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 !

After Swim Champ

I finally finished my swimming races. Since I became a menu-maker in Sophia Univ. Swim Team, I have made a lot of effort to make a strong team, to make my team-mates faster, to make us enjoy swimming. But the work was very responsible and hard for me. That is because our team is very diverse, so each member's hope or aim is very different. Practicing together such each diverse member is very difficult. I want to feel "We are the team." Feeling such things, I have done my work for this one year.

After the championship, I want to thank to the seniors. They are kind, powerful, entertained, and strict. All the seniors are teachers for me. I have a very good memory for each senior.

Thanks to them, I could finish and achieve this my menu-makers work.

At the same time, I finished my swimmer-life as an individual swimmer.


Thank you, SUST!

Thesis

It has been about two weeks since the new semester started. From this semester, actually I start to prepare for writing a thesis. That is  very early for me, junior. But I am going to study abroad from this September one year. Then I have to register the course of writing thesis. (Independent study?) I found I have to read a lot of books to decide the theme of a thesis. First I have to know about my major field well to start preparing for a thesis. The problem is that I have too many books (countless) to read for preparation. I want to get an ability to read fast. It is said, we can read very much faster if we train. But I don't believe it is true...