THARANGA 2017
Living Abroad
Living abroad means living away from your familiar zones, being a stranger to those who
surround you, and missing all your loved ones. You are moving to a new place, struggle to
settle in the new environment, and try to fit with a new cultural and traditional expectations,
.
I came to Japan as a stupid master student to pursue my master studies in a famous place.
In the beginning you get lost with how to utilize the newly gained freedom, and meanwhile
you start struggling about time management. Finally you learn that you have to take care of
yourself, cook and clean your house, while saving some time to do your studies. You start
e
activities that
s,
your crushes or your academic supervisor.
It will take a while for someone to realize how important it is to stay healthy and fit. I was
taking everything easy until I realized how difficult it is to take care of myself while being
sick. Once you lose apatite due to the sickness, it is difficult to make up the mind to
consume plain-tasted food from supermarkets; and hence you end up cooking, while having
energy drinks or fresh milk to help you stand. After one cycle of sickness, you start to realize
how valuable it is to remain healthy,
So you basically stop experimenting with your body, and start
eating healthy food, wear safe and warm cloths and invest on a good rest to stay safe and
healthy.
With all these, you start missing love and care you received from your family and friends,
and you learn how important they are to our lives. You start missing the conversations you
had in your mother tongue, because speaking in a foreign language with people from
different cultures never becomes the same as the gossiping and nagging with your fellows in
home country. As a solution to this desire of talking in your mother tongue, you start
communicating with Sri Lankans, but end up being discouraged as a result of their
continuous curiosity on your relationship status and attempts on match-making.
Despite your endless effort made to fit into the cultural and traditional values of your new
place, you will still end up being a stranger to the others. You will not be able to forget the
curious and suspicious stares at your brown colored skin. Whatever happens around you,
which may be a kid crying, something falling down or an alarm ringing, everyone will first
look at you, while you are still wondering what really happened. Later on, you will start
enjoying being a stranger, and will start ignoring what really happens around you. You will
learn that this country itself has lot of problems; the population is aging, and they really
miss love and kindness. So you start pitying and continue being kind and respectful, despite
how you are being treated.
Living abroad is not a challenge. It is a journey filled with multifarious scenery. At the end of
the day, you will have the memories of the most interesting scenery, while the tiredness will
turn you into a totally strong, different piece of work with a postgraduate degree
qualification attached to your name.
Nipuni Odara Galappaththi
Todai Kashiwa Campus
SRI LANKAN STUDENTS` ASSOCIATION IN JAPAN
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