Clarify 

For those of you getting email notices saying I had new blog but with only pictures… 

I AM NOT 

Anyone who have seen my previous blogs and with a little bit trust in my personality can easily see this by clicking into my blog homepage and read the LATEST VERSION. 

Why this happened? Because I took photos with my CELLPHONE not my LAPTOP, so it’s easier for me to upload pictures with my phone. However, everyone will agree that you can TYPE FASTER on your computer but not your phone. So what I did is FIRST upload all photos I have for the blog, THEN EDIT the new blog with my laptop. 

…although I don’t know if I have the enthusiasm to continue making my blog interesting and detailed. 
I know this blog is super mean and not appropriate. But it’s 12:30 in the night, my brain is not functioning and cannot stop myself from being extremely angry. Say it out it’s the best way I have to stop me from crying right now. Let’s see how tomorrow goes. 

Tokyo Sky Tree （7/17）

Surprise! — Although 7/17 is Monday, it’s still a national holiday!!

It’s called “海の日”– day of seas. A holiday in the summer for people to go our and have fun. Similarly they also have day of mountains, 山の日.

Today the family went to Tokyo~ I told them I always wanted to go to the sky tree, so they took me there.

Turned out the Sky Tree is not only a super high tower, but they also made it into a super market. They were selling “Kin-mei-dai,” literally “the golden eye fish.”

Views at 350m above the sky! I like city buildings more than country views, so this was a really good time for me.

Kids were also having fun.

The glass floor! It was actually not very scary cause it has the black bars on it.

Latter that they we went to the park near the house. They were having a small event, and it’s free to enter if you wear Wafuku.

Yokohama! （7/16）

Today we went to Yokohama together~ Except for the eldest son. Seemed that he interested in games more.

We drove to Yokohama passing the “Umi-hotaru,” which literally means “sea fire flies.” It is actually an under-sea tunnel take you across the Tokyo bay.

We went to the 赤レンガ倉庫, which is a shopping mall with fashion Japanese products.

Later in Yokohama we found that there was actually a summer festival in the park!

We had some shaved ice, which is a traditional sweet to have during summer festivals.

Later we found an amusement park to kill time before the firework show.

I played one of the rhythm game, and surprisingly found out that they have my favorite song in there!

After the game center we stayed another 20 mins for the firework show~ Have two videos down here.


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About my host family

My host family is awesome! I like them so much.

As mentioned before, there are three kids in the family. Rino and Haruki are really lovely… especially when Haruki come and hug your leg with smile on his face… Rino is a good kid all the time. She won’t cause any trouble, and will ask you to play with her politely. Hibiki is more grown up than the two, and is in the time period like showing off. It’s easier to talk to him after knowing that. He is still lovely, and we are having fun time play game together.

The mother, Yuka, is working as a baking teacher. She taught me how to bake melon-pan last Friday.

 


The father, Kei, is from western part of Japan, so he knows how to cook tako-yaki!

 

The family treat me so well. It’s kinda said when I realize there’s only a month left for me in Japan… I’m going to miss them so much!

Second week in SALC

After 6/26, I started my second week working in SALC. My onsite supervisor made me a nice schedule with various of events. I listed students’ presentations, attended a few professor discussion meetings, and also gave my own workshop on Saturday 7/1.


The workshop I had was majorly targeting at Japanese students. I wanted to talk about some of my own personal experiences and encourage them be more brave at speaking English. Sadly, it was a rainy day Saturday, only 3 students came to the workshop.

Weekend (6/24&25)

I went to Disney sea with my host family on Sunday! It was actually my first time at Disney so I was really excited, but not as excited as the kids in my host family: they started packing stuff two days ahead, and only slept for a few hour the night before.

(There are three kids in the family. The eldest, Hibiki, is a 12-year-old boy, Rino, the only girl in the family, is 8 years old, and the youngest boy Haruki is only 6 years old. They are angels. ) Two younger kids were excited, but the eldest one is only interested in video games just like me. He agreed to go because I said we could play Monster Hunter together while we were waiting in line.

Sunday rained heavily. Just about the time I was thinking that’s gonna lessen our waiting time, I was told that we have to wait for two hours for the new opened Nemo ride. We waited two hours in the rain. But it was good to see that Rino and Haruki enjoyed it.

(Bunch of people waiting in the rain)

Good news was that the rain stopped after we get off the Nemo ride, so we started wondering around in the land. Hibiki and I started our journey of Monster Hunter 4G. My favorite  ride was the Toy Story Mania, where you shoot the target while riding on the cart. We got a fast pass for the first ride, and after that, since the ride was so fun, Hibiki and I decided to wait for I more ride, which caused us 100 mins. However, we slain a fair amount of monsters, so it was a good time of waiting.

(Hibiki and I playing game)


While Hibiki and I were slaying monsters, my host mother (Yuka) and Haruki went to the Tower of Terror, which was the kind of ride I would never get on. I was pretty impressed that Haruki didn’t cry after he got back.

But… Haruki DID cry… after he knew we were leaving. Guess that was all kids do after they had a great time. Even Rino seemed disappointed. But they are kids… after a night of sleep they suddenly back to normal. 🙂

Trying the app out

Ok so I got the WordPress app and should be easier for me to post photos on it. 

This is a current event we have at SALC! Students write Haiku in English and everyone can vote. Also I don’t know why but someone drew a cockroach on the board and that’s both gross and funny. 

First day of internship

Firstly, sorry I don’t have many pictures for the recent blogs… After I update my iphone system and get the wordpress app on my phone, there are definitely gonna be more photos!

 

Yesterday two nice thing happened: I made a friend in my internship site, and I met with my home stay family!

 

First, friend. When we were at the IES Tokyo center to get orientation, I was introduced to Sam, who was currently learning in Kanda university as an exchange student, and also working in SALC, where I’m going to have internship.

She was so warm and friendly, remind me all of my friends back in US. She briefly talked some of her duties, and that really eased my tension! She is working on Wednesday and Saturday, so we also had a fun time today 🙂

 

Then the host family…

They are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO nice!

The host mom is really kind. The IES faculties told us that maybe we need to do laundry and cleaning on our own, but my host mom said she is going to do all those for me. I’m gonna cry…

And she bakes! What wake me up this morning wasn’t my alarm clock but the smell of freshly baked bread… Delicious.

There are three kids in the family. Two smaller kids are still in primary school and they are like angels… We played together for the entire afternoon yesterday.

The kids are also going to training classes beside school. They learn violin and gymnastics.

The host dad is also kind, though he usually came back late. The parents and I had a more formal talk last night and he told me about his work. He had been to so many places all over the world! Europe counties, US and even China.

 

And, this morning, I went to the SALC (need to find out what exactly that stands for) of Kanda Univeristy of International Study.

I talked with my onsite supervisor and settled my working schedule. It’s actually quite flexible: four days a week from 10-6 and I got to pick which day to work! First day is basically orientation, so someone showed me around the university and the SALC center.

Looks like everyone (faculties and advisers) knows I’m coming… made me kind of nervous.

Anyway… I also worked today! I had some nice conversation with the students here. They are willing to talk to you and are all very nice… I felt welcomed.

It rains heavily today… I need to walk back home in such a heavy rain…