Selling artwork!

So I have decided to begin selling my artwork to help fund my study abroad trip to Kansai Gaidai in August! So far I have gotten over 10 orders in ONE DAY! I am beyond thankful and excited, for money is hard to come by these days. I am planning on traveling a TON my year in Japan, and I am hoping to save over $3000 for my trip, and I only have 5 months to do so! If you all are interested please feel free to check out my artwork page on Facebook! Hopefully this will help me get some money saved, plus working at my job all summer full time! If you check out my page, please like and share my page!

I RECEIVED MY ACCEPTANCE LETTER!

I FINALLY received the dreaded letter, and was ecstatic to see that I was accepted to the Kansai Gaidai study abroad program! I am now on the second part of the study abroad application process. I now have to send materials directly to Kansai Gaidai and attend a pre-departure orientation in April... Which is just around the corner! This whole emotional roller coaster ride has all been worth it. It's hard to grasp the concept that I will be in Japan in only 5 MONTHS... that's the blink of an eye! Now I need to focus on getting the proper materials sent to Kansai Gaidai and making all A's in my current courses. I will post my pre-departure materials on the blog after I attend! I also need to find some time to post another helpful tips post rather than these quick posts about my personal life! On an end note, I was introduced to this amazing video through a friend and I thought I should share (: Please leave me comments and suggestions on what I should post about next! I'm thinking about some interesting culture shock stories!

KANSAI GAIDAI Application!

Hello again! So as you all should know I am planning to study abroad at Kansai Gaidai in August of this year (2014). I am planning on being there for an entire year, and let me tell you I AM SO EXCITED. I feel like it is my first time going to Japan again! Here is an awesome video that really gets me pumped up! The campus is absolutely beautiful and HUGE in Japan's standards. Anyways let me explain the whole application process (which is quite tedious). Firstly I attend Appalachian State University in North Carolina, and Kansai Gaidai is a partner school with my university, so my application process is based on a partner school application and not through third parties like ISEP. first and foremost, DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. I began the application TWO months before the deadline, and I turned it in a week before it was due. The process can get overwhelming and disorganized, to keep all my paperwork and forms organized I purchased a binder and tab dividers that were labeled Kansai Gaidai info- where I kept the school brochure and any other information pertaining to the school, Area Info- where I kept all info about Osaka and Kyoto such as places I want to visit or train info, Application Materials- where I kept all the physical application materials such as forms I needed to sign or get signed, Course approvals*- This is the most important one, course approvals allow you to get credit for the courses you take abroad. In this section I had the printout of all the courses offered and the course approval sheet. To get courses approved you must meet with all the chairpersons of that department and have them read the course descriptions and make a decision if they will give you credit, and what the credit will be worth. I personally had to meet with 6 different chairpersons (that require appointments) as well as my adviser multiple times. this tab is the absolute most important. It is by far the most time consuming part of the application process, and once you can overcome this you are golden. 

The other parts of the application process includes a few essays (that were extremely simple), and your basic information. It was time consuming, and to get it in on time it requires planning and organization. My study abroad advisers warned me that a lot of the students that planned to study abroad wouldn't get their application turned in on time, therefore they were not even considered. But no worries over here, I got my application turned in A WEEK before it was due, and they told me I am almost guaranteed to get in.... but you never know! I am still nervous and I keep thinking "what will I do if I don't get in??". I guess I will just have to wait and find out when I hear the feedback! 

Next post I am planning to do will be about travel tips and Japanese culture tips to remember! 

PLEASE leave comments/questions about anything! I would also like to know what you like and what you didn't like about the blog!