Two sports remind me of Maryland!

Finally, the Beijing Olympics had ended. There were a lot of impressing memories such as swimming race, soft ball, sprint, and so on. Each of the players was fantastic. Their efforts were respectable. I like every sport. Especially, I enjoyed watching basketball games. I watched semi-final, America vs. Argentina. The Argentine team was strong on defense. And the captain (maybe, his name was Scola) was a nice player. However, the American team played well and finally, they won the game! Then, they won the Spanish team and got gold medals. Congratulations! Yesterday, I went to Odaiba and went a batting center. It was very fun. These two things, watching basketball game and going a batting center, remind me of the good memory in Maryland. I want to see you, Nikki, Mike, Joe, Heather, and Nina!!

P.S. Nikki,
Your story was very interesting!

I'm in Japan!

Yesterday, after long flight, we arrived at Narita Airport. It was very hot and wet day. I ate sushi for dinner. It was delicious! I drank Japanese green tea (not sweet!) Everything in Japan is wonderful! But…I miss America. Last two weeks were special. I had a very good time in Maryland and Washington, D.C. Nikki, Joe, Mike, Nina, and Heather, Thanks a lot! Thanks to you, we could have nice experiences. I’m proud of you and I love you!

And I want to say thank you to agu students for having fun with me. I could have a good time because you were very funny and kind. I want to see you soon!

Last post at UM.

Today, we have our last classes! So this is the last time to post in UM.

Yesterday, Heather gave us nice presents; some chocolate, a pencil case, and a letter! Today, we will have presentation in Heather’s class. We will talk about the best thing of our experiences. I can’t decide what I will talk about because everything was wonderful and exciting!

After lunch, we went to a library and listened to a story about newspapers or books which were published after World War Two in Japan. It was an impressive story. Then we went bowling, which I had wanted to do since many days ago. I’m not good at bowling but I like it! Nikki was very good at bowling, but at last, Hippo (Masatoshi) won Nikki! We enjoyed bowling a lot.

Then we went to some supermarkets with Mike, Joe, and Nikki. Many of us bought a lot of snacks for gift. I like American supermarkets because they sold almost everything. We had dinner at a fast food. I found some foods I had never eaten before.

After that, we went to a sports center. I tried batting with Tomoko and Risa. It was very difficult so Senpai coached us. It was very fun.

I can’t believe that we leave Maryland and come back to Japan tomorrow! I don’t want to leave here…I will continue to post after I come back to Japan, so please comment and tell me about you! I want to say thank you to Nina to tell us about blogging. And I also want to say thank you to everyone to see my post, leave comments, and have nice experiences with me!!

Last opportunity to go to Washington,D.C!

Yesterday was our last chance to go to Washington, D.C. After blogging class, we went to Heather’s class and wrote letters to Nikki’s parents. Saaya and I ate pizza for lunch at the Stamp Union.

In the afternoon, we went to the Capitol building. We stood at the center of Washington, D.C. It was a wonderful experience for me! But I realized that I knew few things about American politics and also Japanese politics. I was shocked by that. Although my major is International Economics, I have to know about what is going on in my country. Then, we went to the White House to take some pictures. It was a very hot day, so everyone was tired.

When we came back to College Park, we went to a Middle-Eastern restaurant with Joe’s friends. I ate a chicken kebab and it tasted very good! After dinner, we came back to our hotel and enjoyed talking with Joe’s friends. I was very impressed by their story.

Yesterday, we couldn’t go bowling because Terp Zone was closed. So I’m looking forward to going bowling today!!

American cookout!

Yesterday, we went to Voice of America in Washington D.C. I had never heard about it, but it was an interesting place. A worker there explained how it is important to tell and know the truth to us. After visiting VOA, some other girls and I had a lunch with Nikki. We talked about a lot of things: school life in America and in Japan; marriage; culture; and who is the cutest boy of AGU member! But I don’t tell the result now. And I guess that boys might be talking about who is the cutest girl.

After lunch, we came back to our hotel and some boys, Mike, and I went to basketball court to practice basketball. I was tired but I wanted to practice basketball for games in Nikki’s house.

Then, we went to Nikki’s house. Nikki’s house was wonderful! I wanted to live in such a nice house. We had a traditional American home party there. We ate hamburgers, hot dogs, water melon, corns, and so on. After having dinner, we played basketball. Nobuya was very very good at playing basketball, so we couldn’t stop him. It was too dark to play basketball, so we missed catch a ball again and again. Nikki was also good at playing basketball. Her dad was very funny. It was very fun! Thank Nikki for inviting us!

Thursday-Sunday

I haven’t written in my blog, so this post will be very long!

On Thursday, we went to Washington D.C and visited IDB. Workers there described what they were doing in their company. I was very impressed by their story. After that, we went to the zoo. I was glad to watch giant panda because it is difficult to watch them in Japan now.

On Friday, we went to Baltimore, a beautiful place. First, we went to American Visionary Art Museum. Masahiro and Risa bought a lot of funny things there. I think they might have spent too much money. I worried about their future… Next, we ate crab cakes for lunch. It tasted very good. After lunch, we rode on water taxi, ate ice cream, rode on a pedal boat, and so many things! Then, we went to the baseball stadium to watch a baseball game. It was very fun and the fireworks were very beautiful! After watching the baseball game, Ryohei, Masahiro, and I found a lot of otaku gathered in a building near the baseball stadium! We took many pictures with them. It was strange that American people wore costumes which related to Japanese anime.

On Saturday, we went to National Museum of the American Indian. Then, I met my friend who was my mother’s English teacher in her schooldays. I was very glad to see my friend. She had lived in Washington D.C when she was a child, and now she has lived in North Carolina. We went shopping and enjoyed dinner at a steak restaurant.

On Sunday, I met her again and ate breakfast at IHOP. I had never been to IHOP, so it was good opportunity for me to try American hot cakes. Our server was very kind to us, and he wanted to know my phone number because he wanted to be an international person. But probably I can’t understand what he says when he calls me because he speaks very fast. After that, we went to the White House and took some pictures in front of it. Then we said good-bye and I joined other students and mentors group. The view from the Washington Monument was nice. Then we came back to our hotel and played volleyball and basketball. I was very surprised that Yuya was very good at playing basketball! I’m looking forward to watching his play again. On my way to our hotel, Ryohei came to us and invited us to his friend house. He was a student studying at the University of Maryland, and we met him on August 4th. We went to his house and enjoyed playing some games. I appreciate their inviting.

I have had wonderful time since we had arrived in America. I don’t want to come back to Japan!!

Tongue out!!

In Heather’s class, we talked about media. We were divided into three groups, International Politics, International Economics, and International Communication. My major is International Economics, so we talked about economic issues related to the Beijing Olympics. It was so difficult that we couldn’t talk a lot.

In the afternoon, we went to the Newseum in D.C. There are a lot of interesting things. I saw past news of the United States, the Berlin wall, things about 9/11, and so on. I was interested in the history of newspapers in the United States. There are some important articles which said about wars. It was a good opportunity for me to think about history.

After visiting the Newseum, we went to Chinatown in D.C. We went to a Chinese goods store, but we couldn’t stay there for a long time because of a bad smell. Masahiro and Ryohei bought some Chinese foods, but I don’t want to try them. We had a dinner with Nikki in a Chinese food restaurant. We ordered 4 dishes and they all tasted good!

Then we went back our hotel and played cards with Nikki and her friends. We played a game called “mafia.” I became a killer for three times! And we played another game called “tongue out”. It was very fun and Nikki’s friends are very funny.

Pentagon City Mall

Yesterday, we ate famous University of Maryland ice cream. There are many kinds of ice cream so I couldn’t choose. At last, I decided to have FEAR THE TURTLE. It tasted very good! After lunch, we went to Dr. Marie Hallion’s lecture class. She told us about “Diplomatic of the United States.” I was very impressed by her lecture.

After her class, we met mentors at Quality Inn lobby at 4:30. I decided to go to Pentagon City Mall because I love shopping! I was surprised by Mike because he wore a suit. He told me that he had a job interview before our meeting. He looked very nice! We went to the mall with Joe’s friends Koran and Junior. Although this was a first time we met, they were very kind to us. In the mall, I bought some body lotions. Saaya and I had Pita and smoothie for dinner. I was very glad to drink it because I had wanted to drink it since I had arrived in America. We enjoyed shopping at the mall!

Then we came back to our hotel. I enjoyed talking with my friends till 3:00am! So now I’m very sleepy. I think I need an energy drink.

Fun day!

Yesterday, we met students who were studying Japanese at University of Maryland. I was surprised that they could understand almost all Japanese words and spoke very well. And I was also surprised that there were students from high school. I think we don’t have such a system in Japan. They had studied Japanese not so many years but they could speak Japanese very well because they studied very hard. I have studied English for about 6 years but I can’t speak English well. I have to study English harder. They were very kind to us and we went bowling and played billiards. I had a very good time with the students.

Then we went to the Kennedy Center for a free jazz concert. It was very good. After the concert, we went to Dupont Circle for dinner. Joe took us to a sushi restaurant, but I wanted to eat other food so I went to a hamburger restaurant with Nikki and Sanae. I apologize to Joe for not trying to eat sushi. There were a lot of unique sushi. Sushi in America was a little different from sushi in Japan. Which do you like?

Long long day!!

Yesterday was a very long day! First, we went to Alexandria, an old town. We visited a church where George Washington worshipped. People in the church are very kind to us, and they served lemonade. It tasted very good!

Next, we rode on a boat and went to Georgetown. The scenery from the boat was nice. The boat was very comfortable, so some friends and I fell asleep. In Georgetown, we went shopping. There are a lot of shops but they closed at 7:00 pm because yesterday was Sunday. So we had to stop shopping.

After shopping, Joe took us to George Washington University. It was so big. Then we had to find restaurant to have dinner. But it took long time to find restaurants and Joe walked very fast, so we felt tired. Finally, we found restaurants. After dinner, Joe gave girls very beautiful roses! Thank you Joe!!

We backed hotel after dinner and we want to sleep. But we found cockroach in our room! We hated cockroach so we ask Masahiro and Ryohei to kill it. It was a long fight and we screamed again and again. At last, we succeeded to kill it. I appreciate Masahiro and Ryohei.

It was very long day and I was very tired. But it was very exciting day!!

I'm in Maryland

Hello! My name is Emiri. Please call me Emily. I’m a student of Aoyamagakuin University, and I’m majoring in International Economics. I have been to America about 6 times because I have friends in North Carolina and visited them. But I can’t speak English well.

Yesterday, we arrived at the airport and rode on nice bus. We saw a lot of things in Washington D.C, such as the White House, and the Capitol building. In the evening, 4 other girls and I went to Potbelly with Nikki, our mentor. I had roast beef sandwich and Oreo milk shake. They tasted very good! Although I was tired, I was very excited. I hope to enjoy my vacation in Maryland with AGU students and students and staff of University of Maryland.