First full day of Keio

I wrote this post the first night of Keio thinking I would sit down and write something every night- ha! That never happened- I got home super late every night and was exhausted- so this is my one journal-type entry. I'll write more about it soon.

BTW- the Keio program was my summer job. I was hired as a Classroom Instructor (CI) to run discussion sessions with Japanese students from Keio University in Japan- and, more importantly, to drive them around. They came here for two and a half weeks to take part in a cross-cultural collaboration- and to improve their English language skills. So they attended lectures (and then our discussion sessions). They had to research and write a group presentation. They also got to do stuff like go to baseball games, museums, and Colonial Williamsburg. We ended their stay with a trip to DC. They left this morning. I'm very sad.

July 30, 2009

Today was the first full day of Keio. It went really well.

We started out with a lecture on why culture matters and then broke into our discussion groups- my students are awesome- they are so much fun. Afterwards we went to lunch- the food was not so good, but again the students were fun. Next the students went on a campus tour and we headed off to get the vans. Each of the classroom instructors drives a van with her group of students- Wendy decided we should name the vans after the golden girls nd that mine should be Blanche. Blanche doesn't really fit me so I wasn't too excited but because of it I got the best van! I figured Blanche should have a red van- so my group gets to rock it in the happening red 12 passenger van (with a big dent on the passenger side).

We went out to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays-my class decided to eat together and two of the PAs joined us (they are the undergrad students working with us). We were a party of 13 who all wanted individual checks- the waiters couldn't have been too excited to see us. It was not easy trying to help them decipher the menus- how do you describe what ribs are? Paying the bills were fun too- they are just learning american money and they also don't know how to tip- they don't tip food servers in Japan- it made the evening more of an adventure.

I got to talk to a different PA on the way back to campus- they are all really fun.

Thunder Storm

We had a massive thunder storm last night. It reminded me of a time when I was a kid and lightening struck near our house. My sisters might be able to correct or add to my memory of it.

Anyway- so one night we were all sleeping in the same room (my sisters, me, and our dog, Ginger) my younger sister and I shared a room but I'm not sure why Bernie was sleeping on our floor- maybe they were painting her room or something. The lightening struck a manhole cover a street over- the room lit up and stayed that way for several seconds and there was a loud crash. Ginger jumped up and sat on Bernie and the garage door started opening and closing over and over. We (read: my parents) had to replace the garage door opener and the tree in the middle of our yard was split in half- which killed it- I missed that tree.

That is a less exciting story now that it is typed out. Oh well, I'm sharing it anyway.

And, just as a side note, Rusty isn't afraid of thunder at all- he sleeps right through it. He also isn't afraid of the cannons and gunfire that sometimes go off at Colonial Williamsburg- it's the tourists that scare him.

Utah

I recently got back from a trip home to Utah.

Have I already discussed the difficulty I have in defining home now? Is Utah my home? When I'm there I talk about going home to Virginia and when I'm in Virginia I talk about going home to see my family. Is home where you're stuff is? If so, that's Virginia. Or is home where your family is? If so, it's back in Utah. It's all rather confusing or is it just a lame exercise in defining a cliche? Sorry I'm feeling rather placeless at the moment.

Anyway, I'm back home in Virginia after a trip home to Utah.

Here are some pictures from the trip.










(this is Rusty running with my parent's dog, Angel, and my sister"s dog, Moose).







I also ran up to my old school. The library was under construction almost the entire time I was in school there and the construction is almost done now so I am completely bitter- it's amazing!