Rudi Laudenslager
Rudi studied in Japan on the IES: Tokyo program during the Summer of 2015.
If you could give only one reason, why would you suggest other students study abroad?
Break out of your comfort zone!! It’s as simple (and as complicated) as that. I can’t stress how important it is to put yourself in a situation that is totally new, foreign, exciting, and scary all at the same time. It’s situations like this that really give you a new perspective on the world, others, and even on yourself. For me, I almost found a greater sense of belonging and identity in Japanese culture and society than I do at home in the US.
If you could go abroad again, what would you do differently?
I wish I would have studied the native language of the country before I went. Knowing Japanese would have helped me a lot because I sometimes had to rely on friends to translate and communicate with locals who could not speak English.
What was it about your program specifically that fit your personal goals over other programs?
The summer program was perfect for me because I did not want to essentially take an entire 15 week semester off from school and it was more like a vacation rather than a study abroad. I only had class from 8am-12pm daily, which left the rest of the day/night for my friends and I to go exploring and travel to different parts of the city/country.
What experiences did you have while studying abroad that you feel you could not have had if you had stayed at Penn State?
Too many to list! A few include: hanging out at a cat cafe, spending hours on hours in an arcade, shopping in 10 story electronic devices/manga buildings, dating a fashion designer, relaxing in a hot spring in rural mountains, visiting beautiful shrines and temples, thrift shopping for kimonos, eating conveyor belt sushi on the regular… The list goes on!
What advice would you give to outbound study abroad students to help them make the most out of their study abroad experiences?
I highly, highly suggest doing a program where you don’t know anyone else before departure. This may sound risky and you probably think it would be cool to explore a foreign country with your friends, but trust me, the new people that you meet are just as valuable as the traveling experience itself. If you don’t know anyone prior to the program, you have the opportunity to meet friends you may have otherwise not met if you already had your best friend by your side.
Share an experience where you interacted with someone in your host culture in a way that taught you something.
The first weekend I went out in Tokyo with my friends, I met a Japanese guy who was a fashion designer and spoke English really well since he sometimes traveled to the US for work. We started hanging out whenever he wasn’t working and ended up basically dating. He would show me around the less popular/tourist-y parts of Tokyo that I would have never gone to if it weren’t for him. He would order strange (but amazing) food for me at local restaurants and we would teach each other conversational slang of our native languages. I could go on and on about the generous things he did for me (like made me a custom purse for my birthday 😀 ), but that isn’t the point. From creating a close relationship with someone so different than me, I learned that with traveling comes sharing experiences and you can learn so much through your willingness to understand others. I learned life lessons just by hearing someone else’s journey and getting to know them on more than just a surface level. That can be said about many other people I built relationships with on my trip, but this specific instance was really special and one I will never forget.
