A/N: I wanna be an exchange student to Japan, but my parents won't let me, so this is kind of my dream. Like the experience I'll never have. I'm learning Japanese, but I don't know a lot about sentence structure, and even if I did, I don't think it would be much fun for the reader to read a bunch of Japanese, so stuff in ~s is Japanese. Example ~Hi. How are you?~ And btw, all the stuff up to when I pack to get on the plane is true. But I changed my name and all that stuff.

For a long time I'd been interested with most countries in Eurasia: Germany, Japan, China, Russia, name it. But I really began to be fascinated with China and Japan specifically when I was nine or ten. I mostly liked China, but a couple of years later, Japan stood out more. The first time I walked into a public library was when I was twelve, and it was for one reason only: to learn Japanese.

I got a Japanese book that was supposed to teach it to you and had learned all of the numbers, when I went back to borrow more books on Japanese ways and customs. I had always been on the internet before my obsession, surfing from Lord of the Rings site to Lord of the Rings site, but now I began to go to Yahoo, Google, and Netscape, searching for Japanese things such as trends, customs, religions, singers, everything. My parents found out about my learning Japanese later and allowed me to buy a "Learn to speak Japanese" CD-ROM from Best Buy. It was a four disk set, and by the time I'd gotten past the first one I spoke it like a pro. I would practice by saying stuff to my family, then repeating it in English (so they wouldn't get too frustrated with me!!! =)

I had a growing interest in different languages, now. I took a Spanish class (Japanese wasn't offered) and then found a Sindarin dictionary on the internet and studied that as well. (Sinderin is a form of Elvish, used in Lord of the Rings) However, my main interest was still Japan. My dream was to go there for an extended period, but figured I wouldn't be able to do that until after college. I was using my Japanese flashcards and dreaming about what it would be like when I had the greatest idea. It came from my brother, really. He was talking to my dad and I heard him say "He's so annoying. He talks so slow and always asks people to repeat stuff."

"Who?" I called from my bedroom.

"This exchange student from Germany," Josh replied. That's when I ran out of my room and hugged my dad.

"Daddy…" I said in my best baby-voice, even though I was fourteen. "How much do you love me?"

"That depends on how much you want," he replied.

"Can I be an exchange student to Japan?"

Josh snorted, but I ignored him and looked hopefully to my dad, waiting for an answer.

"Well," he said slowly. "Let me talk it over with your mom and roll it around a bit."

My parents are divorced and rarely talk, but I didn't say anything more. I just gave him a peck on the cheek and skipped off to my room.

A/N: this part had basically NO plot, I realize. The rest is better, honest. Please review!!!!