Sorry I have not updated in awhile. I have been busy these past couple weeks!
I'm learning so much and enjoying every moment of being here! Being here has been a huge blessing. Thank you to everyone who has supported me. My heart is grateful :)
As of June 10th it has officially been rainy season. Everyone here says it rains just about everyday, all day long and usually lasts for 3-4 weeks. Since the official day of rainy season it has rained continuously about 3 maybe 4 times! Mostly it has been raining through the night...which is perfect for me! :D
Sunday I was able to go to Yamagata which is two hours north of Sendai. This is one of the students hometown. She invited us to go home with her and go cherry picking. Yamagata is known for it's cherry blossoms in April and cherries during the months of May and June. We were able to meet her parents and grandparents, who were very generous. They let us pick as many cherries as we wanted to eat and take home. The greenhouse full of cherries was located next to two large rice patty fields, inviting many FROGS!!! That's right I said it, frogs! My biggest fear :/ was a reality for me. Little green frogs hopping around everywhere. I was very squirmish hah.
I've also learned more Japanese.
Wa-tashe-wa --> I like...
Ah-me --> rain, candy
Ha-shee --> bridge, chopsticks
In-new --> dog
Wa-tashe- mo --> me too!
Non- da-roe --> I don't know
Man-deska --> what is...?
I also found out that we pronounce many Japanese products wrong such as Mazda, Tokyo, Casio, Honda is pronounced hown-da, Casio is pronounced cash-io, Mazda is pronounced maz-sue-da, Honda and Tokyo is pronounced toke-yo....not toe-key-o like many Americans pronounce it :)
One of the girls I've become friends with is going to driving school to get her license. She told me you go through to levels of classes. The first level is 12 hours of driving time and 5 classes. The second level is 10 hours of driving and a few more additional classes. Then you are able to take the driving test. The biggest shock of it all is the cost, a whopping $2,500 for the entire experience. Yeah folks! A lot of moolah.
Monday night Alyssa and I lead an investigative bible study for students who are curious about the Bible. We discussed and studied Matthew 9:14-26. It was awesome to see the curiosity in the students! Please continue to pray for me and the students :)
Tonight one of the students cooked Alyssa and I a traditional Japanese meal from scratch...if only I could remember the name lol! I actually don't know what all was in it because there were a lot of things. I do know that it was made out of rice, chicken, bamboo, Japanese potatoes, and a lot of Japanese vegetables that don't exist in America. It was cho oye-she (Japanese for very delicious). He also presented us with presents of green tea and cute Japanese china cups to drink our tea in.
Tomorrow I am going to karaoke with GUYS Club. They have wanted to take us there since we've been here. All the students here love karaoke! So I am excited because I think it is gonna be a lot of fun! I'm gonna try to take a few videos too ;)
Leslie
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Beautiful
Konbanwa! :) (Good Evening)
So by now you are probably wondering what exactly i'm doing here. Well I am making active relationship with students, teaching them English, learning about Japanese culture, and spending alot of time studying the Bible through Bible studies (4-5 a week) and on my own. Yesterday we had our first UpTen Lunch (we have them at our apartment every Tuesday). Alyssa, Ogawa-san, and me hosted lunch for students to be able to come that way we can connect with them. Around 15-20 students came at various times between 12 and 3.. Some students came by our place after they had lunch in the cafeteria so they could meet us and hangout. It was great! We got our first invite to go camping in the mountains at the end of June for the weekend. Last night we had our first English lesson at UpTen with a few students from the local University, Tohoku Gakuin University. It was so much fun! We taught them some phrases such as: you're kidding, I can't believe it, freaked out, i really got into that, and no way. Alyssa and I did a role play of two girls talking about what they did for the weekend. One of the characters in the role play went skydiving and the other talks about how they can't believe she did that. We had to explain the phrases I mentioned before and then ask the students to use them in an example. Then we all practiced reading the role play dialogue too. None of the students we're allowed to use Japanese while they were at the lesson. Ten students came. It was a great turn out. They asked us lots of questions. They asked me if I tried nato which is sticky fermented beans. It's one of their favorites. Now I've heard that most Americans don't nato because it smells really bad. So after the lesson we all walked up to a convenient store close by to get dinner and they were trying to persuade me to eat nato. Lol thankfully I got out of it!...this time haha.
This past week we have been working on meeting students and befriending them. I have gotten really close to two students here already. Their names are Noa and Muchan. I hope our relationships continue to grow throughout the summer.
Today at lunch in the cafeteria Fimeato and Shu taught me more Japanese words to learn. Here are some of the words they taught me and that I know:
english --> japanese pronunciation
yes --> high
delicious --> oye-she
thank you --> ari-gato
very --> cho
good morning --> ohayo
understand --> wa-ca-roo
cool --> steak-e
please --. dough-zo
thank you --> dough-mo
hot --> a-tree
my name is ___ --> wah- tah- shee- no- na- ma-eh- wa
your name? --> an-i-ta-wa
I have learned a number of other words too. I'll let you know more soon! :)
Today has been a beautiful day outside. It's definitely no Florida weather here! The high today was 68...perfect weather! Since most people get around by walking, the weather worked out in my favor :)
I recently found out abortion is legal here, making the abortion rate extremely high. It broke my heart to hear that. They view abortion as just another standard operating procedure. Oh and I also found out that the Japanese are big into "groups" so anything that would cause them to stand out and be an individual they won't do. Learning about the culture has been very interesting but also exciting!
Please be praying for Alyssa and me. Tomorrow is going to be our first GUYS Club meeting we are attending. Oh! I'm not sure if Ive mentioned it but GUYS Club is a student lead organization that is run by students interested in international relations. And no, not only "guys" are apart of this club lol. Girls are members of it too. They got the name of it because of the phrase "hey guys". So I'm guessing it stuck and that's the name of it now. A lot of the students Ive been spending time with and meeting are apart of this club.
I've got to go for now!
<3 Les
So by now you are probably wondering what exactly i'm doing here. Well I am making active relationship with students, teaching them English, learning about Japanese culture, and spending alot of time studying the Bible through Bible studies (4-5 a week) and on my own. Yesterday we had our first UpTen Lunch (we have them at our apartment every Tuesday). Alyssa, Ogawa-san, and me hosted lunch for students to be able to come that way we can connect with them. Around 15-20 students came at various times between 12 and 3.. Some students came by our place after they had lunch in the cafeteria so they could meet us and hangout. It was great! We got our first invite to go camping in the mountains at the end of June for the weekend. Last night we had our first English lesson at UpTen with a few students from the local University, Tohoku Gakuin University. It was so much fun! We taught them some phrases such as: you're kidding, I can't believe it, freaked out, i really got into that, and no way. Alyssa and I did a role play of two girls talking about what they did for the weekend. One of the characters in the role play went skydiving and the other talks about how they can't believe she did that. We had to explain the phrases I mentioned before and then ask the students to use them in an example. Then we all practiced reading the role play dialogue too. None of the students we're allowed to use Japanese while they were at the lesson. Ten students came. It was a great turn out. They asked us lots of questions. They asked me if I tried nato which is sticky fermented beans. It's one of their favorites. Now I've heard that most Americans don't nato because it smells really bad. So after the lesson we all walked up to a convenient store close by to get dinner and they were trying to persuade me to eat nato. Lol thankfully I got out of it!...this time haha.
This past week we have been working on meeting students and befriending them. I have gotten really close to two students here already. Their names are Noa and Muchan. I hope our relationships continue to grow throughout the summer.
Today at lunch in the cafeteria Fimeato and Shu taught me more Japanese words to learn. Here are some of the words they taught me and that I know:
english --> japanese pronunciation
yes --> high
delicious --> oye-she
thank you --> ari-gato
very --> cho
good morning --> ohayo
understand --> wa-ca-roo
cool --> steak-e
please --. dough-zo
thank you --> dough-mo
hot --> a-tree
my name is ___ --> wah- tah- shee- no- na- ma-eh- wa
your name? --> an-i-ta-wa
I have learned a number of other words too. I'll let you know more soon! :)
Today has been a beautiful day outside. It's definitely no Florida weather here! The high today was 68...perfect weather! Since most people get around by walking, the weather worked out in my favor :)
I recently found out abortion is legal here, making the abortion rate extremely high. It broke my heart to hear that. They view abortion as just another standard operating procedure. Oh and I also found out that the Japanese are big into "groups" so anything that would cause them to stand out and be an individual they won't do. Learning about the culture has been very interesting but also exciting!
Please be praying for Alyssa and me. Tomorrow is going to be our first GUYS Club meeting we are attending. Oh! I'm not sure if Ive mentioned it but GUYS Club is a student lead organization that is run by students interested in international relations. And no, not only "guys" are apart of this club lol. Girls are members of it too. They got the name of it because of the phrase "hey guys". So I'm guessing it stuck and that's the name of it now. A lot of the students Ive been spending time with and meeting are apart of this club.
I've got to go for now!
<3 Les
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Konnichiwa! :)
I made it to Sendai safely and I'm all moved in at my apartment called UpTen. When my teammate, Alyssa and I arrived there we were greeted and welcomed so kindly with dinner. We were greeted by the leaders of the GUYS club. They showed some their cellphones which have live streaming tv from them and also asked me tons of questions. I got to hang with a few of them today and go on a walking tour of Sendai. We walked over 4 miles. Everyone walks around to get from place to place here. Most girls wear heels too! I dunno how they do it. I asked a girl today vie been hanging out with if her feet hurt and she told me that she had tough feet! It's deff part of the culture here for girls to be always dressed up and in heels. Now I'm not talking aboutafew girls I'm talking about 97% of women dress this way.
Yesterday I had sushi for the first time. Now the sushi in America isnt the same as Japanese sushi. First Japanese sushi is not wrapped in seaweed and then coated with rice, its reverse so the seaweed is on the outside. So at this sushi restaurant there was a conveyor belt and you just pulled sushi off the belt and ate it. Each plate was 100 yen. 100 yen is equal to about a little over 1$. Most of the sushi they eat is raw so I tried a few pieces but didn't really like any of them.
Afterward we went to Izumi chuo to visit Megan, one of my leaders, friends. These two gurus we met were sooo much fun. Their name are Yui and Noa. We sat in Starbucksforover 2hoursjust talking...it was great. Megan is leaving to go back to America in a week, she's been here for 2 years. Even though these are Megans friends they wanted to hangout with us again. So Alyssa and I are having dinner with them tomorrow.
Yesterday I also went to the Japanese version of Walmart called Seyui. I found out they don't have chicken or turkey meat here in Japan and also that everything is half the serving size then America. Hah I deff feel like a fatty eating two servings worth. Another interesting thing I found out about the Japanese culture is their honesty. Megan was telling me that you can leave your bags/purse at your table, go to the bathroom and not worry about people bothering your stuff. Life is different by far over here but therearesome major similarities too! There is so much more I wanna write about but don't have time :(
Thanks for reading and please continue to pray for me!
<3 Les
I found out I still have money to raise (a little over thousand) so please be praying for me. If you'd like to donate money please email me (leslieb@knights.ucf.edu) so I can let you know how to donate.
I made it to Sendai safely and I'm all moved in at my apartment called UpTen. When my teammate, Alyssa and I arrived there we were greeted and welcomed so kindly with dinner. We were greeted by the leaders of the GUYS club. They showed some their cellphones which have live streaming tv from them and also asked me tons of questions. I got to hang with a few of them today and go on a walking tour of Sendai. We walked over 4 miles. Everyone walks around to get from place to place here. Most girls wear heels too! I dunno how they do it. I asked a girl today vie been hanging out with if her feet hurt and she told me that she had tough feet! It's deff part of the culture here for girls to be always dressed up and in heels. Now I'm not talking aboutafew girls I'm talking about 97% of women dress this way.
Yesterday I had sushi for the first time. Now the sushi in America isnt the same as Japanese sushi. First Japanese sushi is not wrapped in seaweed and then coated with rice, its reverse so the seaweed is on the outside. So at this sushi restaurant there was a conveyor belt and you just pulled sushi off the belt and ate it. Each plate was 100 yen. 100 yen is equal to about a little over 1$. Most of the sushi they eat is raw so I tried a few pieces but didn't really like any of them.
Afterward we went to Izumi chuo to visit Megan, one of my leaders, friends. These two gurus we met were sooo much fun. Their name are Yui and Noa. We sat in Starbucksforover 2hoursjust talking...it was great. Megan is leaving to go back to America in a week, she's been here for 2 years. Even though these are Megans friends they wanted to hangout with us again. So Alyssa and I are having dinner with them tomorrow.
Yesterday I also went to the Japanese version of Walmart called Seyui. I found out they don't have chicken or turkey meat here in Japan and also that everything is half the serving size then America. Hah I deff feel like a fatty eating two servings worth. Another interesting thing I found out about the Japanese culture is their honesty. Megan was telling me that you can leave your bags/purse at your table, go to the bathroom and not worry about people bothering your stuff. Life is different by far over here but therearesome major similarities too! There is so much more I wanna write about but don't have time :(
Thanks for reading and please continue to pray for me!
<3 Les
I found out I still have money to raise (a little over thousand) so please be praying for me. If you'd like to donate money please email me (leslieb@knights.ucf.edu) so I can let you know how to donate.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
First days...
Hi guys! :) I made it safely by the grace of God! So I've realized that I'm gonna be in shape and ready to run a marathon when I get back because everyone WALKS around here!! I think I walked 6 miles yesterday. I was DYING! We went to Yoyogi park which is beautiful....I wish I could upload pictures but can't :/ I saw my first shrine yesterday too which was really cool but also heartbreaking at the same time. A lot of people are looking for happiness here.
I had Korean food today and it was interesting! The appetizer to the meal was small baby fish with their eyes....eek! Not to mention that I tried to tell my waiter thank you in Japanese which is pronounced as doh i-tah shee mash-teh and I said origashimi! Hahha the lady just looked at me and laughed! Gaaah it was funny. It was a great! Mmm there is so much I want to write but don't have time to and can't really post about in much detail. So, If you'd like email updates I can send them, just email me(leslieb@knights.ucf.edu) with your email address.
<3 les
I had Korean food today and it was interesting! The appetizer to the meal was small baby fish with their eyes....eek! Not to mention that I tried to tell my waiter thank you in Japanese which is pronounced as doh i-tah shee mash-teh and I said origashimi! Hahha the lady just looked at me and laughed! Gaaah it was funny. It was a great! Mmm there is so much I want to write but don't have time to and can't really post about in much detail. So, If you'd like email updates I can send them, just email me(leslieb@knights.ucf.edu) with your email address.
<3 les
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