一冊、二冊 ...

I am sitting next to a half-empty suitcase full of all the books I've acquired here. Books on cross-cultural communication, on the Japanese language, novels, and even a hymn-book - I count 15 in total, and I want to make one more run to the 本屋 this week. The nice thing is that they're small and therefore easy to pack, but they're heavy, so I'm going to have to be careful about the weight limit.

There's an appropriate word in Japanese:　ビブリオマニア, bibliomania.

Today was the last day at the church, and we talked to the pastor over lunch about our respective cultures, the churches we go to back home, and about Bonhoeffer. I still can't get over the fact that I talked about Bonhoeffer in Japanese.

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Unless I come across anything really interesting upon returning, I think I'm going to cut off my portion of the blog here. I've used it before to unload ideas and thoughts buzzing in my head, but now I don't really have anything to write.

I think this was right length abroad for me, and it's been a good experience. It's helped that I've been here before, but I've still gone through some cultural confusion and conflict. And I've learned a lot. I would definitely recommend at least a term abroad for any college students reading this.