When Life Gives Me Lemon

     This study abroad program is lemons for me because some bad things have continuously happened.  First, our trips were cancelled.  Second, all other events which I was looking forward to, such as home stay, shock football game, shrine circus, and blooms day, were also called off.  Finally, we will have to go back to Japan on Tuesday.  Corona virus is spreading both in Japan and in the U.S. and each government has started restricting those who enter the countries.  Though I know I must receive this bad situation, I’m extremely sad and disappointed.  If we were able to continue studying English at MFWI, we could learn more about American culture and real conversation.  Unfortunately, we can’t do that anymore, which is too bad for us.  However, if we give up now, we will waste the time when we stayed at MFWI with our RAs and teachers, so we must continue studying English hard.  In Japan, I intend to keep studying English in the same way I had been studying at MFWI, and I will touch real English.  For example, I will watch a lot of movie in English and BBC news, keep studying TOEIC exam, and speak English as much as possible through contacting my teachers, my RA, and my friends.  Therefore, life is giving me lemons just now, so now is the time when I make lemonade out of lemons.

Reverse Culture Shock

     There are three things which I realized after I came back to Japan.  First, in the airport, I was really relieved to meet my family and I realized that my parents and relatives were extremely worried about me.  This is because they had heard corona virus was spreading rapidly in the U.S.  In fact, the number of corona patients in the U.S. got the most in the world on March 26.  Second, I got tired of Japan in a few days.  Though I love Japan and I’m happy to stay with my family, I feel a little bored now.  This is because I can’t feel stimulated in Japan.  While I stayed at Spokane, I could learn a lot of new things about American culture and vocabulary every day.  Third, the dampness in Japan annoys me because the dampness causes a lot of trouble.  For example, my hair is easy to receive bad influence from moisture, so the dampness makes my hair messy and makes me feel unhappy.  On the other hand, Spokane is very dry, and the dryness had a bad effect on my body.  However, my skin cream could stop my body from getting dry, so the dryness didn’t make me uncomfortable.  In short, I’m happy to see my family but I miss MFWI and Spokane.

I Need English!!

I need English for two reasons.  First, I need English for my future.  I haven't decided what my dream is going to be yet, but I intend to work in Japan using English.  In the future, I would like to join an airport ground staff, have a job related to sightseeing, or have another job that required English.  If I work as an airport ground staff in the future, I will be able to talk with a lot of people from other countries.  Also, if I work at a site which is popular with people from other countries, such as Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, or Kyoto, I will be able to talk to them too.  According to a survey, more than 31 million international tourists visited Japan in 2018.  Therefore, I need to study English in order to be able to communicate effectively with them.  Second, I think English makes me a more global citizen.  I started studying English in junior high school for the first time.  At first, I couldn’t understand English at all.  However, I began to understand English gradually, and I started being more interested in English because I was happy to be able to understand sentences written in English, such as signs in the town, books, and packages of imported items.  In addition, I realized that English could connect me to people from around the world, which is really wonderful.  In conclusion, I’m learning English for my future and in order to be a more global citizen.

Bus Orientation

     Today, we had Bus Orientation and went to Northtown.  That was our first outing, so I was very glad to go out.  In this orientation, I found some surprising and interesting things.
     Firstly, I found that how to get off a bus was different from Japan.  In Japan, we push the button to ask the driver to stop the bus when we want to get off.  On the other hand, I saw people pull a rope before they got off.  I felt the difference interesting. 
     Secondly, traffic signals counted down and told us the time when the signals turned red.  Also, we visited many places: North Mall, Riverfront Park, and Walmart.  We had only 20 minutes to do shopping at Walmart.  I intended to buy the chocolate which my RA had given me, but I couldn't find it.  It was a new item, so it had run out.  I was unhappy that I couldn't buy it, but I got two other kinds of chocolate.  One of them contained 12 pieces of chocolate, so I enjoyed exchanging them to other kinds of chocolate which my friends bought.  In the end, I was happy to get several kinds of chocolate.  However, I jogged in the morning and we walked for a long time, so I was very tired.  I could sleep well.

My First Week

     I am very surprised about two things in Spokane.  The first thing is the dryness.  Spokane is very dry, so our RA said to us, “You must eat a lot of fruit and vegetables and drink seven cups of water.”  However, I don’t like fruit or raw vegetables, and I don’t like juice or water, so I can’t drink enough water.  Also, my room was very hot for a few days, so my skin got quite dry.  My body requires more water.  I am suffering from dryness.  However, I have begun to eat more vegetables and drink a few more water gradually.  
     Secondly, I was surprised to see some Common’s staff wearing earbuds while they are working.  I think that they are working listening to music.  In Japan, we usually can’t work and listen to music on our music player at the same time, but I wish we could work while listening to music because the Common’s staff looks happy.  Also, they are very friendly.  Most of them say, “Hello” or “How are you?” to us, so I like them.

Introduction

okonomiyaki

Hello, my name is Yuzuna.  I live in Akashi, Hyogo with my family.  There are four people in my family.  My father works as an architect for the company which build houses.  He likes driving, so he takes us to the places where we want to go by car.  Also, he likes eating and cooking.  On his holiday, he cooks okonomiyaki, gyoza dumpling, and so on for us.  My mother is very kind.  She encourages me whenever I’m feeling depressed, so I like her very much.  We often go shopping together.  My brother is a last year student at Kinki University and studies architecture.  He has finished his graduation thesis, so he is going to start working in April.  He will work at Fukuoka, which is quite far from Hyogo, so he won’t be in my house when I came to Japan.  In my free time, I like going to shopping, swimming, running, or talking with my friends.  In the future, I want to work in Japan using English, so I would like to have a job relating to sightseeing.  Finally, I want to learn a lot about American culture, enjoy talking with American people, and get high score at TOEIC test, so I intend to study hard and have a lot of fun in Spokane.