in Florida in a city called Palm Bay.

Area, climate, and environment

It’s between a city and countryside. You can easily go everywhere by car. There is no problem as you live there. It’s near Orlando which is an urban city area. It takes you an hour by car to get there.

It’s warm almost the whole year, but it will be a little cooler in the winter. Some people wear T-shirts the whole year if it’s not that cold. I don’t think you need a coat or jacket. From May through November, it is hurricane season, so, actually, I got to face two hurricanes during my exchange year. For those days, school was closed for a few days,and most stores were closed earlier than usual. Also, there are lots of palm trees literally everywhere.

[The left picture is taken in my school. The right picture is taken at the parking lot at the grocery store.]

Pre-Program Language Program Information

I didn’t have a language program before my study abroad started, because I decided to stay in Japan to take an exam, such as Eiken.

My American HIgh School Information

・ I went to Bayside High School which is a public high school.

・ Many students from different states or countries, such as, South America, or North America area. The school is fun and exciting. There is a military class, so you can see students who wear military uniforms every Friday. There is a “tryout” when you want to join sports’ club.

・ There are 1859 students in total, and there are 20-30 of them in each of my classes.
[ The left side picture is in front of school. The right side one is in the gym when we had a pep rally. The bottom One is at the football stadium in school. We had a powder puff in which girls play football, in contrast, boys cheer girls, In simple terms, they were switching their usual act. ]

・ My school started at 8:30 a.m. and ended at 3:35 p.m on Monday through Thursday, on only Friday, it ends at 2:15 p.m. I had 7 periods everyday, and on Monday per class is 45 minutes, on Tuesday through Thursday is 50 minutes, on Friday, it was 36 minutes for each class.

・ I was in Junior [11th grade]. My school schedule was as follows.

[Tuesday through Thursday, it is different on Monday and Friday.]

・ 1st Period – I learned about basic and specific knowledge of Forensic science, took notes, and watched videos about crime scenes. Some forensic activities, such as printing fingerprints, dusting fingerprints, sketching crime scenes, and observing dead animal’s bodies. It was such a fun class.

・ 2nd Period – I studied basic knowledge of music, such as music notes, how to read music sheets, and participated in 3 musical events in a year.

・ 3rd Period – I played basketball, worked out, nothing in particular.

・ 4th Period – I learned about some art techniques, and made art by using those. We had an art show once a year.

・ 5th Period – I learned about the U.S. Law., and took notes. I did a mock trial as one of the class activities. It was hard but fun. You can compare American and Japanese law.

・ 6th Period – I learned about American history, took notes, watched movies and took quizzes.

・ 7th Period – I read stories, and studied literature.

HOMEWORK

I usually didn’t have homework in most of my classes. However, at the beginning of the year, it took me to get used to being in classes. Especially those homeworks which I got in English and Law classes. In case of Law class, I had assignments that I got to answer some quizzes. It was pretty hard at first, because there are tons of academic words about Law. Besides, I had lots of assignments which I had to read literary stories. Then, I had a quiz from the stories. If I didn’t get what stories are about, it would be impossible to get correct answers. When I had challenges, I always asked teachers, or friends. They were always welcome to answer my questions, so they were helpful for me to improve my English skill.

FAVORITE and LEAST FAVORITE SUBJECTS

・ My favorite subject was Forensic Science. The teacher is nice like he is interested in other cultures, so I got to have lots of conversations. The class was fun, and interesting. Luckily, it was easy to get good grades. Activities were fun as I explained before.

・ My least favorite subject was English. First of all, it wasn’t fun, and it was hard to get good grades. It took a while to get used to. I had to study really hard.

・ I participated in some club activities in school, such as, tennis during spring season, Student government in a whole year, and Bayside Bear Buddies. I intended to be on the softball team, but I couldn’t get through the test to be a team member. However, the tennis coach allowed me to be in the team even though I didn’t have any tennis experience. Surprisingly, at the district tournament, I played the game for over 3 hours. As you know, I got some skills throughout the tennis season. In the student government, we had an interaction with elementary school kids, preparing for Homecoming, because of that, I got to get a free ticket ! Moreover, we cleaned the beach and did food donations.

・ Positive aspects –
I can make friends who have various backgrounds, lots of lively people so you will have fun in school, there are so many students interested in Japanese culture , such as anime , and Japanese daily lives. They are very nice to me, so it was easy for me to have conversations with them.

・ Negative aspects –
it’s hard to be in sports team if you want to try new sports you’ve never played before, because there are things which is called Tryouts that you will do test to show your abilities, if you don’t have enough skills to be in the team, you won’t be able to be in it. My school allowed us to use our smartphones in the classes, so, at the beginning of the year, it was difficult to make friends, it’s hard to talk to them, although when I talked to them, they didn’t talk back to me.

My Host Family Information

・ Hopefully, I didn’t have the opportunity to change my host family. IN my opinion, I would prefer not to change the host family, because if you changed your host family, you wouldn’t be able to have a deep relationship like a real family, besides you might face some cultural differences between each host family.

・ I had 6 members of my host family: Host mom, dad, sisters- 8 and 6 years old, a brother – 3 , double placement – from Germany. Host mom was a project manager working from home , dad- an office worker, sisters and brother were in school , and the sisters were in competitive dance school out of school.

I can say my host mom was the best host mom in the world. She was always by my side, gave me kind words, cheered me a lot, made me a confident woman. She used to be in the military, so she had been living in Japan for 3 years. Due to that, she was really interested in Japanese culture. I was very comfortable to be in her family, because everytime when I explained the culture, she always seemed to love to know them. When I had school events, such as chorus concerts, tennis games, she always came to cheer me as my best biggest fans. I’m sure my exchange year could have been such a great experience without her. I appreciate her from the bottom of my heart.

My host dad was truly a great person. He made me laugh a lot by making jokes. Besides, he was a big fan of sports. I’m also really interested in sports. So, we had good conversations to talk about American and Japanese sports. One of my dreams that I want to come true in America was watching all professional American sports in person. He gave me opportunities to make my dream come true. I will never forget those memories that I made at each sports game with him.

The three kids were very friendly, they always talked to me, and played with me, so it was easy to be involved in the family. There were some dance competitions in a year. They were held in other states. At that time, we had a trip to get there, so I was able to have extra time to spend with my sisters.

The girl from Germany was also an exchange student, she spoke English fluently from the beginning, so it was good for me to get English skill sooner, and I got to know not only American culture but also German culture.

・ My home environment was extremely comfortable, such as, I got to talk to them anytime. For instance, we had been having dinner together at one same table, and one of us always started to ask everybody some questions clockwise. We always started talking about what your favorite part of the day was. Although it might sound like small conversation, it absolutely will help not only your English skill, but also having a good relationship with them.

・ I was in the living room 24/7 except when I was sleeping. I was watching TV shows with them, playing outside with kids, playing card games, cooking and doing everything with them. Of course, at first, it was quite challenging to share most of my time with them, because of my lack of English skill. Sometimes, I didn’t understand what they were talking about, because I didn’t have a lot of vocabulary, so I used a translator to understand. However, by the end of the year, I could think that it was a good decision that I had spent my time together. Spending more time and communicating with them definitely makes my year amazing.

I would say the relationship between my host family and me was pretty good. I tried my best to have a deep relationship with them and currently, I really miss them. I’m homesick of them. Lol

・ I was living in a place about 10 minutes away by car from the school I went to. In the morning, on the way to school, my host mom dropped us off after my siblings took their school. On the way home, I rode a school bus.

About the Culture in the USA

・ It took me about a month to adjust to American culture, and to get used to American food was the most challenging part for me. My host mom usually cooks, so it was really helpful to get used to American food culture.

・ I got homesick because until I got used to everything, culture difference, I didn’t understand what was going on, because everything I faced was new.

・ Language wasn’t a huge problem, but I compared my English to my double placement, because she was speaking English fluently, so she was easily involved in the family. It was kinda stressful for me at the beginning of the year, to be honest.

・ As I explained before, my host mom’s cooking was pretty good, so it was good to get used to American food culture. I was struggling with what I was supposed to eat for lunch on weekdays at school.Though, my family bought a frozen meal to bring for lunch at school, and I made them, by myself, and put them in the soup pot. Then, there was no problem with it.

[chicken alfredo and garlic bread, toasts and sausages for breakfast]

・ Similarities-
Doing your things by yourself, taking actions, being positive, proactive.

・ Differences-
how to raise your own children, making my breakfast and lunch by myself during school days. getting along with the whole family members.I meant they often got to meet each other.

・ Saying my opinion clearly if you have something you want to say was quite challenging for me. I think in Japan, there is a culture that you don’t have to speak your mind clearly in public. So, it was a big difference I faced throughout this year.

・ I overcame it by talking to everybody, anybody who I met in the year. I guess to keep doing that, gradually, I got confidence by myself, and could improve my English skill.

・ I brought some Japanese candies, foods, and made some JApanese foods over there, so it was a great thing to build relationships with my family and friends. People asked me about Anime, Fashion, Culture, Law, Government and History.

・ I wish I knew Anime, the Government and School system, so that I could have made more friends.

About My Personal Growth through Study Abroad

・ There are various people in the world, various ways of thinking. My world was small. I considered and got a new way of thinking from the people I met this year.

・ I realized that people are around me throughout this year. I’m not alone. I can’t live without them. I should appreciate them, like showing some behaviors. Also, I recognized how important the people and facilities around me are.

・ I think every challenge I will face is going to be fine, because I overcame this year. I would love to tell my experiences people how different between America and Japan, and I want them to feel happy to listen to my experiences. Moreover, if I see foreigners in public, I want to try to talk to them to get them to enjoy their levis in Japan. I could enjoy my exchange year because many people talked to me, they made a great environment for me to feel comfortable.

・ I will try everything I can in the rest of my high school life, I would like to tell about my experiences to my friends and teachers.

About Pre-exchange reflections

・ Getting information from seniors was very useful.

・ I wish I had taken an exam such as Toeic, or Eiken before going. If so, I could know how my English skill has grown.

・ I guess if I had more vocabulary before going abroad, it would be easier to understand what people are talking about. Besides, knowing more about Japanese national holidays to share as one of Japanese culture would be good.

Advice for Your Juniors

・ First of all, I want to say to Stay busy, be positive, have a smile, if you have any challenges, you should ask anybody to help, there are tons of people who are welcome to help you! So, you can trust them ! Also, you can try everything as much as you can. If you have something you want to do in the States, you should tell your host family or local coordinator. One year sounds like long, but it is actually very short. So, do your best, not to have any regrets during your study abroad!

Second of all, I will say before going abroad, you should search for colleges you are interested in, also you should participate in their open campus. That will be definitely helpful after your study abroad!

Thank you for reading my report !