I wrote this in 2002, so this is quite a bit out of date...

Well, at the time of writing this, I am living in Japan, at [Kansai Gaidai University] in Hirakata City, Osaka. I can't even remember how I got here to be honest, but I'm having a fantastic time at the moment. Nothing can take away from me the fact that I'm in Japan, and at this present moment in time, having a fantastic time of it.

It all started when I was at [The Friary School] in [Lichfield]. I was doing my A-levels, which were Mathematics [containing Mechanics and Pure], Design Technology [Glorified wood and metalwork], Physics and General Studies. I had decided I wanted to go into Mechanical Engineering, as this seemed to be a good follow-on from the subjects I had just taken, and was available at pretty much every University in the country. Ever since I was a child I'd wanted to go to Cambridge University. *sighs* nevermind...

So, the school take you to a open day at Stafford University, where every University has a stand. You can get prospectuses, and although most people seem to take it as a competition to see who can collect the most, it seemed to be going ok, as I wandered over to the Salford University stand, to ask about the Acoustical Engineering course, as I'd kinda changed direction a teensy little bit, and decided this was the right way for me.

"Yeah, well you'll learn how to fix mixing desks, and hi-fis and various other pieces of machinery used in accoustics..."
I stared back at him in disbelief. What on earth? I certainly didn't want to go to University to learn how to fix a mixing desk. Give me a day and a soldering iron and I could probably manage it myself. No bad to the people who do it for a living, we need people to do this, and I'd certianly rather trust my player to someone who knew what they were doing, rather than me and some tin solder *grins* oops, I've been told not to talk about that incident...

So, I'm wandering round, head to the floor, not knowing what I wanted to do with my life. The whole exercise seemed pointless! I wandered backwards and forwards, wondering what on earth to tell my parents. A voice chirped up from behind me...

"What's wrong?"
I turned round. It was the man from the Oxford Brookes University stand. I told him how my life was fleeting away from me and the whole thing seemed desperate and pointless [ok, so I lie]. I explained that things weren't what I thought they were, and I didn't know what to study. He asked me my intrests.

"Maths, Physics, Music, Beer o.O;;, Japan, Hamsters..."
"What was that you said?"
"Hamsters?"
"No, Japan?"
"Yeah, I want to study Japanese as a night course while I'm at University"
"Why not do that?"
"Fantastic bloody idea!"

So, I then grabbed a prospectus from Oxford Brookes, Central Lancashire, Reading, Leeds, Royal Holloway [the woman from this stand nearly took a shit when she saw me getting a prospectus. I was looking rather scary] and Sheffield. I took them home to dispairing looks from my parents and something along the lines of "What the hell will you do with a Japanese degree?" I have to admit, I didn't know then, and I still don't know now, but I feel better for taking what I wanted at this point. I decided that to applease parents and hopefully make more of my life out there, then I would also take Management Studies, and hopefully get a better job at the end of it all.

I applied to Leeds, Sheffield, Oxford Brookes, Reading and Central Lancashire. Turns out I wouldn't have got the grades that Holloway wanted anyways. Plus I don't wanna go anywhere that snobby. I got accepted to all of them. Reading and Leeds both wanted BBC, Sheffield wanted BCC, Oxford brookes wanted CCD, and Central Lancashire, about DDD. I had to make my choices. I chose [Leeds] as my first choice, with Oxford Brookes as a reserve.

Exams came and went with no particular hiccoughs, other than the fact that I had really bad hayfever on my Mechanics exam, and the Pure Maths went disastrously.

Results day came, I passed, even though I'd spent far too many days going to Mechanics completeley stoned [something I've learned my lesson on, and don't do any more] but got an A in General Studies. Leeds took General Studies. Boy was I happy. I mean, I got ABBD, that was something I wasn't expecting. I phoned them up to confirm this, and could've kissed the girl on the other end of the phone. I was going to Leeds. [Insert drunken Gerbil buying day and night here]

Get to Leeds, have an alright first year, although too much of it was spent not studying, and spending money trying to be happy and digging self out of a rut. Met friends, made lots of friends. Don't want to go to Japan.

Bugger

So, I have to choose whereabouts in Japan I want to go to. Well, I had a penpal in Japan for a long time, Noriko, so I decided that I would go to the University that she was at, and also, my friend on my course who lived in Lichfield was studying German, so hopefully she could continue that at Kansai Gaidai. I wrote an essay to my school, I got in.

So, here I am. I was dumped back in July, so that made the leaving process a little easier. The girl from my city dropped out the Christmas before, and so didn't come with me. I met my penpal, who didn't seem to want to know really, but nevermind. I've made a fanstatic lot of friends out here, kept most the ones from England, and am waiting to return in May. You know who you are. Thanks guys!!