Here in Leiden (the Netherlands) we had an introducion week for the upcoming first year students. This included visiting the student clubs around town. One of the clubs called Duivelsei, of which Frank (Another Worldwide Rep of WCI) is a member, threw an Asian style party on one of the nights. Jurrien (a participants I traveled with during WCI 2011 summer programs) and I, as students majoring in Japanese, just had to go there! There was sushi, sake, karaoke, DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) and even a sumo-wrestling-suit game to enjoy. This attracted a fair amount of people, including some upcoming first year Japanese major students. After we had a couple of beers, we decided to just talk to them and get to know them a little bit.
We ended up having some long conversations about our interests, our studies and, of course, our holidays. This was where Jurrien and I were able to tell them about our experiences with World Campus International and the staff and members. Our stories about getting dirty in rice fields, meeting an insane amount of people, the food, getting good friends from all over the world, experiencing the culture from the inside due to staying in host families, being able learning a lot (more than just the Japanese language) and about Japan’s advanced toilet technology made a really good impression.
For most of these students visiting Japan is a dream and I could see that our stories made them even more excited.
We had a lot of fun and I think some might consider joining World Campus Japan next year!
(Daniel Van Delft – The Netherlands)
