Student Voice: AIU, a home away from home – Georgia ROLL, University of Central Lancashire, the UK

Georgia Roll from University of Central Lancashire, the UK, is participating in our exchange program starting in the Fall 2022 semester. We would like to introduce her experience at AIU.

My name is Georgia Roll and  I am an exchange student from the University of Central Lancashire in the UK. I major in Japanese and Korean studies, and I am studying at AIU for one year.

The road to becoming an exchange student can feel lonely, however my time at AIU has shown me that no matter where you come from you can always make friends with the people around you. My favourite memories include going to summer festivals when I first arrived, spending endless nights staying up with my housemates talking about our countries and getting to know one another, as well as participating in traditions from each other’s countries. My first semester at AIU, my dorm was incredibly international, and I feel very lucky to have made friends from all over the world. These include not only from the UK and Japan, but also Sweden, Italy, France, Taiwan and the US. Throughout my time here I have gotten to know everyone well and it is like we have all become our own little family. I have found that despite certain language barriers, everyone can communicate muti-lingually, which makes our conversations even more interesting. We have had many ‘house-events’ in which our Japanese housemates have shown us how to make Okonomiyaki and gyoza. And in return we recently celebrated pancake day – a tradition from the UK.

I am looking forward to spending my final semester at AIU making new friends and experiencing Japanese culture in Akita with them. I believe it is the people here that have made my stay so comfortable, and I am sure when the time comes to leave, I will miss them dearly.