For a quarter, I went to study abroad at UCSB. For me, studying abroad was more than just a three-month experience in my 4 years at university. It was an experience of a lifetime where you can have so many different kinds of opportunities that may not be available to you wherever you are now. You learn so much about yourself, and it would help you prepare for anything in the near future. Studying abroad was one of the best things that have happened in my life.
I still vividly remember the day I arrived at LAX, taking a bus to Santa Barbara. I was so nervous—still had no confidence to go to a place where my parents weren’t there and to go to a country where I’ve never lived a school life. I was so worried that taking classes would be a difficult task, I wasn’t going to make many friends, and living in a dorm would be difficult, and if I was doing to adhere to the UCSB atmosphere well. The reason why I was so worried about living in the States was that I didn’t like my experience in the US before when I visited my family. When I was younger, I went to church and was so excited to make friends, but no one wanted to be my friend, probably because I was mostly Asian. However, that didn’t stop me from going to the US to study the things that I’m very interested in.
I may have been very nervous to start with, but I was lucky that my dorm-mates were the nicest people ever. The good thing about social media these days is that I am able to contact them before I go to live with them. Even before coming to UCSB, I was so happy that they were really welcoming me. When I arrived, they spoiled me with baked goods, offered to pick me up from the bus stop, took me to target, and told me the necessary things to buy for living in the dorm. Seeing them and knowing that they were really nice in person, I felt so much better than how I felt right when I arrived at LAX.
The very next day after I moved in, classes started. I was so nervous about it, even though it was online for the first month, which meant I wasn’t going to see others in person. I may have taken a lot of online courses in the past at ICU, but taking online courses at other schools made me nervous because I knew that there were going to be some things that would be different compared to ICU. However, classes weren’t as bad as I thought it was. I loved class mainly because I loved the things that I was learning. The professors at UCSB were very kind to the students—they would always encourage us to ask questions and create channels on certain learning platforms that would make it easier for the students to contact professors about in-class materials. Their ways of encouraging students to communicate with them made it so much easier and less nerve-wracking to ask them whatever I wanted to know about the materials in my class or about any report I had written. I’m so glad I had such kind people by my side that made my study abroad experience even better.
Fast forward to after January,—when the online classes ended—face-to-face classes started for some of my classes. I was especially excited because the class I was most interested in, a class in the Department of Film and Media Studies, was conducted face-to-face. It was a very important class to me because it covered much of the information I was going to use for my senior thesis at ICU. Without many of the materials that I covered in that class I took at UCSB, I don’t think I would be very knowledgeable in many of the backgrounds on what my senior thesis is based on. I am so grateful that UCSB even had the class available to deepen my knowledge on top of what I’ve learned at ICU for my senior thesis. What I especially liked about that class as well is that the professor was very thoughtful of the students, and made sure that the students knew how to do research. That was very important to me because it would give me a head start and get me thinking about what kinds of methods I can use for my research for my senior thesis.
During the quarter, I had so many chances to socialize, mainly among other exchange students. It was all possible thanks to the International Office at UCSB. One thing that I was very thankful for was that the international office made a small group for exchange students so that we can count on each other in case we had questions to ask about the school/classes or even just friends to hang out with. I really enjoyed being in this small group of three, because it really pushed me to talk to people from countries that I’ve never spoken to before. In my case, both my group members were European, and I was excited because I didn’t have that many European friends. Another thing I was thankful for was the exchange student events. I loved the events they held, whether it was a picnic or ice skating! Through these events, I was able to meet so many wonderful people from many different countries. Something that surprised me when I met these people was that they knew so much about the Japanese culture, and talked to me optimistically about it. They told me what they liked about Japan, whether it was pop culture, food, or ancient architecture. It made me really appreciate my country, and I felt very proud of being Japanese, much more than I had been before. Language exchanging was another fun activity that many era change students liked to do. It was so great to teach them a little bit of Japanese while learning their language in exchange. I think that this opportunity really made me interested in visiting other countries in the future and taking my time to learn other languages as well. In fact, right now, I’m trying to learn new languages!
Something very huge that I definitely need to talk about is the environment—whether it is the campus, the classroom setting, or the town/cities nearby. The campus is absolutely stunning. The campus, I’d say, is basically sandwiched between the mountains and the ocean. It is so beautiful walking around and being able to see both types of nature. The beach is the key highlight of the campus though. The campus has its own beach called Campus Point, and if you have some time between classes, it’s definitely a place to go to refresh your mind. My dormitory was two minutes from the beach, and whenever I needed a refresher, it was a nice place to walk and get my creative juices flowing. The sunset was magnificent, and it made me very much appreciate nature. The campus buildings—especially for the Media and Film Studies—were very clean, just like how I would like my learning space to be. Although the learning space was nice and clean, the distance from one class to another was pretty far (I had back-to-back classes), and it was very hectic because I needed to run for 10 minutes to get to my next class. Nevertheless, walking through the campus was very nice. The dining halls have good food, which definitely surpassed my expectations. They also served Asian food, which didn’t taste really authentic, but I appreciated it very much, especially at times I missed home.
Last but not least, is the area near UCSB. Isla Vista is a small town right by our campus. It’s where all the fun happens and where all the food is at. It gets a little noisy at night time starting Thursdays to Saturdays, but I still love the energy that the students give in the town. Now, downtown Santa Barbara is another story. It’s very beautiful. I even took my high school friends here, and they said that Downtown Santa Barbara may have been the best place they’ve been to in California, and I cannot agree with them more. What’s so beautiful about Downtown Santa Barbara is that the area is just so relaxing, very safe, and has a lot of beautiful architecture/buildings. There’s a shopping center and local shops surrounded by greens/nature, and if you reach near the ocean, there is a pier too. There are restaurants with patios with great Italian food, as well as delicious bakeries. I’m not gonna lie; I thought I was in a theme park because the area is just so stunning.
Leaving UCSB was the worst feeling ever because I loved it so much. The people were so kind, the environment was perfect, and I was able to learn so much in class that I would never have been able to at ICU. If covid was not present, many of my plans to come here probably would have changed. I would have applied to stay here longer, and I would have had many more opportunities than I did. Nevertheless, I had such an awesome experience for one quarter during the winter, although it’s definitely not enough.
I was once that girl who was scared to go somewhere I’d never lived my life before, but as overcame it. I’m so glad I did though, I’ve learned so much more than I can ever in just the three months. Studying abroad would change your perspective of so many things in the world in ways you’ve never seen before. Gaining so much new knowledge and experiences has opened my eyes to new perspectives that I bet would be useful for my future. But also, you get to learn so much about the other things in the world as well as yourself. I learned a lot about the world and myself, and definitely have things that I can take back to Japan with me. From things I learned in the classroom and life lessons from experience, it was worth all the time here. I can confidentially say, without doubt, that going to study abroad was one of the best decisions that I have ever made in my life, other than coming to ICU.