ICU: 7 worries

Technically it's another 17 days till I start, but I leave Australia in 9 days

My eyes feel drowsy and I am so ready for bed. Except if I don't write down what I feel at the moment I might regret it later, so here we go. 

In April, I got accepted into ICU, International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan. It is now August and the 4 months have gone by so quickly. My brain has unconsciously piled up an array of emotions which legit just bombarded me last night. Every time I think about flying off in a few days I just feel sick. Is this what nerves are? Who knows. The horrible thing is that during this moment, I don't feel like going anymore. 

One of my good friends just left for America a few days ago. He also left to attend an Ivy league college (I know, impressive as), but it was so swift. My friend dropped him off at his house after brunch, a resonant "BAIIII" and then bam: he's off to Los Angeles the next morning. 

Thinking about it, I think I know what my biggest emotion is at the moment. Worry. Since I like lists, here is a list of things and stuff that are on my mind at the moment.

1. Keeping in Touch 

This is probably the most pathetic and childish worry there is. I'm worried that I'll lose some of my friends here in Australia. Finishing high school, I've already lost contact with some people I thought I'll see frequently. That's just the consequence of going to different universities. I'm leaving the country. THE COUNTRY.  

I guess there's the beauty of the internet and social media, but even then, contact on such platforms can die out easily. Some of my friends in Australia I'm very grateful for and never in a million years I'd want to lose them. Ever. 

Friends are the bomb diggity 

2. Fitting in 

The Japanese live a very different life culturally. The young people over there are very different to young Australians. I've lived my childhood and youth in Australia, now I have to adjust to the Japanese lifestyle. My grandma always mentions that it's normal to get a "culture shock" and to be completely honest it's not very reassuring. I mean, I had some trouble fitting in amongst Australians and now I'm moving to a different country.

What if our interests don't match? What if I can't get along with people due to cultural differences?

3. Staying on top of things 

I'm basically moving out of my house. Technically living by myself and taking care of myself. I'm probably the most disorganized person I know and the biggest procrastinator. I keep on telling myself that I'll probably change my habits when I get there, especially around 3 other people I'm sharing a unit with. 

But will I? 

4. School work 

ICU operates as a bilingual school. Some classes are in Japanese and some are in English. I also heard that I have to take compulsory Christianity and Physical Education classes. I'm starting to think I'm going to have to drown myself in study time in order to keep up with my classmates. 

For April students, ICU is quite difficult to get accepted into. They take crazy tests in order to pass. I just had to assemble a few documents and write essays to get in. Their study habits are going to be contrastingly different to mine, am I easily going to adjust to that? JLP classes are famous for its intensity and strenuousness. My father has also threatened that if I fail he'll pull me out. I hoping so much that it doesn't happen. Ugh. 

5. Language 

I guess this can go under my 2nd point. 

Japanese includes utilising honorific terms depending on who you're speaking to. If you're speaking to someone who is older than you, you speak formally. If not, you speak normally. My formal Japanese is EXTREMELY rusty. I always get hammered by my mum if I don't use formal language to her or my grandma's friends. When I try to, I always stutter and fade away, which ends up sounding like I'm muttering and very rude. Over at ICU, I'm probably going to have to speak formal Japanese very frequently. Hopefully, I'll be a natural after 4 years. (HOPEFULLY) 

6. Homesickness 

This obviously comes naturally. I'll miss my family. I'll miss my bed. I'll miss my room. I'll miss my dog. 

My dog is the most beautiful golden retriever ever

I'll miss Melbourne. I'll miss the good food. I'll miss the shitty public transport system (maybe). I'll miss experiencing 4 seasons in 1 day. I'll miss the GOOD COFFEE OMG. 

7. Being a 帰国子女 (kikokushijo) - kind of, not really

"Kikokushijo" are Japanese people who were born Japanese, but raised in a different country and now are back in their homeland. I don't really fit into this category, but I guess I kinda do?  Who knows. 

My appearance looks very much like a Japanese person. People tell me I look Japanese more than I look Chinese. With my language being very rusty, I'm worried that people will judge me for not being a "true Japanese". Obviously, the genuine people will understand that I was raised in a different country and all, but their first impression will be definitely "Nippon-jin" 

Don't get an impression that I'm dreading this experience. Of course, I'm super excited. But what's a journey without a few challenges

Bye for now, I'll be back x 

Orchestra Tour: London (Day 3)

HARRY POTTER STUDIO EVERYONE 

This was the highlight of my day so I'm just gonna post pictures. I think you can tell from my bigger-than-normal smile that I was very VERY hyped and excited. All the emotions at once, I seriously couldn't handle it. Best. Day. EVER.

THE GREAT HALL OMG

THE SORTING HAT OMG

THEY EVEN HAD THE HOURGLASSES WHICH THEY DIDN'T SHOW IN THE MOVIES BUT IT WAS STILL THERE HOLY MOLY 

ALL THE COSTUMES OMG

DUMBLY-DORRS OFFICE

"Harry sometimes talks in his sleep"

Even though Hagrid wasn't driving the motorcycle, I didn't have to fight off any death eaters which was good

No Whomping Willows either

Probably my favourite photo ever

Umbridge's office. My expression says it all

Hogwarts, Hogwarts Hoggy Hoggy Hogwarts teach us something pleeeeaaaase

TO TOP IT OFF I GOT A WEASLEY SWEATER WITH THE LETTER H.   

BYE FOR NOW, I'LL BE BACK xx

ICU UPDATE: 

2 weeks until I leave for Japan. Nervous as hell, but still super duper exciting!!!!!

Bye Phil

My friendship circle is slowly moving outwards. 

Living in Australia you're bound to have friends from different backgrounds. Having friends living across the globe is a completely different story. 

When high school finished, I knew that we all would go onto our individual lives. I wasn't expecting it to happen so drastically this early. One of my good friend's going to UPenn in USA and I'm moving to Japan to attend ICU in a few weeks like whatt?!?!?!??!? One minute we were just normal Melbournians - nek minit leaving the country. It's insane and so unexpected that your future can change so quickly. 

Anyway, this was a bit of a quick post and intermission between London Day 2 and Day 3. I apologize for my lack of posting of my orchestra trip. I need to get that done before I leave and record my time in ICU! 

Have fun in America Philip! I know you'll experience the best time of your life at UPenn and don't miss me too much :) xx

Bye for now, I'll be back x

Orchestra Tour: London (Day 2)

I'm so sorry about the inconsistent posting. 

Realistically, I should be writing every day considering I have no Uni until September. Unfortunately, I'm the biggest procrastinator I know. Anyway, Day 2 of the tour and we're still in London. 

My friend made a Facebook group for the parents so they can be updated on how their kids are doing. The parents of the younger students especially appreciated the idea. It also refreshes my memory so I can write about it. I don't have that good of a memory, so I'm relying on the group. 

Day 2, our tour group bus-ed to Stratford Upon Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare.  It was just under a 2-hour bus trip, which was also the bus trip where I got introduced to 500. (Superb card game, please look it up and learn how to play). 500 took up 40% of our time on tour, which may be an underestimate. 

This day was also the day of our first concert. We played in the Holy Trinity Church, which also was the church where Shakespeare got baptised and buried. Also referred to as "Shakespeare's Church" for obvious reasons. The church itself was incredible. The stained glass artwork was so detailed and I was literally speechless because it was just beautiful. There was also a memorial for Shakespeare which felt amazing to be standing in front of. 

  

I admit I'm not a Shakespeare know-it-all, but being in presence of one of the most famous and best English writers in history was pretty surreal. 

The concert went well, even though there weren't many who sat down for the whole concert. Not gonna lie, personally, I was still pretty jet lag and exhausted so I didn't play as well as I would've liked. Nevertheless, I thought the orchestra sounded superb so it was quite good for the first concert of our tour. 

We also had a look around Anne Hathaway's garden. Even though we got rained on for the first 5 minutes or so, it cleared up for most of the time we were there, thank god. It was probably one of the few days we had sunshine in England.

The Cottage

The "Courting Chair"

Bye for now, I'll be back x

Orchestra Tour: London (Day 1)

Jetlag sucks 

Having said that the reasons why and the 18 days leading up to it was definitely and unarguably worth it. 

I was invited back to my high school to travel with their string orchestra into the UK and Europe. Having been on the previous two Europe tours, it was an instant 'yes' from me. 

Starting this blog prompted me to keep precious memories somewhere, and I thought writing here is the best way to do it. 

I don't know how I'm going to organize and write about the trip, but I just thought I might start with London.

It took a total of 21 hours to travel there by plane. Really not the best plane trip I had considering I had aching legs by the end of it. Number one tip: don't just not move for 14 hours straight, it kills.

We landed at around 7-8ish in the morning, which meant we had the whole day to sightsee etc. Not ideal since we all felt disgusting and pretty much dead after 21 hours of flying. We couldn't check in at our hotel yet either.  But to be honest, I didn't really acknowledge my tiredness until dinner that night. 

Our first stop was the Tower of London. I was quite excited about this one since it was one of the few places I didn't visit six months ago with family.


There was a lot of history behind what I saw. Now, I'll probably repeat myself with this statement but it made Australia look very new and modern. It's amazing how much history England has and how it's remained so people in our generation can learn about it. I mean, it was built in the 11th-12th century. What was Australia then? Nothing comes up if you google it. Go on, try it.

One of the first and favourite pictures I took on the trip

Our orchestra group! Excuse the orange shirts. 

One thing I remember learning was that Henry the 8th was quite the ladies man... We also looked at different torture devices that were used back in that time. My particular favourite was the "Scold's Bridle". Basically, you pop it on a woman's head and when they walk around, a bell goes off. The purpose of it was to humiliate women for gossiping. With the bell going off, people are alert of the said gossiper.

If only it was legal nowadays...

We also went through the "The Bloody Tower" where two princes disappeared, supposedly murdered by their uncle, Richard III. They had this whole display up the top which was quite harrowing. The Crown Jewel display was also open but the line was way too big we decided to give that one a skip.  

After that, we went on a boat cruise of London across the Thames. Even though it was raining, a group of us decided to stand out on the deck. It was quite nice, but I think we were pretty dead after that. I don't remember falling asleep that night.

London Eye from the boat.

Another one from the boat

One thing that was devastating is that we didn't have a table at the back of our bus. Past two tours, we've had the amazing Vorderegger bus. It had a massive table at the back where we would play cards on. So we opted to this:

Table replacement for Day 1.

That's my jacket. After that, we just used our friend's suitcase. Not surprisingly, that was better than the jacket solution.

Bye for now, I'll be back x

ICU Update!

I GOT INTO A DORMITORY!!!!!! 

Got the letter yesterday saying I got into GLOBAL HOUSE!!!

I'm so happy because that was my number one choice, AYYOOO. Plus it's the dorm where half the kids are international students so I'll be able to meet so many different people, it's gonna be great. 

Bye for now, I'll be back x

My ICU Application Story (September Admissions)

So this September I'm moving to Japan.

For 4 years

Rewind to February 2015. My family friends from Japan was visiting for a few days. (It was crazy because they literally were in Melbourne for about 3 days. The Japanese don't get many holidays around that time, unfortunately). The oldest girl was starting university at the International Christian University in Tokyo and told us that the campus operated under a bilingual system. Mum obviously took an interest in it and also got me interested after many conversations on the topic. 

Long story short, after forgetting about it for the whole of 2015, I decided to apply. I applied with a half-hearted attitude. If I got in, yippee. If I didn't, oh well. 

Then I got accepted. 

I'm making this post because even though I researched thoroughly, I couldn't find much first person experiences on the actual application procedure. This post might be useful for those who are interested in applying as a September student. So here's my attempt to explain the some-what complex application process as a regular September student for ICU. 

Gather all the important documents.

This is SO important, especially if you're disorganized like me. What you'll need are:

• School reports from the past 3 years 
• Your educational certificate (final scores) (In my case, it was my ATAR statement for VCE) - make sure these are certified (signed) by your school if they're photocopies, otherwise they won't accept them.
• TWO letters of recommendation - one from a principal/guidance counsellor and one from a teacher that taught you a core subject 
• Your school profile - I asked my school if they had one, but they didn't. We sent in a document which outlined the curriculum and general essence of the school, and it was fine. 
• Application document - you can download this from the online application portal 

I accidentally sent all the documents without my reports and my ATAR certificate signed. Luckily, with quick action, I sent them all in and I successfully applied. Thank the seven gods that my teachers like me even though I've graduated.

*EDIT* I should probably point out to those of you who are applying from America, that I didn't take my SAT's or have a GPA at the time of application. I'm so sorry if you can't find any advice, but please comment below and I'll see what I can do for you :) 

Pick one of the two application periods 

If you know me well enough, you'd immediately know that I chose the later one. I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter which one you choose though. 

Results 

I've seen a lot of questions regarding results and how people got accepted. Let me tell you my final high school result wasn't that great, but it was good enough. My average mark was probably around B+ to a low A. 

It's worth noting that they ask you for extra-curricular activities, and I was involved in lots of it during my high school years. Write down everything you can think of. I even wrote down my primary school leadership roles. I think it's good that they look beyond academic achievement, they're looking at what you can contribute to the university spirit.

I was super close with my teachers too. They were able to write a lot about me so I'm positive their letters helped. I'm pretty sure ICU takes pretty much everything into consideration so put down as much as you can.

They also mention in the application booklet that approximate 90 students get accepted. I'm not sure how many people apply but I honestly thought I wouldn't get in due to that statistic. So, what I'm trying to say is don't worry about it too much. 

Keep in mind it costs money

The actual application fee was about 30,000 yen ($300AUD approximately). Then I also had to pay for international express mailing, twice. It was all worth it in the end though.

Check your application status and be mindful of deadlines. 

They have a portal in which you can apply online. You can also check if all your documents you've sent in have arrived too. 

Remember that the deadlines for the online application and submission of documents are different. They're usually about a week apart and the online application is usually due first.


To be honest, I can't really remember anything else. Of course, if you have any questions, feel free to comment below. I don't bite :)

Hope this was helpful to any ICU hopefuls. Remember they also have information on their website too. Just make sure when you're googlin', you add in "ICU university". It'll direct you to all these hospital sites instead. It's not the end of the world if you don't get accepted. ICU offers exchange programs and it's not the only university in Japan in which you can apply for. Keep your options open!

Bye for now, I'll be back x