NCC volume8---August

My study abroad program is from January 3 to November 23. As you know to go to American college from January is very unusual. I chose this period just because I really wanted to go study abroad as soon as possible after my teaching practice. However, I think it was very good choice for me to come to North Central College from winter term. There are a couple reasons.

First, the main reason is that I can spend summer in the United States. During the school term, it is hard to spend time with friends, do extra activities, and go to Chicago or other places because we are always busy for the classes. However, during summer vacation I could do lot of things I could not do during school term. Of course, the weather is very good for traveling and outside is very beautiful with many flowers and green. It is the best time to stay around Chicago.

Second, I can spend more time in the United States. Usually other exchange students from Japan stay at North Central College for 9 months. However, in my case I can stay here almost 11 months, which is very good for me because I can spend as much time as possible in the United States

Third, I could work hard to catch up to other exchange students. When I first met other exchange students, they could speak English much better than me, so I worked hard to catch up with them. Also, they gave me lots of advice from their experiences of fall term, which helped me a lot.

However, of course, there are a lot of disadvantages to coming to North Central from winter. Here are some examples.

First, I came here on January 2 right before the day school starts so I did not have time to do orientations. Other exchange students told me that they had an orientation week before school starts and they did campus tour, library orientation, etc. It was very hard for me not to have an orientation week.

Second, I have to move my dorm twice, which is very hard. Usually exchange students live in the same dorm called Kimmel but my first dorm was different from other students, which was very good to have American friends but sometimes it was very hard. Also, I had to move to another dorm for summer and I have to move to next dorm for fall term. So I had to look for new roommate by myself. In North Central College, students can choose their next dorms and rooms, but to get better room we need a lot of credits. Fortunately, one of my friend suggested to stay with her next year so I could find my roommate, but it was hard for us to get good room because I had only 9 credit which is less than freshman. I will go back to Japan after fall term so my future roommate will have new roommate randomly from winter term so I feel sorry about this.

Third, it was hard to register classes. In North Central College, students register their classes in May for their next whole year. So when I registered my classes, some classes were already closed. Fortunately, I could get in the classes I wanted to take but I was always on waitlist and it made me so nervous.

For me the advantages of summer outweigh the disadvantages, but it depends on our goal of study abroad program and our schedule of college. I hope my opinion can help future exchange students from Iwate.