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Sunday June 29th 2008 The Andous This past weekend I stayed with my host family, the Andous. They didn't know much English so it was a challenge, but we did go out to eat twice  with other IJST students' host families. Also, the Andous are tons of fun and took me to a dinosaur museum today and are just really nice people that I'm lucky to have gotten assigned to. This week is kind of light since we don't have class on Tuesday (it's summer vacation at KIT and the school is closed Tuesday), but there's a big exam on Friday (and daily diary entries in Japanese as usual) so it's not a totally stress free week. However next weekend is the 4th of July and a big party is planned, so...Yeehaw! -Scott 6 Comments | Comment
Thursday June 26th 2008 4-Day Weekend Last weekend we had a 4-day weekend (sat-tues) and so I went with a Rose kid to Osaka to meet a Japanese friend of his and then Tokyo where the friend lives. We stayed in Tokyo Monday and Tuesday and went all over and I bought tons of cool stuff. I think I might have some good pictures but I'm probably too busy to post them right now. This next weekend I'm going to be staying with a host family. I met my host mom last weekend and she was so nice and later she sent me an email where she called me Scott-kun which made me smile. OK homework time.
-Scott
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Monday June 16th 2008 A Note on Frustration Even though I’ve just met all of the American students, I feel like I know them well enough to say that a lot seem to be getting more irritable than usual. There are only a couple that I’ve talked to that annoy me just by the way they talk, but it seems that a lot of other people are annoyed (and much more so than me) by quite a few people. I think I too am starting to get irritated a little easier, although usually I can keep my cool when provoked. Why the irritability? Since I’ve been at Rose for four years, I’m used to having to work hard and such, so that doesn’t bother me. It’s more the frustration of having things to communicate and not being able to do so well. Especially for me as a first year Japanese student I find it difficult to speak and listen with my limited vocabulary. I think this is probably a reason for the tension in others too. There’s also interpersonal tension created by the different levels of Japanese speakers. While we all want to learn, we don’t want to look foolish and especially don’t want to be made to look foolish by (sometimes younger/socially lower) peers. You have to have such delicate tact sometimes when trying to communicate with peers in a foreign language. Being that most of the people I hang out with are engineers, I feel they lack that tact. I probably do too, but I try to avoid correcting people altogether since I don’t think it’s part of my role as a peer (except when talking to Japanese people) and more often it’s me who needs correcting.
WOTD: ganbatte- it's like "do your best" or "work hard" or "go for it" or I've heard one person translate it as "good luck," and it is what one of my Japanese friends said to me tonight after we talked about the difficulties I was having with Japanese
-Scott
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Thursday June 12th 2008 Quick Msg Just wanted to say that I'll be going to Anamizu for the next couple of days so I'll be not posting/out of touch with the back home world but I probably won't be dead so...
WOTD: atatakakunakatta- was not hot, as in weather...atatakai is hot and this is the past negative form...our teacher makes us say each of 4 forms in the time of about a heartbeat...so that's atatakai atatakakatta atatakakunai atatakakunakatta (present past negative neg/past)(a language where the grammatical functions are glued onto the words is called agglutinative fyi)...in 4 heartbeats...
-Scott
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About Me
I just graduated from Rose-Hulman with my Master's of Electrical and Computer Engeering
 and am studying in
Kanazawa, Japan until July 18. After that I will be working for Green Hills Software in Santa Barbara, CA. This picture is of Moench Hall, an interesting building at Rose.
Pictures
 6/29/08- IJST Teachers  6/29/08- Me and the Andous, my host family  6/29/08- Yuka and Nick, who I went with to Osaka and Tokyo More
Websites
BlogpaperOnly recently in English, I get most of my best wallpapers here Dice WarsMy favorite online flash game FreeRiceFeed hungry people around the world and learn vocabulary--a real twofer PaperBackSwapIf you've got books that aren't worth selling, trade them TEDInteresting video lectures by "the world's greatest thinkers and doers" Wine LibraryAn accessible, insanely excited wine taster's video site
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This is a very nice picture, they look like an energetic family with the young ones! Is this the Japanese Kube Family? We had a good weekend with Paul and Ann here, Sharon and kids, Gma & Gpa, Dave and Veronica and kids all here Sunday. Went to F&B's later last night to see Kube's and Stark's. I am getting a letter ready to send to you, will try to get it out today. Taking Kim to Lincoln for 4-H so catch up with you later. Thanks for the update!
Hide | Reply | 6/30/08
laura
we pick the girl in the middle for you!!!
Hide | Reply | 7/1/08
Kelly
Scott - I've been enjoying the updates. Funny thing I was thinking the same as your Mom. You fit right in w/ this family w/ their little kids. Your time spent w/ your younger cousins back here have been perfect training for this moment. Take care.
Hide | Reply | 7/5/08
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