A WALK TO REMEMBER

Feeling excitement over our new found friends, we had the energy to get up and go to Akashi College. Also, it was also due to the fact that our class (civil engineering) had Politics and Economy as our first class, the class was exciting and attentive since the professor put context clues and used some english words for us to understand the lesson. Surprisingly, after class when I looked through through my notes I saw that it filled up at least two pages on how the lesson went on. Just when our spirits lifted up, the following class was Japanese, learning Kanji to be exact. My oh my, what a dreadful experience it was. I frantically tried to search online how to read Kanji using both my iPad and iPhone, so you can imagine how stressed I was. Even though I was beside my buddy, he was busy listening to the professor, that's why I didn't want to ask him questions again and again. What made me even more stressed was the fact that the professor gave us papers on which we had to answer supposedly after class. I was stressed since even though we weren't really expected to give the right answers, still I didn't have any clue to answer it. The class went on for an hour and 30 minutes, but it felt a whole lot like three hours for me. Thankfully, lunch arrived and we got to eat and talk with the girls in our classroom, they're really nice and very welcoming. Their names were: Yuki, Harune, Momoka, Natsuki, Yuna, and the two other people who I forgot (I'm so sorry). What's nice about them is that they help us learn some Japanese words and they also try to understand us even though English isn't really their comfort language. What I loved was the class that came after, Exercises of Surveying I. We got to use various civil engineering equipment such as the stadia and the transit. Those equipment are used to calculate the distances between two points, even with at different heights. It was a fun class since we got to work together as a group-- us exchange students, it really helped us get to know each other more and remove the awkward atmosphere that once loomed over us. After class, we had a short welcome party, which was attended by us exchange students from DLSU and the student ambassadors once again. It was a great party, since I got to meet new people from various year levels. This just proved how nice and welcoming Japanese people are. As I got to interact with more people it led me to notice that even many things bind us together with a lot of people, there would always be certain things about us that would make us individuals. I think this is what makes programs like this exciting, as we become more exposed to other individuals outside our comfort zone not only do we become socially aware, rather it leads us to know more about ourselves. From this, we can associate ourselves with people that have the same likes as us even though what we like may be something that they don't like. What's good about this day is that this became the starting point for us to slowly open up to the culture of Japan, our classmates, and the people that we see and talk to everyday- our fellow exchange students. Wednesday came and how ecstatic were we, our class would be having English as our first class! Oh joy! During English class, we (exchange students) were happy since it was easy for us, piece of cake as you say. From this subject, I learned from my buddy that they just started learning English approximately two years ago. I felt happy since this was the time wherein I could repay my buddy for teaching me for the last two days. It was a fun experience, since the professor let us interact with the whole class by letting us check the answers they our classmates have written on the board. It was actually a funny day too, since I was the first one to correct what was written on the board, I told the class that there were no mistakes and I put a check on the board. I was shocked because when I saw the facial reactions of my classmates they were all surprised. "Had I done something wrong?", I thought to myself, but as it turns out to put a check in Japan was to put a circle and vice versa, which in fact is the vice versa here in the Philippines. Class ended and the boys had their PE which was baseball, which meant free time for us girls. Yuki, Harune, Ingrid, one girl that I forgot the name, and I went to a nearby udon shop. Their udon tasted delicious, very different from what the udon stores here in the Philippines has to offer. I got curry udon, and it was so good! Oishi! After eating, we still had ample time left so we went to a secluded area within the hallways, near our classroom. There we talked about various things. The next class to come was Chemistry, which made me a bit sleepy. It was just like learning math in Japanese. I wish that there were also real-life subtitles so I could understand them. What happened next was really exhausting and tiresome for us, we had to walk fast and run 1.8km from Akashi College to the Caterpillar plant. That's why when we got there most of us were struggling to catch our breath. Most of us were even dripping with sweat, myself included. The plant tour was fun since it opened my eyes to what the inner workings of a factory are and how people don't necessarily rely on machines to make durable and long lasting products. The walk home wasn't as tiring like when we had to go to the plant. After the visible, we went down on the station before and we went to Aeon to go shopping. Finally, an activity that involves walking which I don't feel the need to run as fast as if I'm participating in a walkathon. Adventure lies with what the future may bring...