the end

This was my last week in Japan and I am now headed home. Japan Travel threw me and a few other leaving interns a farewell party and I got to make some wonderful memories with the team. I hope I can come back and work with them again.

I’m so unbelievably grateful for my experience here, this was an absolutely unforgettable trip. Despite living in different countries and being somewhat familiar with having to temporarily live somewhere other than home, I have never adapted so quickly and easily into an environment before. It is so rare to connect so deeply to a country and an environment on such a level. I’m beyond myself thinking about how fast those 6 weeks went, and am heartbroken to leave what I’ve established in such little time. I know everyone always talks about how significant their study abroad experience is and how it’s life-changing and I always thought it was a little over-exaggerated, but I see now that it’s not. This trip is not something I will ever forget, and I’m so grateful to IES and the people at JT.

We spent the last day with Professor Kojima in Tokyo, and went on a river cruise around Tokyo as well as had some yummy Japanese sweets. Professor Kojima really treated us well and made our last day incredibly memorable, it was the best way to say goodbye to our study abroad experiences. I’m very thankful for her effort in planning those activities and showing us around, what a lucky experience we were able to have with her while she was also in Tokyo! It turns out she lives in Chiba as well, so we were also able to take the train back together.

There’s still so much I wanted to do but I can honestly say I did much, much more than I ever thought possible. I thought 6 weeks was a long time but everyone was right to say there’s just to much to do in Tokyo. It was very reminiscent of being in Cairo too, I always say you could go out every single day for a year and still not see everything in the city. And being in Tokyo just made me realize how much I want that for myself in the future after graduation, this trip has definitely played a big part in where I imagine myself living and working after IWU.

I’m also so happy I was able to get to know the other students who were here with IES and just make friends thanks to IES in general.

Now I’ll be going home to Cairo for a few weeks to spend time with my family then return to IWU. Thank you for following my trip and thank you for the opportunity!