Hello Galesburg and beyond! It is now almost Christmas. I’ve spent 4 months here in Japan. It doesn’t seem long when you count it, but it feels longer! An Australian foreign exchange student friend of mine has just got on the plane back to Australia as she’s done with her year here. We went on several outings together to places like Nagoya City, and I will miss her very much!
As it is the holidays, I am sad I won’t be able to spend it with friends and family at home. It is something I must endure though, and I look forward to spending it with everyone back home next year! Japan at Christmas is very beautiful. I am looking forward to experiencing how Japan celebrates Christmas such as their custom of eating KFC! It will be very different.
This past month, I’ve been to several Rotary meetings. I’ve had to do speeches in English and Japanese. Another Rotary event I went to is the Christmas party. It was rather exciting as they had a very interesting drum band and a magician do magic tricks. The magician even brought me up to help him with a trick! It was nice to see many people I haven’t seen in a long time, like my first host family.
My new host family has been very nice to me and we go shopping together. There are many huge malls and shopping centers here! I went to a very nice concert hosted by one of my friends. I got to meet the artist and he was very nice. He even invited me to play guitar with him sometime! I’ve been making a lot of good contacts and connections with wonderful and interesting people.
Happy holidays to everyone!
Alice Greene
