Homestay Weekend; the first day.
The first day, I visited my teacher Robert and Barbara Drexler窶冱 house. Not only did most American students go back to their home, but also most Japanese students visited their host family or friends and traveled somewhere else during this week. But some of us have stayed here most of the week, so that my teachers invited us to their house. Saori, Shinji, Takashi and I visited.
We left Coe at 4:30pm. Then, we had a conversation about study or plan or something. At the dinner we had vegetables, salmon, and Japanese rice. I helped Barbara cook a little. In addition, we had a chocolate cake as a dessert. All of them were so good.
After that, we played the cards. We introduced Japanese game, rich and poor, and American game, hearts, each other. Although 窶徂earts窶� is little bit complicated, I enjoyed it. We also played 窶廛oubt.窶� Surprisingly, it was common between Japan and America. We played it again and again for a while. Our 窶徇atches窶� are really fun.
As you see, we didn窶冲 do anything special; just talking, cooking dinner, and playing cards. But I enjoyed all of those.
What I was thinking about is that it is unbelievable to play cards with my teachers in Japan. I am not going to criticize my professor. He likes to discuss with students even though they disagree with his opinion. But he is busy person. He has a lot of works such as lecture presentation or writing books and articles for the newspapers besides the classes in college. Thus, it would be impossible to invite us to his home, have a dinner, discuss, and play cards. In addition, we said jokes so much each other all the time. Atmosphere here was rather friendly. I have never said jokes to my professor in Japan. I think my classmates and I are getting along well with my professor, but the atmosphere is somewhat different. Of course, I like both my professors. One of the factors of the difference might be the size of college; there are 窶徼oo many窶� students at Waseda. That broadens the distance between the faculties and students. It is the biggest advantage of this college. We had a really good time tonight.
I found one book in the bookshelves. That book was incredibly the one that I had read when I was a high school student. The author, Professor Kitamura, had taught African American Literature at Coe in the past. He introduced Coe窶冱 ESL in this book. Of course, I didn窶冲 know about Coe College at that time, but I learned about the difference of English education between the United States and Japan, ESL program, and how to study English from this book. I think I was sophomore then, but the book influenced for my way of thinking and my point of view for English. Then, I decided to study abroad after I go to the college. Waseda has so many exchange student agreements with other colleges. Coe is also one of them. I came here mostly by chance although the TOEFL score, my interests, and some conditions were related to. Then, I found the book in my teacher窶冱 house. What a coincidence! I could hardly believe it. Shinji and Takashi was introduced Coe by Professor Kitamura when they were high school students. They were the last students whom the Professor Kitamura sent to here. I was so delighted to come across this book again here. I borrowed this book from my teacher, then, I would like to reread it.