During this trip, I could learn many academic things with enjoyment. I
could have a lot of chances to talk with many students at universities,
to know history about Oregon, and I could relate my knowledge that we
learned in reading class, about Japanese-Americans. All of the places I
visited were so valuable, and made me be curious.
First,
during this trip we could visit three universities. Of course I really
enjoyed talking with students there, but I was mostly impressed by the
school system or character. It was all surprising. At Columbia Basin
College, I talked with a student who is actually high school student. At
first, I was really confused that she was a high school student,
because that school was college. According to her, she is taking a kind
of "start dash" program. It's possible to take a college level class for
some great high school students. So, she now goes to both high school
and that college. It was really surprising, and I was really impressed
by her enthusiasm to study.
Then,
at Reed College, almost all things were new to me to know about
American universities. In this university, there are many language
centers, such as French center, German center and Korean center. In
these centers, we cannot speak other languages. I thought it's like "EO"
for us. In this university, there are only about 1400 students, and
everyone focuses on studying very much. In Japan, everyone cares about
university's name to get a good occupation but at Reed College, everyone
don't care about other's thinking and work for themselves to be a
better learner. Also, teachers are taking honor system, so teachers
trust students very highly and at the same time, students have to be
independent and have responsibility. Though this university is required
very high language skill and awful amount of tuition, I thought I really
wanted to go there. This university was so attractive.
At
Portland State University, I was amazed by their action to try to
contribute to the environment. They are using only one cooling and
heating machine for all buildings on this campus by connecting the pipe.
This helps to reduce 13% of energy. Also,at the gym, if students use
walking machine, the energy changes to electric power. Oregon is one of
the "Green City", so students also are thinking about eco-friendly. The
system of this school was so interesting and I totally agreed with this.
Through visiting these three universities, I could know how motivated
and energetic the students are, and my understanding of American
university became wider. Also, it was so fun to know much about
interesting and creative systems of these universities.
Next, The Columbia Gorge Discovery Center was helpful to know about the expedition of Lewis and Clark. There were many exhibits and explanations about it, and all of the things were almost re-creation, so it was easy to understand them well. A man explained the medicine they used, and as it was very unlike the medicine that we use, I thought how good their wisdoms are. At the same time, I felt so much gratitude for the medicine or healing today. Also, a man showed us a real gun that they used for hunting. When he actually used it, the power of it was over my expectation. The gun was so heavy and difficult to control, so I could guess that hunting was not so easy thing for them. As we cannot have gun in Japan, it was great experience. In here, I could learn about them with great enjoyment.
Finally, the Japanese-American Memorial was moving for me. In reading
class, we read "Weedflower" which is about Japanese-American during
world war two. To tell the truth, I haven't thought about them so much
before I read this book. With the knowledge about them, we went to the
memorial this time. Though the memorial was a little more simple than I
expected, I was moved by many "Haiku" which indicates their sad and
strong feelings. When I read those, I imagined how they felt, and tried
to spend the day in camp. I imagined their feelings as if they are
alive. I was intended to think about them really deeply. I could
understand how they feel depressed from that Haiku. They had a feeling,
it cannot be helped. Even though these hard situations, Haiku described
their patients and positiveness. It was so moving to me, and I thought
it's good that we could relate the contents that we learned in class and
this. This memorial was good for telling how they felt during this
period to the next generation.
Like these, I learned lots of things during this wonderful trip. All places that I visited made me think about it more deeply than ever. If I didn't go to Portland, I couldn't have such an opportunity to notice many things. I got some new perspectives when we study, learn about environment, and history in Japan. The trip gave me a lot of academic skills and knowledge. I really had a good time.
Next, The Columbia Gorge Discovery Center was helpful to know about the expedition of Lewis and Clark. There were many exhibits and explanations about it, and all of the things were almost re-creation, so it was easy to understand them well. A man explained the medicine they used, and as it was very unlike the medicine that we use, I thought how good their wisdoms are. At the same time, I felt so much gratitude for the medicine or healing today. Also, a man showed us a real gun that they used for hunting. When he actually used it, the power of it was over my expectation. The gun was so heavy and difficult to control, so I could guess that hunting was not so easy thing for them. As we cannot have gun in Japan, it was great experience. In here, I could learn about them with great enjoyment.
Finally, the Japanese-American Memorial was moving for me. In reading
class, we read "Weedflower" which is about Japanese-American during
world war two. To tell the truth, I haven't thought about them so much
before I read this book. With the knowledge about them, we went to the
memorial this time. Though the memorial was a little more simple than I
expected, I was moved by many "Haiku" which indicates their sad and
strong feelings. When I read those, I imagined how they felt, and tried
to spend the day in camp. I imagined their feelings as if they are
alive. I was intended to think about them really deeply. I could
understand how they feel depressed from that Haiku. They had a feeling,
it cannot be helped. Even though these hard situations, Haiku described
their patients and positiveness. It was so moving to me, and I thought
it's good that we could relate the contents that we learned in class and
this. This memorial was good for telling how they felt during this
period to the next generation.Like these, I learned lots of things during this wonderful trip. All places that I visited made me think about it more deeply than ever. If I didn't go to Portland, I couldn't have such an opportunity to notice many things. I got some new perspectives when we study, learn about environment, and history in Japan. The trip gave me a lot of academic skills and knowledge. I really had a good time.