Move to CGU Dorm

Finally, I moved to CGU dorm.

Since I first contacted with housing office before I got here, the information they provided has already been doubtful for me. Based on their suggestion, I did not try to register for the new dorm because of highly competitive application. However, last month I suddenly got the information that there is a one-bedroom apartment available in CGU dorm. I immediately decided to move.

The process of checking the availability is a bit troublesome, but staff in housing are in fact pretty nice people. Although the working efficiency has been always a complaint of the students, I do believe they tried their best to serve us.

Anyway, finally, I moved in.

It's great that some friends are just as near as a few steps away from my room. The short distance from school is a great benefit that I can walk or ride bike to school easily. The only problem of lacking of internet has been temporarily solved by my kind neighbor who let me use her internet for free.

I would like to thank everyone who helped me to move here.

Since the plenty of moving experience in military, I know that if there are enough people helping, the moving process can be very fast. However, usually it's very difficult to gather people. I am lucky. All the friends here are so kind and so helpful that even during the final projects weeks, Kazuma, Ryo, Hiroshi, April, Naoto, Tian, and Michie all were helping. I really really appreciate and want to say thank you again.

Now, I stay in A104 in CGU dorm. I will try to create more memories and happiness here. This is my comfortable nest in California!

My American classmates

Before coming here, most rumors about American classmates in the US are negative. It seems to be a common sense that the language barrier is not the only problem existing between international students and American students. However, my experience in Drucker School is totally different, at least in my opinion.

Since this community is so diverse and international students are almost half of the class, although we do have about 50% of American classmates, American culture does not dominating the classroom experience. There are more than ten times I have heard this, "If you ask me(American) to make a presentation in Japanese or Chinese, I definitely can not do as well as you did." Whenever I this, I really appreciate their understanding and respectful attitude.

Recently, I have a project with three other international students and one American. Although we have not presented in the class yet, I have learned a lot. I am grateful that the American classmate is so patiently explain every detail and difference in the language part. In this team, he is the only one who use English as mother language, so I believe he somehow feels like an outsider. Although everyone is kind and helpful in my team, I understand how much effort the American classmate put in our project, not even mention that he is the only one who has full-time job.

The US is  a huge country with a lot of philosophy that I can not totally agree. On the other hand, I do think we need to learn the open-minded attitude and diverse perspective. Of course, not everyone is as lucky as me and not everyone has good American team members, but there indeed is some very friendly, understanding, and helpful Americans that are trying to build positive relationship with internationals. I met a lot of them here in Claremont during this six months. 

In short, I just want to appreciate them and I wish I can be as open minded and helpful as them.

給 哲瑋 姿伶: 新婚恭喜

恭喜了 兩位!

終於進入人生的另一里程碑 

兩個人攜手共度快樂與艱辛一輩子

需要多大的決心 現在的我是無法想像的

兩個好友能有這樣美好的結果

我由衷感到開心和祝福

抱歉無法前往當面祝賀

在這邊 祝福兩位 早生貴子囉!

下次見面不知道是何時了 到時候再好好聊聊吧!!

Utah trip - Arches National Park

Thank Ryo & Kazuma, I enjoyed  a great trip to Arches National Park during my first Thanksgiving holiday in the US.

We arrived at night after a long long driving. The lodge we stayed was so nice. I was surprised when I knew that we can even use free wireless internet in the room. The scenery was also amazing there! I felt we enjoyed the nature and luxury at the same time. 

After a fun discussion about the plan of the next day, I fell asleep because of tiring long driving. It's really tough to drive more than ten hours a day. However, the experience is totally worth it. Some of us went horse riding on the second day. Riding horse on the trial with amazing view is a fantastic experience. My horse was very stable and cute. I was glad it was not so eager to eat nor too lazy to move. This was my first time to ride a horse and cross a small string. We took some great photos and everyone was satisfied with the guides.

We took some time in Arches National Park. The trials are enjoyable and the weather was good. We were lucky because it's cloudy but not rainy. If the rain came one day earlier, we could not hike anymore. Anyway, the Arches are unbelievable and we hiked a bit so that we could enjoy more in the dinner. 

The dinner was in Moab brewery. People said it's good, and they didn't lie. After dinner, we came back lodge, chatted for a while, and played poker. Everyone was so tired that the next day no one could get up!

The rushing morning was also fun. We all were surprised that no one woke up before 10:30 a.m. and we almost could not check out on time. Obviously, we enjoyed a lot.

The driving was terribly long but also interesting. Especially when Kazuma's car suddenly showed up besides my car. We also ate two meals in Vegas and gambled a bit. This is a great trip with great partners.

Thank you all for traveling together!

Boston Trip - Boston Career Forum

Back from Boston, I was so grateful that my school is in California with great weather. Although I like the atmosphere in the comparably old city, the low temperature is still a huge problem for me.

This trip is valuable, I think. Despite no jobs for me, the opportunity to see and participate the biggest Japanese job fair in the US is still a useful experience. I interviewed with Vp of Amazon.jp. He is really calm and smart. In fact, I believed I did a good job in that interview, although I failed to get the intern because of the lack of my experience and language ability. 

In the event, one may realize the stereo type: "Japanese can not speak good English." is totally wrong. There are so many new generation Japanese who can speak English much better than me. Maybe Japan will change dramatically in the near future. Who knows.

I am glad that I could meet the recruiter of Wunderman again. I regard this is a great company to work for and also a place really attracts me. 

The Taiwanese shabu shabu in Boston is the most impressive surprise for me. I enjoyed the shabu shabu which has 麻辣鍋底, 蒜泥 and 沙茶醬 with Japanese friends. We even ate two times in different shabu shabu restaurant during out very short stay.

In fact, I feel guilty by flying so far without getting a job back. However, I can only keep trying and practicing. I believe some day those dots in my life will somehow connect to each other. I can only keep my faith in myself.  That's all I can do.