Today was the last day for classes in this semester. We are going to have a final week. Since tomorrow is the 窶徨eading day,窶� finals begin day after tomorrow. Reading day is a kind of study day, so that we won窶冲 have any classes. But now, I am in the ESL courses, so we have tests tomorrow.

Let us review this semester. I arrived here on August and started to study. In early September, I asked my teacher to assign more homework, then, my life had changed; it was going to become hard. Sometimes I was really upset. I can remember many times I went to bed at the late night. It was like four or five o窶冂lock in the morning. In addition, there are two computer rooms that open 24/7. I stayed up all the night there twice, just twice; the one was, I just remembered, my birthday窶冱 night; the other was this Monday; I was working on my portfolio. Every class starts at 930am, so that it was getting harder for me as the semester going. Many times I didn窶冲 have a breakfast. (In addition, it continues still now.)

Through the semester, I studied the multiculturalism and the United States. I learned American Dream, Civil Rights Movement, racism in the United States, some gender issues. In addition, in the other classes, I studied the pronunciation, presentation, and grammar skills. In Asian Literature class, I read some Japanese novels in English, watched some movies that deal with the intercultural issues. Concert Choir was a good experience though it was kind of hard for me. Overall, I think I did better work than the life at Waseda in terms of the classes. (I did lots of and various 窶徘rojects窶� at Waseda outside the classroom. It is considered more important at Waseda.)

In my impression, my writing skill really improved much more than any other skills. Since I have kept this diary almost every day, I got to know many expressions, words. I got used to writing in English. I am not reluctant to write something in English totally. I became able to write faster than before. Writing diary used to take lots of time, but now, I could write an article at least 30 minutes or more, at most half and an hour; it used to take two hours, this is a great progress.
However, other skills are not great compared to the writing. Especially, speaking is worst. It is supposed to be the easiest, but I disagree with this opinion. I don窶冲 understand why it is difficult for me, but I do believe it is just the lack of the practices. I have to talk more with roommate, friends, and teachers. I would like to focus on my speaking skills as possible as I can in the next semester.

For the next term, I will continue this kind of or much harder work through the semester. My classes are; Religion and World Politics, Belief and Unbelief, Human Sexuality, Concert Choir, and African American Literature. Four courses sound too much. I don窶冲 know what will happen. I would like to do my best as I did in this semester.