Being an overseas student is so much more challenging than I had imagined. The language is a huge barrier, but I have managed to survive without much Japanese for a while now. However, there are a few small things that cause me to think twice about living here.
The first major obstacle was food. My taste buds have been assaulted by the food here. At first, I used to just think 'it's nasty', but these days, I don't worry about it so much any more because I've found what works for me and I'm slowly learning which foods are tolerable. I also cook much more often than I used to do back home.
The second, more pressing issue is finding a good doctor. This one has me scared. First, I got food poisoning within my first two weeks here. At this point I was still nervous about taking even the train. Now I had to find a doctor who I could explain my illness to and get better before dying. Eventually I found the school's clinic and a partially English speaking doctor who understood me. The next time I became ill, my luck had changed. The doctor could not understand sinusitis. He thought I just had a cold and so my sinus kept draining until a friend shared his sinus medication with me :) I then developed a dermatological problem. My acne broke out all over my face with bumps so big and painful. By this time I had found the American embassy's website with a list of English speaking doctors, so I simply picked the one closest to me and went. That didn't turn out so well. He gave me a strange treatment plan that may have hurt me more than helped. So I stopped going and tried to find another way around my acne problem. I'm counting down the days to my vacation so that I will be able to go to a competent dermatologist.
Now it's just my luck that now I have a cavity! A cavity serious enough to be causing me pain :( My first thought was 'I wonder if it can wait until I get back home, so I can visit my usual dentist?' However, the fact that it hurts means that it needs immediate attention. The Japanese seem to have such poor oral hygiene that I'm scared of how the dentists treat patients. I'm scared that he will not fill my cavity properly or that he may not know how to explain things to me if an unexpected situation arises. I'm so scared right now. I never thought of issues like these when I thought about going abroad to study. But even if I did, would that have made a difference in whether or not I go abroad? Maybe not, but perhaps I would have prepared myself a bit more, mentally.
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