Drawing to an End

I haven't had the time to read your entries as often as I would have liked to, but I've had a lot of fun with this project. Sometimes it's been difficult to come up with a topic but it's been great practice for me. I hope you were able to practice too by reading my entries.

It feels surreal that 2013 is drawing to an end. December always feels kind of funny because it doesn't feel real that the year is almost over. This time last year, I was studying for finals and preparing to go to Japan. I flew to Japan on December 31st last year. This year, I'm going to Vienna, Austria on December 11th. I'm going to spend two and a half weeks in Austria with my best friend. She's visited me in the US twice and once when I was in Japan. It's time I went to see her in her home country now! We're going to go to the Christmas markets and she's going to teach me some German. I'll probably have an awful American accent and I can just picture her grimacing over my pronunciation. But it'll be fun and I'm looking forward to seeing Austria. I have a long flight with 2 layovers (not fun). One is in Paris so that'll be interesting to see how much French I'm able to recognize. I've been studying French and Japanese. I keep trying to slip Japanese words into my French, oops.

Good luck to everyone else with their exams or other end of year projects. I've still got another week left but then I'm free to enjoy my break. I'm excited! It's been a long semester. Fall semester is always the toughest.

Surprise from a Stranger

Good evening, everybody! It's Danielle again.

Yesterday (December 3rd) was a very special day for me because it was my 21st birthday! It was also the birthday of a girl who lives on the same floor as me in our dorm. Two days ago I was really stressed out, so I decided to make a birthday card for this girl since I knew that we have the same birthday. I slipped it under her door yesterday morning, and this afternoon... I found a card under my door! She had made me a card in return! I was so surprised.

Isn't it cute? She wrote me a nice message and even taped candy canes inside it. I think it's wonderful that strangers can turn out to be so kind, supporting and celebrating each other even if they do not know one other well.

In a way,we have done the same thing on this blog. We are all still strangers to each other to some extent. But we have also shared our opinions, ideas, and experiences so that we can all learn more about each other's cultures. I personally want to thank all of you for taking the time to participate in this project. It has been so much fun for me, and I hope it has been for you too! As 2013 comes to an end, I hope that you have the opportunity to enjoy the winter, spend time with loved ones, and reflect on good things that have happened to you this year. Be sure to keep warm, too!

Plans for Winter Break

Hey everyone! Emily here.

This semester has gone by so quickly; I can't believe this project is over already. I really enjoyed reading everyone's blog posts!

Although I'm a little bit sad that the semester is ending because it was overall a very enjoyable semester for me, I am very much looking forward to winter break! I have so much stuff to do.

One thing I am looking forward to is the release of the movie The Hobbit.

Everyone in my family are big fans of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books, so we all cannot wait to see this movie when it comes out. The movies have all been very good so far, but if you haven't read the books, I would strongly recommend it. I hope one day to be proficient enough to read the books in Japanese! (That may take a while though.)

Another thing I am planning to do during break, ironically, is study. It's pretty normal for people to not want to study, but I am weird in that when it comes to foreign languages, I find studying to be quite fun. I want to focus on speaking during break and help my Japanese and Korean listening and speaking skills, which are really my weakest areas. I am going to find tutors/language partners on italki.com, which is a site I highly recommend for practicing foreign languages. There are lots of really great teachers on there, so if you want language practice, that's the place to go!

I hope you all enjoyed this project as much as I did. And thanks to everyone who read my blog entries! Have a great winter break everyone!

秋学期の終り

こんにちは、皆さん、タンジンーです。

 

２０１３年の秋学期はすぐ終わりますね。今は冬が来たみたいです。私にとって、今学期はとても速くても、たくさんいいことをできました。まず、私は学期の始める時、専門を広告に変わって、今まで、この専門を楽しんでいます。それで、先学期から、私は大学の食堂でアルバトをしていて、今学期がもうプロモートをしました。食堂のアルバトは時々つまらないだけど、友達と話せるしり、お金をもらえるし、仕事の経験をできるし、大丈夫だと思います。このブログのプロジェクトのおかげで、私は色々な知識や楽しめることを知られました。

一週間ぐらい残りますから、もう頑張れば、期末試験を上手にするような気がします。

Christmas is coming!!

Hi, I'm Yuri. It's getting colder outside in Japan and I'm becoming lazy.haha Today, I want to ask you a question.What are you going to do on Christmas? In my case, I'm planning to have a party with my roommates( I live in a share house with another 7 people). One of them from England will make a turkey for us!!  I've never had one before. I heard it tastes like a chicken..that's all. So I'm really looking forward to having it! Last year, I was in Vancouver, and spent Christmas with my friend. Unfortunately, we both didn't prepare any special foods like a turkey. We tried to buy something, but all supermarket was closed because it was Christmas:( Finally, we found one restaurant and we had curry instead.

I know we are stupid, but it's funny story now:D 

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Depature

Hi, This is Iori. It's my final blog I think...

In this semester, I was really busy (still now so busy ) and  study hard for getting good grade.

Everyone says to me that you are always busy. (This is one of the reasons why I burned my relationship with ....) I am not rich person and my family is either. if I were from average family, I did not have to work 5 days a week.  Our world is  unfair. In global south, many children who could discover something good for human being are dying. while in global north, some people complain their situation. Life is not fair yet beautiful and joyful. Actually, I feel down because of my hard life. However, I'm so happy to be with my family or get chance to go Holland. If I had everything that i wanted, I never study hard. I never met my friends or good teachers. Life is unfair. so What?
Nobody can define happiness. I am what I am. I love my perfect life even thought it looks hard for somebody.

haha, I am a little emotional because this is last.
i hope everybody has good winter break and new year. In Christmas, I will be in Vietnam and drink good coffee or beer. It's my first time to  go Asian country. It's necessary for me to go there because I have to know what the world looks like.
anyway, I was really happy to join the blog team!! Thank you so much!!
hope Happy Christmas and New year from Japan.

ありがとう！！

The end...

Hi everyone,

It's Anna. For the last time I guess.

I think I'm going to miss doing this. It was nice practicing my Japanese by talking with everyone and reading what everyone wrote. Having Japanese class is nice, but this was really good practice and I'm sad it's over. It's interesting learning about Japan from a students point of view. I feel like we really don't get that very often, it might be nice if we had to do something like this for our class. I think it would help our studies.


Anyway. I guess this is good bye. 
I kind of feel like we're Japanese students graduating and going to the next grade or something. I'm just being overly sentimental I hate good byes. I guess it's easier to talk about happy things.


So on to happier things... the year is almost over! We only have two weeks of school left and it's very exciting! I want to fill out applications for studying abroad next summer over the break. I also want to study my Japanese a lot, read some books, and play video games. I never have enough free time during the school year to do fun things like that. 
I think I went over board with Christmas gifts for my fiance. I just saw a bunch of things he might like and couldn't help buying most of them for him... I don't really care if he buys me anything though so I kind of feel bad in a way. Once he finds out what I got him he might feel bad, but I don't really want anything so I'll feel bad because he'll feel bad. It's a little silly really... I know people think that gift cards are impersonal but really they are one of my favorite gifts because I don't have to decide on one thing I like I can just pick anything. 


Christmas can be so fun because I get to go play card games with my siblings while we eat dinner. Does anyone else have holiday traditions with their families, or friends?
My friend made a really silly tradition. We all go shopping together and buy one thing we want for ourselves but we just say our friends got it for us. That way we get what we want, and by saying our friends bought it for us we don't feel bad about the money we spent. Plus it saves the trouble of finding out what our friends would like without them knowing. 
Now that I write it down it seems really silly... Anyway. I guess this is really good bye. I hope everyone has a great rest of the year, and the best of luck in your future endeavors!  
-Anna