NCC volume6---June

North Central College
Volume 6 --- July

　 Our summer vacation is from the beginning of the June to the beginning of the September. Almost all of the students went back to their houses right after the finals for part time jobs, so only a few students who are taking summer classes are here at North Central. At first, I was thinking about working on campus, but I did not get a job, because I thought I should do lots of things that I can do only in the United States during the summer. Basically, I did four things from the beginning of summer until now.
First, I went to Chicago to look around the city and went to famous places: Navy Pier, Lincoln Park, Six Flags, The Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Science and Industry, Cubs games, The University of Chicago, etc. During school terms I hardly could go to Chicago because I had lots of homework to do, so even if I live close to Chicago I did not know about Chicago well. Especially during summer there are lots of events or festivals in the city so I could enjoy walking around and know about Chicago.
Second, I went on a trip to the states of Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan to visit my friends and stay with them. I used Amtrak and bus to get there and stayed in their homes with their families. It was a great opportunity to see other states and try different food or see famous places. Especially in Indiana I met Amish people and tried their food and saw their houses; it was a great experience.
Third, I babysat a couple of times for people who were introduced to me by my host mother and my friends. Once, before the kid went to bed she asked me to read a book. So I read the book for her and she said, “Your English is different,” and she read the book for me. It was my best memory. I did not have lots of opportunities to spend time with little kids before especially foreign kids, so it was very good time.
Forth, I joined Camp Tawanchi, which is a camp for elementary school students, and I taught about Japan to 30 students for 2 hours. I told the basic information of Japan, taught how to use chopsticks and make paper cranes, and made some Japanese foods. They asked me lots of questions about Japan and they became interested in Japan so I think it worked very well.
At first I was really worried about the summer because I was the only exchange student who stayed here during summer and the International Office closed. I did not know what I could do and I thought I would be bored. However, through the help of my friends I have really enjoyed my summer. Now I am in Indiana. I will visit Canada soon with my friend by car. She is a Japanese major and she is really interested in going to Iwate. I wrote that many Japanese major students prefer to go to Tokyo or Kyoto and they are not interested in Iwate. But she said to me, “I want to see real Japan not like a big city like Tokyo or Osaka”. I was very happy to hear that. After I come back to Iwate, I hope I can do something for the students who come from North Central as they did for me and I hope many students are interested in Iwate.