My favorite event of February

Time passes by so fast.  It feels like spring semester just stared yesterday and now we are almost half way through the semester. February is one of my favorite month because it is cold. Yes, I like cold weather. Despite the freezing temperature outside, there are many events going on campus that students cannot miss. One of my favorite is International Tea Time. For those of you who are not familiar with the event, International Tea Time is organized once a month by the Office of International Relation, Campus Board Activity and International Leadership Council. Students come to enjoy a cup of tea, some snacks and most important, meet new friends. The main purpose of the event is to create an opportunity for international students to meet with new American students.

                                                    International Tea Time flyer of last semester

However, the International Tea Time of this February is an unusual one. Coincidentally, the event is on the same day as the Lunar New Year. Therefore, Lunar New Year was the theme of the Tea Time. The snack was purchased from a local Asian market. Participants really enjoyed the unique experience, especially the New Year food items.  

     

My culture shock in winter break

As for my winter vacation, I went to Florida, Las Vegas, Arizona and Cancun. You know I’m already broke but this vacation became unforgotten trip for me.

 I won’t be able to explain everything. So I’d like to describe roughly my culture shock during my winter break.
 

 【Thanks my mom, Latasha and Beau】 Before starting the winter vacation, my mom came to Fort Smith from Japan and had dinner with my buddy Latasha. I was pretty afraid if she can make it safely because she cannot speak English at all. All she said to Latasha were THANK YOU and SORRY, that’s it… So I tried to translate what American people say for her. As for dinner, Latasha cooked Mexican and Venezuelan food for us. That was so yum and we liked them so much. All because of them, we could have a great time in Arkansas. I really appreciate Latasha and Beau.
 

【The worst celebration on New Year ’s Day ever.】

I arrived at the Cancun on 31^st December. I went there with my friend who comes from New Mexico in the United State. Her name is Moe and she is also exchange student. We thought it should be nice celebration in Cancun... but not gonna happen that.　At 11:50 we went to the Downtown area and waited for the celebration. However, nobody celebrated at 0:00 on 1^st January 2015… they didn’t care about new years at all…what happen was that the clock of the building is just broken… oh my goodness. Everyone finally celebrated at 0:05. It had nothing to do with New York year anymore though. That is my culture shock about time value in the winter break

【How sweet Mexican are】

To compare with Japanese, I personally thought that Mexican people were so sweet and talked to us for many times. So we could go anywhere without tours. That became much cheaper than I thought. Also one of my favorites in Cancun is definitely snorkel because there are lots of senotes (showing photos blow) and spots. And any beach was awesome and the best ever for me….

【How important Language is】                
 I had kind of confident to get over everything because I can speak English, but not gonna be easy to spend in Cancun without Spanish. Even thought Cancun, almost all Mexican couldn’t speak English. I was struggling with the most is that I could not speak Spanish at all. Also it was kind of funny because whenever we communicated with them, we tried to use the gestures somehow from fingers to body. We were so desperate to tell them what we wanted... By the way, it was pretty hard for me to plan our schedules because my friend did not help at all. We had a great time in Cancun freely for a week.
 

Memories of Winter Break

　During my winter break, I went to Philadelphia and New York City. The primary reason I chose two these places because I wanted to visit both historical and modern sites of the United States. In Philadelphia there are brick built-houses and stone-paved road. It was pretty. I felt like I had stepped back in time. I like Philadelphia because the time flows slowly in there. I visited the Liberty Bell, City Hall and Love Park. 
Since it was season of christmas, there was a gigantic tree in the City Hall. And christmas market took place in Love Park. It was the first time for me to visit christmas market, so I was really excited. The market had various stores and they sold christmas ornaments made of wood or glass. There was also ice skate rink and many people enjoyed skating.


　After that, however, an unexpected problem happened suddenly. Initially I was going to ride a bus which goes to New York City on next morning so that I had to confirm the location of the bus stop. I visited the tourist information center to ask about it. I had known that the bus stop are located in the area named Cherry Hill. So I just wanted to know how to get there. I asked a female staff but she answered 'I don't know'. 

I could not accept her answer. Because I was sure that when I searched about Cherry Hill on Google, I found the results of "Cherry Hill Philadelphia". Though I asked again with showing the map, she answered 'No...', and she continued that 'it is New jersey, not here'. In short, I had bought the ticket which departs from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. I was depressed because I thought I couldn't go to New York and I didn't know how many seats are still available. I almost hate the sound of Cherry Hill. But I had no choice but to find another ticket immediately. Luckily, I could use my phone and find new ticket from Philadelphia to New York. It could have been worse.

　Although something unexpected had happened, I enjoyed exploring New York City from morning till night. New York is completely different place from Philadelphia and Fort Smith, of course. There are tons of people and cars and they move so busily. I got tired easily in there. Sometimes I wondered where I was. It was hard for me to walk without city map seriously.

First I visited the modern museum called MoMA which I had wanted to visit. It was valuable experience for me to visit there. In the afternoon I went to broadway and watched Cinderella. Since I had known the story of Cinderella, it was not so difficult to follow their English and understand the story of the show. At the same time I remembered that I had watched broadway show in London. At the time, I could hardly understand the story and fell asleep in the end.　　
　Through the trip I could see the both traditional and modern places in America. It was great time. After the trip, I stayed in my home. I have spent the rest of my winter break watching Japanese comedy program or movies and hanging out with other Japanese students. I could enjoyed my winter break, and I want to go to New Orleans next time!

My winter vacation

My winter vacation

My winter vacation was great thanks to my friend, Haruka. I went to traveled in Montreal, Quebec City, and New York City. Haruka is now studying abroad in Vancouver in Canada. Also, we have known each other since we entered our university in Japan and we belong to the same volunteer group. So, she always gives me a stimulus. Anyway, I’ve been very looking forward to seeing her. My trip was awesome. I will show some pictures with a short description.

 

The first picture is what I took in Notre-Dame Basilica. It is a famous for sightseeing place to go. In 1994, Céline Dion held a wedding ceremony here. The stained glass windows are also very beautiful, the sun shining. If you have a chance to go to Montreal, I want to recommend you to visit there.

 When we went to Quebec City from Montreal, we took a train. I was very excited because it has been a long time since I took it last in Japan. The most interesting thing in Montreal and Quebec city was that people speak French as a first language. So most of billboards were written in French and I couldn’t understand what they said. I thought as if I was in Europe because it is the first time to experience like that. In Quebec city, it was more like Europe because it is a small city and many shops stand side by side. The scenery from the hell was very beautiful.

In Quebec city, we can enjoy “Quebec” dish. As examples of it, there are meat pie or meatball. Actually, I ate meat pie and maple pie as a dessert. The lunch in the Quebec restaurant was one of my best memories in this trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After five days since we met again, I flied to a busy city, New York. It was the second time to go there for me, so I used to take subway better than the last time. We went to a lot of places anyway in New York. In MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), I could see famous arts and enjoy knowing the background of production. And also, we watched a Broadway musical “PIPIN”. The show was definitely amazing. I liked the songs too.

 

On Christmas day, you know, most of shops are close. we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral for a mass in the morning. And then, we took pictures in front of Rockefeller Center. If I say about my regret during this trip, we forgot about taking pictures of the tree in front of Rockefeller Center at night... But instead of that, we could see the night view in Brooklyn Bridge. It was so amazing!! I loved that.

In this trip, I compared the taste of croissant. So I will put the picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The trip with her was very precious for me. It was lucky for me to see my closest friend in the places where we study abroad. The time with her became my energy for the rest of the day on my studying abroad. I really thank to my friend and my family.

My Winter Vacation

During this winter vacation, I traveled in Nevada, Arizona and Florida. As soon as I was done for my final exam, I went to Las Vegas to see my parents. When arrived there at night, I was overwhelmed by the city filled with a bunch of glaring lights. Since came in U.S., I had not ever seen such a crowd and lively atmosphere. At second day, we went out from hotel to take a walk in the morning, but the city looks totally different from the last day’s one. Only a few people are there and many shops are still closed even just before noon. At that day, we watched some interesting shows hotels held and eat too much at a Buffet restaurant. At third day, we woke up at 7 a.m. to get to the Grand Canyon in a tour package. While it took more than four and a half hours to get to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas by a van, I was not falling asleep because the road from Nevada to Arizona was interesting to me. As we had been drove from Las Vegas for just the past 15 minutes, the view was totally changed. When we passed by a residential area of about 1 kilometer length, we could see a huge arid area I had not ever seen before. There are no factory, no train and even no housing. I thought Nevada State is literally made up of casino and tourism. After kept going through arid region about 2 hours, we could reach at one small village. There is a gift shop with a barber shop a person who save “Route 66” runs.  Staffs in there are unique and can speak Japanese a little bit. We enjoyed talking with them and taking lots pictures of the historical village and gift shop. After leaving there, a view had been changed gradually. Arid zone came to vast ravines towering. As we drove more, we were surrounded with forests and finally reached the Ground Canyon National Park. We headed to near the Grand Canyon on our feet. When I reached to the top of the canyon at last, I was really impressive for magnificent view. It was so huge that I felt like it absorbed me into the canyon. And luckily, we could see the Ground Canyon with a little snow, which does not happen too much. It was quite beautiful. We got a bus to see the sunset with the canyon and were waiting for the time of sunset more than 30 minutes during minus centigrade. Unfortunately because of plenty of clouds, we could not see the sunset clearly. I want to make it again to see it.  As well as the view of the canyon, I was surprised that I can watch wild animals closer than zoo. When we are waiting for a bus at bus stop, I saw a very big deer of more than 150 centimeters long standing almost next to me. It was exciting for me because there are nothing such as cages in the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon came to one of my favorite places in U.S. 

 UAFS is a member of the NCAA D II. An outsanding university must have an solid athletic programm. Here we are, the university since becoming a member of the NCAA ( National Collegial Athletic Association) has proven by multiple wins of its conference.  Last night, the volleyball women's team hosted a conference game against St Mary's University.  Students, staff, faculty members came out to support our lady Lions. It was realy fun. More fun with the win of the ladies by 3 sets to nothing. The game was intense, every set was toughly fought, as we know our ladies did not give up. Each home game not matter the sport , is a get together for students , staff and faculty member to cheer our school athlets and show our pride.  The most intersting fact about the volleyball team is that, we have three international student-athlets. They are from Brazil and Serbia. The are outstanding players and students too.  So far the Lady lions are leading the conference and are in a good position to finish strong. They are also better than ever with the experienced coaching staff.
 The  UAFS lady lions are takindg on the TAMUI lady dustdevill tomorrow at noon.
Go lady lions!!!!!

Last Wednesday, the  UAFS housing office provided a free dinner to students tha lives in the  Sebastian Commons. UAFS has two different set of housing. The Sebastian Commons are apartment for upper level and older student. It was a great opportunity to meet  all the students and share some of our different background. We also made new friends and the food was good (kebab).  The atmosphere was friendly. UAFS is the perfect place to study abraod. The multicity of  the faculty and students allows a welcoming environment. FEEL THE ROAR!!!!!!!!!!