Two News

Hi, everyone!
Sorry for late posting. I have been so busy days because I started a part time job from the beginning of October. …And I quit it 2 weeks ago! It was a kind of waitress at the restaurant. But that was Japanese traditional restaurant so I have to wear Japanese cloth, Kimono. Most of young women in Japan don’t know how to take it. So I learned it over 3 hours at my first day of working. It took me 30 minutes for me. It seemed to take more than 20minutes for everyone there. And the manuals and rules were very very very strict!!! I had to care about how to speak, how to bow, how to serve, how to walk, and so on. They were surely good experiences, but I never want to do again.
Yesterday, lighting ceremony of Christmas tree was held in our campus. As you know, AGU is Christian university. I attended it with my friend. The contents were performance of hand-bell, singing, and message from Bible. Everyone there had candles which were distributed at the beginning of the ceremony. At the climax of ceremony we lighted a fire from person to person. There were so many people. It was so fantastic.




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My Second Summer Vacation

Hi all! Sorry for late posting. I actually came back from Italy on Sep.24. And I’m sending busy days now. (I think most of AGUers so.) Today, I uploaded many photos which I took in Italy.
Italy was very nice!! There are so many historical buildings which are very gorgeous. I have never seen such beautiful and large and impressive buildings. We had only about a week in Italy. It was too short to enjoy whole Italy!!
I visited Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, Napoli and Pompeii. And I appreciate many famous arts there. For example, the Last Supper painted by Leonard da Vinci, the Last Judgment painted by Michelangelo and so on… They are bigger than I expected. I was so moved.
One of my dreams came true, which is riding a gondola in Venice. Cruise for 30 minutes was short for me. I wanted to enjoy it more.Venice was fulled of masks, which are good souvenirfor me. And my best city is Florence. I took a walk along the river for about 30minutes in the early morning. Florence is very beautiful and buildings are so cute!!
Lastly I think Italian foods are delicious!! Everything which I ate in Italy was very good. I had very nice days in Italy!


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My plan

Do you enjoy your summer vacation?
I’ll tell you about my plan. I’ll go to Italy at the end of my summer vacation. I’m very excited!! (But I think the best memory of this summer is experience in America.) I’ll go there with my mother and my older sister. My father will be in America for his work. So he can’t go. We’ll visit many places, which are Milan, Florence, Venice, Roma and the Vatican City. The place I’m looking forward to going to is Venice. Because I heard that Venice is very beautiful city and is called the city of water. I plan to ride the gondola. And I like Italian foods. So I want to eat many Italian foods in Italy.
I’ll upload many photos of Italy after coming back to Japan!!

Sea!!!

I and my friends went to the sea yesterday! It took me about 1.5hours to go Enoshima beach. It’s the nearest beach from downtown. I went to the sea for the first time in two years. Last year, I was very busy studying for the entrance examination. We were worrying about the weather until that day, because the rain continued for over a week. But, it was nice weather yesterday. We enjoyed playing in the sea. The sea was a little cold and salty! (Of course, I knew…) We were spoken by some boys and they asked us to ride JET SKI with them. So we could ride JET SKI for the first time. It was very fast and exciting!! (More than 40km/h) And I drove JET SKI!!! Actually, I can’t drive because I don’t have license to drive it. But I secretly did;-) We had very great time! I was sunburned…it’s also a good memory of sea.


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Pictures

I uploaded many pictures which I took in America. Check it now!

End of the Beijing Olympic

I’m watching the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympic on TV just now. This Olympic had so many troubles before the beginning of Olympic, which are Tibet problem, boycott of opening ceremony and so on. We thought and discuss these problems in Heather’s class. Then, I said Olympic should not be disturbed by political problem because it’s a purely sports festival and athletes’ aim. I was worrying about this Olympic, but it succeeded without any trouble. And I’m very happy to hear that 38 world records were established. The moment I think the most impressive was a recognition of volunteers. I heard a story of volunteers. A beach volleyball player lost his wedding ring in his game. After that, many volunteers looked for his ring by using metal detector. Lastly, they found it from sand!! I was really moved to hear that story. The player won gold medal! It’s an amazing story, isn’t it??
I think this Olympic went well thanks to many many volunteers, which are 17million people. I want to say thank you to them and all of athletes. It was very nice Olympic!

I miss you!!

We didn’t go to the bed in the last night. We assembled to one room in the hotel and enjoyed playing cards, chatting, billiards, eating Japanese food which Ayumi brought from Japan. We had a very good time.
We secretly planed surprise party on the bus to the airport. All of mentors and teachers look so surprised. So we were very happy. Actually, I chose the postcards for each of mentors and teachers: )
It’s very hard to say good-bye at the airport. We hugged each other and promised to keep in touch.
We finally left from America. Experiences in two weeks were very exciting and impressive. All in America are my treasures. I’ll never forget. I promise to keep in touch with you!!


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Putt-Putt

This is my last post from Maryland. We will miss teachers, mentors and all of friends in America.

Yesterday, we went to the Hornbake Library for tour. We studied a lot of things about Japanese books after the war. After having gone to Target, which is a department store we went to play putt-putt. It was first time for me to play golf. It was really exciting and made a lot of fun!!! Afterwards, we lay on the hill. Some of us rolled down from the top of the hill. It was really fun!! Some of them were feeling bad…

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The Most Famous Spots in DC

Yesterday we went to the most famous spots in Washington, DC. One is the Capitol Building. The inside was very beautiful and there were many statues. And we saw an assembly hall. I think it’s similar to Japanese assembly hall. Afterwards, we walk very long way to the White House. Finally we could watch the White House from far away. I was very tired. No more walking…

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Good Time at Nikki's House

Yesterday, we went to the Voice of America, which is a broadcasting station. We studied a lot of things through the tour. And we had lunch in three groups. I was in Nikki’s group, which was just girls. So we enjoyed talking about love. It was really fun! Then we returned to the hotel and went to Nikki’s house by van. Nikki’s house was wonderful!!! It has a basketball court, a pinball game, billiards, wii and a hammock. Of course it was really big and foods which are made by Nikki’s parents and Heather were very delicious! We enjoyed playing some games. Nikki’s parents are very nice. We had a very time. Thank you!


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Washington Monument

We went to the top of Washington Monument yesterday. It was very high and we can see the capital, white house and some famous spots in DC. We will go to some of them. So I’m looking forward to visiting there. It was really good place.

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Enjoy Volleyball

After visiting the National Air & Space Museum, we went to the campus to play the volleyball on Saturday. It was really fun! We played some games and our team won all our games and became champion!! I wish we play volleyball again.

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Exciting Baseball Game!

Last Friday was a very nice day. We went to Baltimore by bus and visited two museums. One has a very cute shop and some of us enjoyed shopping there. Masahiro bought a tow-headed baby which I named Shorn and Chris. The other has very cute and interesting exhibitions. Then, we went to the Inner Harbor and rode in Water taxi! I felt good in the taxi. Afterwards, we watched a baseball game. Actually I don’t like baseball very much. But this game excited me and I really enjoyed the game and fireworks show!!! We had a very good time.

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How Interesting Newseum is.

We went to the Newseum yesterday. It means News and Museum which exhibits political news. For example we watched the wall of Berlin, 9.11 news photographs and Pulitzer Prize photographs. They were very interesting for me. I bought a Pulitzer Prize photographic collection. It cost me $40. It was a little expensive. But I think it was a very good buy! In the evening, some of us and Mike went to play billiards. Most of us have never played it. So I explained rules and played with them. It was very fun!!! We had a very good time today.

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Students who are studying Japanese

Students of AGU met students of University of Maryland who are studying Japanese. We ate lunch together and talked about Japan, America, school life, family, friends, and so on. We taught English and Japanese each other. It was very interesting that I talked with Non-Japanese about Japan. I cannot understand Japanese values well because I’m Japanese. So today’s experience was very good opportunity to know more about Japan. We had a very fun. Afterwards, we met mentors and went to the Kennedy Center. And we could listen to very exciting jazz concert for free. It was so nice!! Then long way for dinner made us very tired. We chose sushi for dinner which was a little expensive and had to walk very long way. It was good but I like Japanese sushi better. I enjoyed today very much.

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Alexandria and Georgetown

We went to Alexandria and Georgetown yesterday. I saw many old buildings, houses, and even carriages in Alexandria. They were very beautiful and nice. Nikki’s group members ate pizza for lunch. It was very delicious. And we took a boat trip to Georgetown. I felt very good on the boat. We enjoyed shopping at Georgetown. I bought body soap which has strawberry smell. Afterward, we took a rest on the grass and played the cards. Nikki taught us how to play “Crazy Eight”, and I taught her how to play “Wink Killer”. We had a very good time. We ate Mexican food for dinner which was very spicy. Yesterday was very busy day, and I had very good time.

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Staff

We were welcomed by program staff at the Airport. Teachers are Heather and Nina. They taught me how to make a blog and checked my English. Mentors are Nikki, Joe and Mike. They are very kind to me. We talked about daily life or something in Japan and America. Last night we chose mentors and ate out. It was good!

First Post from Maryland

Hi! My name is Kyoko. I’m an Aoyama Gakuin student in Japan. Now I’m in Maryland because I'm participating in summer program in America. My major in university is international politics. There are many things which excited me. I’m looking forward to visiting many places here. Our trip to America was very long and I was so tired yesterday. But thanks to good sleep I’m fine today. I hope I enjoy this program and improve my English.

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