Eh, I had to go somewhere after school. I was really afraid my exam results would be not so good and I had no idea where to go to study. My best friend decided to go to China, because we all know how everything soon will be China and Chinese interpreters will be making a lot of money (no). I was always pretty good with languages, so I went too
I also always dreamed of Japan, and to the girl from not that big Russian city China seemed pretty close to Japan in culture, as, you know, being Asia (yeah, I had no internet back then) 