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.