Final Exam

　　　I finished all of my final exams in December 22nd. There were five ones, and the hardest one was biological anthropology one. In the class, I had five periodic exams through the semester, and I had the final one after two weeks later of the last periodic one. It covered all of the content of the periodic ones, so I had to go over everything I studied in two weeks. The series of final exams were very hard and was challengeable but I had valuable time and will make it better when I take next one.

Thanksgiving

I’m taking thanksgiving break, November 17^th through 24^th, so I’m enjoying this great long break. This weekly long break is for my university, maybe other schools as well. American people usually take 4 days thanksgiving break, from November 22nd which is Thanksgiving Day, 23^rd , 24^th and 25^th. 23^rd is not holiday though many people take a work off.

On Thursday 22^nd, I had a thanksgiving party. My friend invited me. The host family of the party is living near Pacific Ocean, so on the way to go to there, I could see the beautiful blue sea from the car. After biting some snacks, some of us went to park to break a sweat, playing football. It was breathtaking in the beginning but more and more I got tired. My team was defeated unfortunately. After football, we ate great thanksgiving food. Though they were a full of variety and all were delicious, turkey was the best. Finally we went to sea. It’s a little bit cold but beautiful. The water of the sea is cold through the year, so even summer it’s difficult to swim. Since I was born and brought up in Nara which is inland prefecture, so there is no sea, sea is still something rare for me. Anyway, I had good time during thanksgiving break. From tomorrow, school will restart, so I have to keep good health for class.

Raiders Footaball Game

Well, I have had various events since then but this time I’d like to write about NFL football game. Yesterday I saw it at McAfee coliseum in Oakland with friend and acquaintance. The acquaintance’s friend has had yearly ticket of Oakland Raiders and like football so much, so we decided to see raiders game together. As the method of going to Oakland from San Francisco, we used a train called Bart which is relatively cleaner than Muni. In the train, I saw some Raiders fun wearing black clothes which is raider’s team color. It took about 45 minutes to get to there. The weather was clear. There was almost no cloud in the sky. Sea gulls were flying above the coliseum. It was my first time to see pro football game in my life, so I was very excited. My seat was behind of the end zone which is a kind of goal for football. The game was Oakland Raiders versus Chicago Bears. Since both of teams were in last place which means almost same percentage of wins, I was looking forward to the victory of Raiders in the beginning. As Raiders player kicked the ball, the game started. Both of the team had good defense, so the game reached a deadlock in 1^st quarter. As of the halfway, both of them got 3 points. There was a show during the half time rest. Marching band was playing with marching in the center of the field and cheer leaders were dancing in front of us. My attention was almost on cheer leaders because their dance was really cute and amazing. After starting 3^rd quarter, Bears got two touchdowns. One is from very long pass, and the other is from raider’s mistake. Finally Raiders was defeated 19 to 3. We regretted the result but the day had had something sperical for us because we met after ling separation.

St. Mary’s Cathedral

After going to City Hall, I went to St. Mary’s Cathedral. St. Mary’s Cathedral is one of the most famous cathedrals in the United States and it has very unique shape. Big meeting for Christian was holding inside. Something very beautiful was hanging on the ceiling, maybe crystal, and four long rectangular stained glasses were on its side walls. It was so impressive and mysterious.

City Hall

I went to City Hall on September 17th. I also went to St. Mary’s Cathedral and Japan town at the day. I took Muni to downtown and got off Civic Center station. There was farmer’s market on the way to there. Fresh vegetables and fruits had been selling. I saw some statues near the market and big building, City Hall behind them. The building was really beautiful and awesome. It was something I’ve never seen. My tour book said it’s one of the most beautiful buildings in the United States. Some of the top part was painted in gold, so it can attract people’s attention. There were some and cultural buildings like War Memorial Opera House, Asian Art Museum and Louis M Davies Symphony Hall at a nearby site, so the place around City Hall must be culturally important place.

Registration And Textbook

I’m taking five classes this semester, English class for multilingual, Intro Macroeconomics analysis, Intro Biological anthropology which is for my GE class, two classes for PE Elementary Karate and Personal Defense. In terms of the unit, those classes are 12 units. I have some classes I wanted to take but I couldn’t because I missed priority registration, so I will take them in the next semester, Winter or Spring.
The other day, I went to the bookstore to buy my textbook of this semester but unusual thing for Japanese happened. I picked the textbook for my Macroeconomic class up and went to cashier desk to pay the money but the staff said “one hundred twenty one seventy cents”. I though “What!?” $100 on one book!? I’d expected to pay much money for the textbook but it was a little beyond it. The book, however, is $100 worth, so I’ve got to learn English properly and get a knowledge related economics from it.

"I Have Three Roommates"

One of interesting thing for students studying abroad would be ” Housing”. I’ve been living at dorm on campus. I share my room with 3 people. Two of them are international student, from Canada and Sri Lanka, and the other roommate is American. They are very nice guys. This is my first time to share a room with foreign student, so I hope I will have nice school life with them. There are 3 bedrooms in my room. We’ve been assigned the American and I share one bedroom and the other roommates have their own bedrooms. The American guy is very tall, and he said he is 6.7 feet (204 centimeters tall)! He likes to play guitar, so I sometimes hear his musical performance in my room. The contract of our dorm is for a whole year, so I’m going to live for a year with them.

Baseball Game

As one of international student’s activities, I went to see the baseball game on August 25th, and about 15 of us were taking part in it. We left our campus for the baseball stadium called AT&T Park at 4pm by a street car, and got to there around 5. The match was between San Francisco Giants and Milwaukee Brewers. Barry Bonds who is famous baseball player of MLB plays in Giants, so I expected to see his home run. My seat was behind the home base; it’s a place batters stand to get hold of the ball. In the beginning of the game, most of Giants’ players successively hit or got on base and got 4 points, so everyone in the stadium got excited! Both of the teams got 2 points in the middle, and finally Giants beat the opposing team 6-2!! Unfortunately I couldn't see Bond’s home run in the game but I had a great time.

Shopping And Orientation

On August 18th and 19th, I went to downtown of SF to buy necessary goods for living. I took the streetcar called “Muni” to there. On the way to the nearest Muni station from the campus, I passed through a wide quadrangle. It was nice place that some of the grounds have grass, so I was impressed. I haven’t seen the stuff like this in Japan. I took M line, and got off Powell station. After I hung out around Powell Street, I found a good store called “Ross” At the store, I bought cheap kitchenware like frying pan, source pan, ladle and so on.

I had a series of orientations for international student on August 20th through 24th. They ware for housing, class, transportation and so on and so informative. The nationality of attendants was full of variety. They were like Taiwan, Japan, Germany, China, Spain, India, Saudi and even Canada! Portland State University I’d studied at before had a lot of international students from Asia though SFSU have students from the other countries. So I have an opportunity to talk to people from around the world on campus, and learn various kind English!!

Arrival in San Francisco

I was at Kansai airport on August 18th for flying to San Francisco to study abroad. My family and aunt also went to there to see me off. My father took me to there by his car, and on the way to there, I was little bit sad because I was not going to meet my friends and family for a whole year. As soon as I got to there, I switched over my feeling.

I flew to San Francisco via Seoul, Korea, and arrived at the airport of San Francisco around 11am. I picked my baggage up, and went out of there. When I went outside, I thought “it’s cold!” The mean temperature was 17 °C at the day. The weather was colder than I expected. I went to San Francisco State University to check in the dorm I was going to stay by taxi. Since the campus was little complicated and I had lack of a sense of direction, I lost my way some times but woman looked like student of there walked me to the dorm. I was glad because I felt the kindness of the people of San Francisco. My study at SFSU began.