National Anthem

After night-mare as I said yesterday, we (our living room) got back peace. lol On this Wednesday I have tasted all the classes in a week. I decided to drop one of the courses. That is because my major course, "History & Theory of bilingual education" is very hard course... I am assigned to read and write every week. I also have to do the group work, and do some individual project. The project is "to find or suggest the best bilingual education program." It sounds very interesting and this is exactly what I want to do. So I want to concentrate on this work. It can be related to my thesis in Sophia University. In addition, many of my friends advised me not to take five courses.. They say, "Serious? Everyone is taking three or four courses!" It seems that even official UCSD students do not take five courses. Then I will drop one of them. Good-bye political science. haha.

I have an audition on Friday, but I have to sing, "National Anthem" !
Do you know American National Anthem??

I haven't heard about it. That is "Star-spangled banner". I can't understand the meaning of the lyrics.
It sounds like much more positive than Japanese one (Kimigayo)
I like both of Japanese one and American one.
It's a little bit long and difficult to remember.
Maybe of-course every others who audition can sing it naturally.
Plus, I have to choose a song to sing and appeal my ability.
I don't know English songs much, because I always listen to the J-pop, while I was in Japan.
What should I sing.... Disney? lol

-----

"Star-Spangled-Banner"

Oh, can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
Over the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the booms bursting in air,
Gave proof  through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
Over the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Busy day

Today, in the morning, I co-operated the experiment of the cognitive science department again. Setting a censor on my head is  a little bit uncomfortable and the experiment was very boring. (It was like just I was continued to listen the telephone ringing. Stupid. but It's ok. It's gonna be a credit.

in the evening, I cooked curry-rice today. I was able to use the curry spice made in Japan here. I followed the direction how to cook written on the package, I succeeded very well. Japanese curry is great. Another good point of making curry is that I can eat it next morning and next lunch, and moreover, next dinner..haha


After that I went to the gospel chorus class. That was so fun. Taking a rhythm and singing is awesome. I like it. It seems we can join the concert. But unexpectedly not so many African American people join the gospel chorus. (First of all, UCSD does not have so many black people.)

At night, we cerebrated the one of my roommates' birthday. He became 21. Becoming 21 years is very special in the states, which mean we get able to drink legally! So we tried to cerebrate him very much......

but

One of his friends started to do crazy things... I have never seen such a crazy man. He was the craziest man I have ever seen.

First, he drank so many alcohol at the same time. (what we call "Champon") then, he got drunken so much, and he started to play the electric guitar so loud. He jumped over and over crazily, other friends who live in below our room come to our room to complain about it. Actually it was, yeah, so noisy. It was past midnight. He played the guitar Max volume.

After he was scolded, he started to scatter alcohol around our living room and he poured alcohol into his textbooks.

And...

He grabbed his lighter, and he burned his textbooks!! I can't believed that he burned his textbooks. Crazy. So much crazy. What is happening?? He also scattered the alcohol to his body and he lit his body... What is he thinking about?

He is always jumping at the living room, and then he drank alcohol and medicine at the same time.

Then finally he got really crazy, and then what? I don't know, because I escaped to my room. Something terrible is going on at the living room...

Hot

It is getting hotter day by day. I don't know why, but anyway, I like it. It's OK. One week ago, I felt San Diego is cooler than I thought. But now it's hot and warm. Happy. I can wear half-pants and T-shirts in the end of September, which I was hoping for. I hope such weather continues through a whole year.

When I looked for the course material in the library,  I found there is an East Asian collection in the library. That was so nice. There are a lot of Japanese books, especially Japanese literature. Strange. The library has more Japanese books than my nearest city's library has. lol.  Then, only few people borrow these books (because they can read Japanese, as you can imagine easily), so I can get these books very easily. Nice. I wanted to read as many books as I can before coming to the states. I can enjoy both Japanese books and English books.


In the afternoon, I co-operated the experiment in the department of Cognitive Science as a subject. That was boring experiment. Setting the censor which read my brain-signal on my head (interesting, it was the first time for me) and doing some activity following the guide on monitor. But that "activity" was boring. First, I try not to blink. That was very hard. I felt my eyes dry soon. I don't like it. Second I sometimes rip the paper again and again. Strange...I was so sleepy so I tended to fall asleep sometimes haha.

I decide to join the a capella club in the UCSD. I want to sing a song and make more friends with local American students.  I have to do audition this Saturday... wow...Tomorrow is gospel chorus course! I'm looking forward to it!

Good morning!

Oops, I was not able to write yesterday's diary... I was so sleepy and I had no energy to do something.

Yesterday, I was called to join the meeting for Japanese cooking night. Surprisingly there are about 20 Japanese students in this UCSD (I think more are),,, crazy. Chinese is also big community, but so is Japanese. Actually I don't wanna gather and hang around with Japanese in the States. I think it's strange I eat lunch or talk with only Japanese. Many of other Japanese students use Japanese easily. What are they thinking  about?? To matters worse, one of them made a group or community on facebook, which is "UCSD Japanese students association" or something like that. Nahhh. I don't want to get it... Yes, I know, I know it is important and good things to be friendly with other Japanese students in the States. Then we can help each other in an emergency, and after we come back to Japan, we can keep good relationship in the future. Making friends is very good, including making Japanese friends. I agree. But, I wonder what they want to do, when I see someone hanging around or eating lunch, dinner with other Japanese friends every day, every time.......

We can say the same things about study abroad students who are coming to Japan. They tend to use "English" in Japan, isn't it?? Mystery....

Yesterday I cooked beef steak with onion-soy-sauce. I ate with rice and onion saute... That was so good! Amazing. Happy. I can buy a beef of the big size for one -person for only $3.5.
This is America.. And I also bought new milk. There was no "pure organic milk". All of them are like "1% fat cut", "2% fat cut", "non-fat",and "Vitamin D" (?). Then I tried "Vitamin D"...

......

That was terrible, why can American drink such crazy milk? Horrible.  Oh my gosh, I still have more than 2 litters of that milk.....

La Jolla shore

Today, I went to the La Jolla shore near the campus 10 minutes by bus. I tried to do surfing, Kayak, or beach volleyball. It's hot today, usually San Diego's night is very cold, but today is so hot. I might not be able to sleep well. But this temperature is very great to play at sea! Sunshine, blue sky, no cloud.. perfect. I am full of sunshine. I was satisfied with enjoying happy weather and playing at the sea. This is the biggest reason why I chose San Diego, not LA, or else..

But actually, as you can imagine, there are so many people to try to do surfing or kayak. I just have to share one surf-board with two or three people, then I didn't have enough opportunity to do surfing. It's ok. I was able to have fun swimming in the sea. Just floating on the sea is nice. Wave moved me automatically. I can relax.. Thanks to the swimming skill I gained through the swim practice, I can enjoy swimming in the sea, so much! Nice. I also used my advantage at the beach volley. Nice day.

I will go there again, this was the very nice time. Happy.

happy day

Today, I took another class, "Debating multiculturalism", I was able to catch up with the class better than I thought, it was nice. But I went to the next classroom, there was no one. lol I thought there would be a class. No one came to the classroom, so I went back to my room and checked the syllabus of that course. It said, "No class in the first week. See you in second week." hahaha. Nice.
Damn!

After that, I went to the pool and swam a little bit. I felt my condition is getting back gradually. Still I can't swim more than 6,000 m, as I did when I practiced for races. My body is weakening...

then I went back my room and cooked dinner, today's menu was "rice, fish and vege-saute."
They were so nice! Very much better than hamburger or sandwiches. hehe. Cooking by myself is very fun.

home-made taste Asian food is so much great... I love it. Plus my kind room-mate brought microwave, and I can eat rest of the dinner I cooked day before. Problem is that it is difficult to cook for only one-person. Even 1 carrot or tomato is too much for one-person. Less than half is enough. Speaking of home-made Asian, I found fish awesome. Why don't American eat fish so much ?? Unbelievable.

By the way, i got my phone! If you want to know it, please tell me. I will tell you by e-mail or something. I can't write down it on my blog, because of the security.

Tomorrow, i will try to do surfing....

Appendix

Tomato with mold

Class start

Finally class started. Today I had only one class. It was "Introduction of the study of language". That was easy and a little bit boring for me, who has been studying linguistics for more than two years at Sophia University. But it's ok, because I need to take some courses I can relax. I have to keep 12 credits in each quarter, which means, I have to pass at least three courses. This is the first time for me to take classes in American university, of-course, so if I know the contents of the class very well, that could be easy for me and I can relax. That is why I chose that course.

It is often said, "The students of American universities are very active." Yes it was. Yes. That is the fact. Everyone is very active and appealing to the professor. Everyone is raising hand on and on even if others are speaking. No one is sleeping (unlike the students in a "certain" country. lol) But I don't think  American students' attitudes in the classroom is perfect. I mean, some students say irrelevant things or ask the professor irrelevant questions. They often cut the good stream of the class. I want to say to them, "Think more carefully before you argue something." They are too selfish. When they want to be pointed and want to say something, they don't listen to others' opinion at all. They are just raising their hands and waiting for the professor pointing them. Stupid.lol. But, don't misunderstand what I am saying. There are very nice active people who say good point in the class sharply. I think, eventually, being active is very important even if their remark  are irrelevant to the class. It is better than silent.

Tomorrow, I have two classes. These are not my majors, which might be challenging for me. I hope I catch them.

By the way, today was very unlucky day.
First, I bent my room-key. It was about to split up and half of it was about to remain in the lock. Horrible. But I could change my key safely without any charge.

Second, I ate a fresh tomato (I mean, "a raw tomato" ) in the breakfast. In the middle I found there is big mold in the tomato!!! I can't believe it. Soon I threw up what I ate into the sink. I was very depressed when  I thought I ate mold... I don't want to be sick...

Dancing with...

From tomorrow, classes will start. I checked my classroom not to be lost anymore in campus. I am very looking forward to the courses. Therefore today is the last day for us to be free and relax or something. We had a dancing party for international party today, which I joined. Dancing was actually a folk dance. It was very difficult. I got confused  and  I didn't understand how to dance. But it was the first time for me to dance with a girl as a couple. lol.... I was little bit awkward, but I enjoyed. My partner was Taiwanese girl who is a transfer student of UCSD. That was a new experience to me. Trying to do anything is good. Then I have more than 20 Chinese friends.. Oops. I must learn Chinese. In China, there are some dialects. Mainly they are divided to three types: Mandarin, Cantonese, and Taiwanese. But interestingly each dialects are very different, so for example, students who speak Taiwanese cannot understand Cantonese at all. Vice versa. hahaha.

Speaking of language, all of them speak English well, and say to me, "There are many people who cannot speak English in Japan. Why?" uh,,,that is bad news again. It seems that we have to re-check our school English education curriculum, right?

I hope I can catch up the class tomorrow.

Chinese

Today, in the morning, I went shopping again and bought a knife ,a cutting-board and some vegetables. I will cook vege-saute. (Yasai-Itame) I want to get vegetables. I found it very convenience that we can have access to the supermarket which sells some Asian foods (including rice) by free bus. I can often go shopping. In the shopping I found some vegetables' shape are different from Japanese one. For example, carrot is very thinner than Japanese one, and the green pepper is bigger. I hope I can cool good vege-saute.


After I came back home, I was invited to Chinese food party. Chinese friends went to the Chinese market and they would make some Chinese foods. I wanted to have Asian tasting food, so I joined. They made "San-Ra-Tan" for us. It is like soup (little bit spicy). We ate it with rice(nice) So good. So much great. Asian food is great. Everyone is missing their home  food. I heard them saying today is a very important festival in China. That is why Chinese students gathered and made home-foods. Next time I have to cook Japanese food and invite them! After eating we had fun in chatting and teaching each language. I was taught how to ask girls out in Chinese. But, why are there so many people who can speak Chinese !? First of all, there are a lot of students who are from China, Taiwan, and Hong-Kong. They speak Chinese. Not only they, but also many students who are from Australia, or Europa can speak Chinese (to some extent). What is happening? Is the Chinese becoming one of the most powerful language?? I need to learn it! (Actually I had learned it for two years...haha... but I completely forgot about it.) If I can use Chinese, I can talk with my Chinese friends. Hah.... I should have learned Chinese seriously when I was a freshman and a sophomore.....

I will go to buy Chinese Textbook tomorrow. If I learn Chinese in English. I may happen to be able to improve both language skills. Killing two birds with one stone.

A week after I left Japan

It has been a week since I left Japan. Time flies...

Today, I joined the welcome freshman's festivals held in the big street on campus.
It was like "Shinkan" in Japanese. Many students who belong to student clubs or organizations try to invite us (Freshman) to join them. I got lots of free-food. This university's festival is very generous. I had hamburgers, pizza, doughnut, ice-cream, tacos, and so on. All of them were free. How nice! (hehehe, I ate too much. Oops! Then I forgot to do some exercise today. I need to go to pool again tomorrow.)

I looked at some booths and I noticed that I have wanted to join singing organization or chorus group. When I was in junior high school, we had chorus competition. I loved to sing very much. But since after entering high school, I haven't had good opportunities to do music. Actually in high school, I took music courses, but the teacher was bad..(and he didn't try to sing. He just made us watch music video,. Very much boring.) Then I decided to take the gospel chorus course. I think it'll be nice because I can have fun and get credits,  because it's a course! I am very appreciating that UCSD has a mucia department. Very nice. In addition to that, since I have seen a live of gospel chorus held by Sophia University's students, I have been interested in gospel chorus. So I'm looking forward to my classes so much! Can't wait.

Japanese...

Finally, I bought a rice cooker ! I can't stand no-rice life anymore and it was very inconvenient for me to have nothing to eat when I woke up. I went to the shopping mall near the UCSD by bus, and hung around there. Then I found La Jolla not urban city. There are a few people in the shopping mall on Sunday. In Japan there are a lot of family, couples, children or someone else in the shopping mall. Anyway I found a rice cooker there. It cost less expensive than I thought. ($30 !) After that I went a grocery store to buy something to cook for today's dinner. I found there are a lot of types of rices. They are made in Thailand, Italy, California, and India. I bought all of them. haha. I want to try which is the best rice. I also bought eggs, pork, and pepper. I wanted to make pork saute and omlet. That's very easy to cook.

Gettin back home, I started to cook. This was the first time for me to cook by myself. But it was just setting a rice cooker and bake pork and omlet. It was fun. I found cooking fun. I like it.

And I tried rice... That was wonderful! Japanese food! CHerrs! How nice it was. Beyond description. So much more than a sandwich.

At night, I joined the welcome dancing night...

That was crazy. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen. everyone was shouting, dancing. So many couples are dancing sexually, (surprisingly, it was true, They kiss again and again this public situation... and whatever,,,you know,,,,,,  I wonder this is an American style?? Japanese never follow them in Japan, I bet.)

At the same time, police officers were working at the dance party, because it happens that some could start to use 'drugs' in these crazy dance party. Scary... Actually, someone got arrested by them. He looked 'dangerous'...

American...

This morning, I wasted money on breakfast. I went to the Cafe in campus, but I didn't understand the system of that Cafe, so my breakfast cost $14. Crazy. Yesterday, I ate nothing in dinner, so i was very hungry. I took a lot of salads to my bowl. Salads cost per by its weight. maybe I took too much. I'm feeling like finding one of the difficulties of living by myself. If I have enough utensils, I will cook. But we have nothing, really nothing. We have only a pan, spoon, and knife, That's it. I want to buy and add some more utensils. I want to try to cook. (Though my room-mates seems not to do so)

Wasting much money on breakfast, I didn't have lunch. (How ""Healthy"")
I was facing the computer and thinking about which cellular phone I would use in the states in this afternoon. There are so many providers and plans. (at&t, Verizon, T-mobile,,,, and so on)
Every other international student seems to use verizon. But I found Hanacell, a provider only for Japanese who live in the states. (very specific!) That was very inexpensive. So I will get it.

In the evening, I was so hungry. unfortunately many of the restaurants on campus close at 6pm. I didn't have a chance to eat other than buying some foods at shop. I bought sandwiches again. lol.
The name of the sandwiches was 'Turkey breast', but I found it includes cranberry jams!! Weird. A friend of mine (American) saw it and said, "This is weird, isn't it? Actually I had the same one this morning. It shows "Turkey breast" at the show window, but it includes cranberry! What a f*ck! Would you like to change it? Why don't we refund it ? I' ll do instead of you!"

Then she went back to the shopkeeper, and complained so strongly about this sandwiches. Finally we won and got another sandwiches.(Cool) I was astonished at her power to complain. I heard it often happens in the States. (Suit often happens in the states.) Cool.

After that, I joined in a party, which was American style. Big (loud) dance bounce music and there are so many people standing and talking. Everyone is new to everyone. We are introducing each other many times. In Japan, we often go to drinking with very close friends. I also experienced American game for drinking. It is called 'King's cup' This is a very crazy game which forces participants to drink a lot. We use the cards. Each card has each rule. For example    1 is ""All players start to drink. The person who draws the card can stop first and it goes clockwise around them. You must continue to drink until the person to your right stops."" Kind of like that. crazy fun, American party is very crazy.But i thought they do not drink so much as I thought. We drink a lot. (haha) I mean, Japanese enjoy 'drinking' and become real crazy. American enjoy 'becoming crazy'


I didn't get out from the jet lag...

Oops

Oops, I overslept. I woke up at 11am today. it has been a while not to set alarm. Even in summer or spring breaks, my family woke me up at least until 9am or so. Living alone, everything is new to me. But the problem is that I don't have any breakfast when I got up. There is nothing to eat in refrigerator. I had to go out to eat something in this big campus, then as you can imagine, i got lost again. In going to eat breakfast, I got lost. I wonder why there is not any map or information in this big campus. After branch, I swam again. I felt I could swim more smoothly than yesterday. In training or anything, continuing is important. To tighten my body and keep good condition, I will exercise everyday.(I hope). In the afternoon, I went to Bon Fire (It's kind of like 'Camp Fire' in Japan). I was able to meet a lot of new people again there. But i cannot catch up with native speaker's conversation fully enough. Watching the same comedy drama with my room-mates(native-speaker), I can understand only half of it. Daily conversation is still difficult for me. I'll do make effort. In Japan, we can see, in a book or something, "We need these English proficiency : daily conversation." or "I cannot speak English well, only just daily conversation."

"Only just daily conversation" !!?? "only just"? I strongly feel daily conversation is the most difficult part of language skills. Classroom lecture English is very much easier.

I hear someone shouting outside. Today is Friday, so party is held here and there. American party is really 'party', crazy, not enjoying conversation (like Japanese 'Nomini cation') It's party. Crazy. Everyone is dancing, and shouting meaningless things, but fun.

Just getting used to...

Today, I don't have any plan in the morning, so I overslept till 9am, which was happy. But I didn't buy anything necessarily for daily life (even blanket for sleeping!). That's why I slept last night wearing several coats over and over. That's weird. I got up, I found there is no breakfast. (very natural things) To look for cafe or shops I can buy something to eat, I went out. In the middle of the way, I found a pool !!!

Soon, I got back to my room and grabbed my swim wear and headed for the pool. I haven't done any exercise for one month. (and I'm getting fat, to matters worse,,,5kg) I have wanted to exercise! I tried to swim in the pool. It seems very cold, because it is located outside, as you can see. But the water is warm and salty (strangely). I swam a little. that made me relax so much and stretch my body. I felt alive!! haha. sports is wonderful. I recognized the importance of sports or exercise in our daily life. I'm thinking about swimming everyday from now on. I maybe have time to do that, because I live within campus.

After swimming, I went to the store and bought sandwiches (again).
Food after exercise was awesome. Happy.

In the afternoon, I went on shopping with my suite-mate, Leslie (he's from Australia) by bus.
I had lots of things to buy. For example, blanket, pillow, rice-cooker, food, milk... anything.
Interestingly, there are so many types of milk. They are free-fat, natural, organic, almond taste(weird) and so on. The funniest thing is that there are "1% milk fat" and "2% milk fat". What is the difference? Do they make another product only by 1 % milk fat? Crazy. haha

I made one mistake. I should not have bought so much. I had so many big and heavy stuffs. To matters worse, we don't come by car. I  held heavy milk bottle and foods and big blanket and walked.

Finally we ate at the restaurant near store. That was a buffet style restaurant, and it cost about $10. That's very inexpensive, isn't it? I had eaten nothing and been so hungry since I ate sandwiches in the morning and that was the first time I can eat vegetable since I came to the States. That's why I took many amount of salad. I was happy.

Start day

Today, finally the orientation of UCSD started. I was a little bit nervous and excited. Then at the place I met foreign study abroad program students. (I felt strange to meet a friend I talked on Facebook in person today.) Anyway, I met and talked with them, and I found that so many people speak so many types of English. That is called 'accent', usually. But sometimes I cannot understand what some of them are talking about. Additionally, I really felt the blind wall between non-native speaker and native-speaker. As for me, I can talk very easily with those from China, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, Chili, or else. I can see what they are saying. On the other hand, it is a little bit difficult to get what native speakers say. For instance, British and American. I have to brush up my English more. I can't catch up their conversations. I can understand, but I still cannot have fun.

Plus, many of foreign friends cannot pronounce my name, 'Kosuke' correctly. Maybe that is difficult for them. I should have good nick name easy to call. Because of the difficulty of the pronounce of my name,everyone cannot remember my name easily and try to ask me my name again and again.
It's Ok, but considering in other Asian countries' students who have 'English name', I want mine, too. This is very interesting. That 'English name' is not official and made by themselves. Interesting.

Unexpectedly, Japanese is majority in this international students group. I found there are more than 8 students from Japan. I met some of them and said 'Hello', but I did use English,.lol.
Cause I want to make my English native-like as well as I can. Therefore talking with Japanese in Japanese is an obstacle for my success. Be careful not to use Japanese so much. (But at the same time, i think it is very cruel to continue to speaking Japanese to Japanese who are very nervous and feel lonely. That's why I say, 'not so much')

Anyway, I will be positive in many things.

By the way, I'm gonna be very busy from now on. Then i decided not to do the 'News Preview' here. Instead of that, I write everyday...

San Diego !

I finally arrived at San Diego !!
it was the first time for me to use such a long flight.(total, 11 hours)
The seat was tight and narrower than I thought.

I live in La Jolla, which is ocean city. there is great ocean ten minutes walk from my apartments.
Surfing is very popular in this area. i haven't done surfing, but I wanna try it while I am here.

Weather is bright shining, no clouds and cool wind, so I don't sweat at all.
I got right choice of the university.

And the UCSD is crazy big that I get lost so many times in the campus, as you can see.lol
Buses or cars are driving in the car. It takes about more than 30 minutes from the edge of the campus to the other side edge....

Today I ate delicious sandwiches in lunch, I found there were many restaurants which sell sandwiches.
That is also lucky for me, cause I love sandwiches, I may need not to buy rice,, .

While I was eating lunch, a girl student and a boy student sitting next to me talked to me and we had good conversations. They were very kind. I found American is kind or active to talk to someone often even if they do not know them. In Japan I haven't seen someone talking to some stranger much. Active and talking from myself is important in this country.

One day before leaving

Now my right hand is paralyzed a little bit, because I sent 'good-bye message e-mail' to so many people, which made my hand tired. But that is very happy to be able to report my condition or situation to many people. I will be nice to these all my good friends.

Anyway, I will leaving tomorrow. I am nervous and excited... It'll be OK even if I have culture-shock or home-sick. I can get over them. The most important thing is to be fun and to enjoy my study abroad life.

Today is the last day before leaving Japan, so I ate sushi, and took a bath enough. (Maybe I will not able to relax in a bath in the States. This 'taking a bath' is a kind of Japanese good culture. I'm going to miss taking a bath.)

 I hope this study abroad will be super nice to me. No, I will make this study abroad super nice..


/// News ///

Japan Times

'China said Saturday it has decided to postpone talks with Japan aimed at signing a treaty over joint gas field development in the East China Sea in protest over Tokyo's handling of a Chinese fishing boat that hit two Japan Coast Guard patrol ships near the disputed Senkaku Islands.'




Actually, I don't know about what the Senkaku Island is. But hitting the ships is not good. Why cannot China fight against Japan by words? Neither can Australia's environmental organizations. (I forgot the name... what is it? The organization protecting dolphins or whales...)


On the other hand, Japan seems not to have enough power to pressure on China. Does it relate to the amount or power of our Japanese military?? Whether we have good military or not, we should not be passive on such a international negotiation.

before leaving Japan

I have completed packing for study abroad today. Tomorrow, I am going to leave Japan for the states. I am excited and a little bit worried.

I wonder I can communicate with foreigners (who speak English very 'Fast') in English well. Can I make friends? Can I catch up with study? Can I come back to Japan safely without robbing or death (that is most important) Can I make a girl friend, at least good relationship?

Now let's check the aim of this study abroad.

First, I will touch foreign culture and get other perspectives than I live in Japan.

Second, I will experience American University. American University is well known to the world for its academic popularity or power. I want to meet a lot of people who are eager to study.

Third, I will improve my English very much higher to the native-like one.

Fourth, I will be independent from my family. Through this living alone abroad, I want to be independent from my family physically and mentally.

Fifth, I will make a lot of friends or connection with foreigners.

Sixth, I will have more academic knowledge.


To achieve these aims, I have to be patient, eager and diligent.

Especially, it is often said that English is not so improved even though we went to study abroad.
I have to be very careful about it.

Avoiding that, I decide my routine work to improve my English skills.

That is ..... 'Write down this blog every day.' Continuing is important.
I think I will be forced to read so many books in the class.
I can listen and speak English with my friends in everyday life.

But maybe I will not have as much opportunity for writing as reading, speaking and listening.

Therefore, I decided to write every day. Writing is very good for my English skills and for my future. First of all, practice of writing opinions or feelings is very good for me.

The content will include

1. What is happening today? Anything. Whatever.

2. Opinion or feelings about news. (Any news is OK. That can be from CNN, FOX, Japan-times, TIME, BBC, and so on.) To write this, I should read news in advance. I should quote one (or some) phrase(s) or opinion(s) from the news before starting writing.

Continuing is important.


Then I will do my best.

This study abroad is one of my big dreams, and this could be very good opportunities, which can change my life. I will not ruin this experience!! I'll do my best.

Justice

Finally, I finished reading the very popular book in Japan, 'Justice---what is the right things to do?' That was very great and sophisticated. We tend to think 'philosophy' or kind of things are very far away from us, difficult to understand. But this book made me have another perspective about philosophy. Thinking about very controversial things, or our world is more interesting than we think. I found that there are so many topics we should discuss in this world. What is the important is being not to avoid such discusses. Some people do not like to talk about difficult things publicly or privately. But we need to do that. We shouldn't be reluctant to do that.

I found I had to study more and more to discuss a lot of controversial topics like what is appeared in this book. I want to be able to think more deeply and more correctly.

Two weeks before leaving Japan

Now finally there are only two weeks before I leave Japan for San Diego. I am getting excited more and more. I have to check all the preparations have done.

Other than preparation for study abroad, I am relaxing very much. Actually I haven't had such a relaxing time to give myself rest since I enter the university. In this summer vacation, I see a lot of movies, read some books randomly and so on. There is no stress.

But at the same time, I am thinking about my future, what I am going to do, and what I will be.
I am interested in being researcher (professor of university) about linguistics and education, or high-school English teacher. I like to study. So I want to continue to study a lot of things more and more in my future. But being  a professor in Japan is very difficult. Many scholars who have PhD
can not get their jobs. Even if they have very high diploma, they cannot get the jobs. That's very sad. In my image, a professor does not have as much opportunity to communicate with people as high-school teacher. I want to communicate with people a lot in my work. But it is said, high-schools teacher is very ordinary job which anyone can be. My grand-mother said to me, you should do higher status work than high-school teacher. Yeah, actually there are some teachers who do not make efforts or work very hard and teacher are seen very 'ordinary'. But I can be a special teacher who teach students very much, who can communicate with a lot of people, who research own field, and publish his books.

Ah, I am thinking...

By the way, yesterday, I went to see film, "Toy Story 3"

That was great!! So much great!! I was moved too much to help crying..
Especially,  those who have seen "Toy Story 1" cannot stop their crying, because they know the background of the story and character. That is the story of graduation. Most moving scene was when Andy's mom was about to cry when she saw her son's room cleaned up. Maybe that reminded her of the memory of her son's child hood..

Anyway, very great..

You should see it !