The Good of the Team

Exposing myself to a different culture and lifestyle is like looking in a mirror which reflects my weaknesses, biases, strengths, beliefs and values. Studying abroad in Japan and possibly anywhere else is a priceless and mind opening experience.

I joined the swimming circle. Our swimming circle had an outdoor swimming pool that is used during the summer. This old swimming pool gets extremely dirty, and it was our own duty to clean the pool. After draining the pool, there was mud everywhere. Everyone took scrubs and buckets to clean up the muddy mess. To be honest, even after the cleanup, the pool did not look like one that you would want to swim in. But it was the only pool we had and it was the pool that we spend so much time and energy cleaning. Perhaps my other Japanese friends were used to it, but when I dived in the cold water for the first time, I was proud of the team effort that made swimming in this pool possible.

—Justin Lee, UC Berkeley
EAP host university: Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan

Back to Table of Contents