Korean Church

I should have studied Korean…today I really felt so.

Although now we are on final exams term, I went to Korean church with one of my Korean friend. I had been to church some times since I came to the United States, but it was the first time for me to go to Korean church.

I’m not a Christian, I’m not really interested in church itself, but I just went there because of Korean food, which is one of my favorite foods. But I felt kind of guilty when I entered the church and joined them. Everyone was so kind to me, and everyone’s smile was so amazing! I really felt bad that I came there just because I wanted to eat Korean food.

Of course, Korean food was really good, as you can see it on the picture above, but more than that, I could enjoy the atmosphere of Korean community. I felt really comfortable among Korean people, which was kind of surprising to me because I have been studying English for a long time since I entered a junior high school, and now I can mostly understand what they are talking about in English. But I have never studied Korean and I can never understand what they are talking about in Korean at all. Nevertheless, I felt something in common with Korean people, which, I guess, must be because we are all Asian!!

Even if there is a "border" between Japan and Korea, we are all Asian. We have same kind of faces and same kind of attitudes. I saw many people bowed instead of hugging. It reminded me of Japan!!

I had thought I’m getting used to American way of greeting since I came here, but I still feel more comfortable with Asian way, I realized.

I’m arriving Japan around 10 days later. I’m really excited to meet my family, my friends, and my favorite baseball player, yu-chan! www And now I wanna add one more thing on my list of what I’m excited about going back to Japan, which is Japanese atmosphere. Even if I can’t see it with my eyes, I’ll definitely feel something comfortable that I was doing naturally everyday before I came here.

Oh, and I wanna go to Korea again. Hopefully I’m not gonna have a stomachache again because of too much Kimuch…unlike I did on the last travel to Korea.. it was horrible….www

BBQ

Can you find out a squirrel on the tree of this picture? ....It is on left of the picture!! Can you?

These days, it has been sunny everyday. I like this whether, warm and dry. But if I could ask something to this whether, I would definitely say… “Why didn’t you come here earlier?” Even if it’s only one week earlier, it would be great!! I just can’t understand why this beautiful whether came here at the same time with the final exam week. I wanted to enjoy more with this sunny day! Anyway, I took a walk around campus with one of my friend under this beautiful sunshine today!

After that, on the lawn in front of my dorm, many students were eating BBQ!! Oh, today is the day of farewell(?) BBQ, which I didn’t know until then. While eating BBQ on the lawn, I just remembered to have had a same BBQ at the same place in the beginning of the last semester just after we arrived here.

I was welcomed to come here by BBQ and I was said good bye to go back to Japan by BBQ. Isn’t it cool, huh?w

2 more weeks!

Since I wrote the last diary, how long has it been? Yeah, it’s been almost 4 months. I don’t know why, but I just wanted to post a new diary here again today. Of course, I am thinking that in the future, hopefully in the near future, I’ll write about something happening between the last diary, which is about San Francisco during WINTER break, and this new diary of today.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I’m gonna go back to Japan in almost 2 weeks!! Wow, I still can’t believe that. I’m definitely missing here.

Today, in a lunch time, I had a meeting with one of my professors and the other students who are taking a cultural Anthropology class, which I am taking. This meeting is required for AES students to attend weekly so that we, even AES students, can understand what’s going on in the classroom by reviewing the contents of it with one of AES professors in lunch time. Sorry, maybe you can't understand this audit system as long as you are not taking this course.. It's really difficult to explain it.... never mind!

Anyway, today’s meeting was the last one for us, but it was not so different from usual until the almost end of the meeting. We just explained what we learned from the Anthropology class of this week and sometimes asked each other some questions about what we couldn’t understand in the classroom, which is totally same as usual.

But just before the meeting ended, the professor looked almost crying and gave some comment to us, “Thank you guys! Good job you guys!” We were also almost crying, due to see the professors face and hear the comments she gave to us…

Everything will be over little by little, like that. I feel really sad to leave L&C, which gave me uncountable experiences that I would never face in Japan. Thanks, everything!! And then, after I’m gonna go back to Japan, I wanna start something new using these great experiences of here not to waste them. I have almost 5 months after this semester and before the next semester, which is in Japan again. I must be able to do something during the "free" 5 months.

My semester is almost done, except for the FINAL EXAMS!!!!!!!