My Life's Dream Came True!

I have been speaking Japanese for 10 years now and when I decided to study nuclear engineering, my life's goal has been to work for TEPCO to help clean up the 2011 disaster. So for the past 8 years, I have been dreaming of visiting Fukushima, especially the Daiichi/Daini power plants. This trip fell into my lap about 5/6 weeks before it was supposed to happen and I applied. I was immediately accepted and started crying because my dreams were about to become a reality.

Fast forward to the trip: it was so much better than I had imagined. The cultural activities were almost like participating in a homestay, for most of the trip we stayed in traditional hotels and inns (my second favorite part of the trip). The sustainable events were incredible, especially seeing all of the amazing work being done on improving renewable energies, the testing facility for the clean up robots in Daiichi (JAEA), and the radiation coursework at Fukushima Tech. There are so many awesome things to do on this program and the minute I came back to UMich, I told everyone in my class about it.