A long time has passed since my last blog, so I'll try and be quick. Well firstly the good news is that I am confident that I have passed all my exams, as I have had no threatening e-mails sent to me (normally when we screw the exams up, we are given an e-mail from our head of year demanding, sorry requesting a chat to discuss what happens next.) So thankfully that hasn't happened, and I am freaking happy that there are no new e-mails in my e-mail box.

However one message I would like in my e-mail box is one from my university in Japan. The last time I had contact with them was back in Easter when I sent my stuff off about my finances. So far, I have no idea where I will be living in Japan next year or when or if I can come to Japan. Right now, I am waiting for the Certificate of Eligibility, a piece of paper that allows me to apply for a student visa at my local consulate - which incidentally is in Edinburgh. It seems out of the 30 odd of us going to Japan, only three of us have to apply for our visas there. After the horror stories of the embassy in London as well as having to potentially wake up at 5am and drive for 6 hours - its a welcome relief I only have a 2 hour drive to Scotland. I've also heard the entire procedure at Edinburgh runs a lot smoothly given the smaller numbers of applicants for Visas up there.

If all goes to schedule (so far Seijo have been really quick and easy with any queries and paperwork) then I should have my certificate sometime in about 3 weeks.

Currently my short-term goals are to lose weight for Japan and also to get cracking on this vocab and kanji. My vocab has gotten increasingly shit as the 2nd year has trudged on and its something that is going to pull me down in Japan.

At the moment Sheffield is a picture of slow death. Nobody is here except international students, postgraduates, people who have failed and are studying for resists and then of course an usual hybrid of International postgraduates who are resitting. (!) So basically the whole student lifestyle and running into random people you know is probably gone for a while. Sadly its going to be gone for quite a bit. A sad fact of life is many of my friends outside my course will probably have graduated by the time I come back, meaning that for Year IV of my degree in Sheffield will probably be ground-zero again. Oh well, its been two years of fun in Sheffield, a time of fun coming to an end and a time that I probably will never get again. I just can't describe how fun its been and how much I've really enjoyed it in a disappointing yet rewarding kinda way. I suppose all of these sad emotions is the price I pay for going to Japan for a year. And that is something most people would probably give their right testicle for (I know my flatmate would!)

Anyways, Japan is something like 70 odd days away and I have a wide-open summer ahead of me. I just want to get back to my hometown, get on my bike and think about other things now. My mind is slowly leaving the life of Sheffield now, even though my body is still here.