PRE-DEPARTURE; Starting the process

I am a Journalism Major, Anthropology Minor CMU Junior going to Nara, Japan for a study abroad in fall 2013. This will be my second time in Japan, and first study abroad. My first time was in Tokyo for a month-long independent stay. I plan to dig deeper into the culture and language to understand Japan better. I want to look below the surface of touristy places, and appearances and get to the many layers of Japan's culture.

While my study abroad journey to Nara Japan doesn't officially start until late August 2013, the paperwork process starts early and I like to get a head-start on things so I started working on my application process over winter break.

As a Central Michigan University student going through a tuition exchange program this means I pay the same tuition prices abroad as I do for my home institution.

I now have a course of action. To start I had to choose between 2 programs offered in Japan for CMU. I had the choice of either Hikone or Nara. Nara won out more because of the smaller cost as well as its size. Hikone looks beautiful though and I plan to visit Lake Biwa (the largest freshwater lake in Japan).

So once I decided on Nara and the applications opened up, I was given access to an online packet and checklist that lets me know where I stand and what I have left to do. It is very organized, which really suits my taste.

As it stands now I am still going through the application to Nara which is due by mid February, and the CMU study abroad application which is due in March.