This is already April; can you imagine that we are still in winter even though it is supposed to be Spring? I cannot believe this, and I have never experienced before. I think this is one of the best thing for studying abroad.

 These days, I have been bothered by a lot of assignments that we need to complete to pass this session. Many things were going on crazily such as making presentations, writing an essay, creating a business idea and making poster. Speaking of making poster, that was my totally new experience for me. My teacher divided our class into six teams consisted of two to three people. We began this assignment by thinking about which fields we are interested in, and it should be academic. Our team was the first one all team members agreed to ‘music’, then we narrowed down the topic into “music effect on shoppers’ purchasing behavior”. As soon as we started to research, we faced to a problem that we didn’t have enough empirical data on the topic. Therefore, we decided to broaden our theme out to ‘business’. Thanks to that, we could find a lot of interesting facts, and eventually we came to the poster; however, we had too many information instead. We tried to keep our point and to remove unnecessary sentences. During the process of making poster, each of us had agreement and disagreement, and every time, we settled down each other. Team work can be seen easier than individual work, but in fact, it is not. In my opinion, this was the most tough one I’ve ever done. We need to respect each other, but arguments should be existed still. I can say that everything need balance. Now, I really thank my teammates for inspiring me and holding me up together with them.

 By the way, I, Aya, a Japanese man and an Arabian boy had birthdays at the end of the March and the beginning of the April. We threw a party on March 29th, just for six people though, and we set this as potluck party. Potluck party is a party which everyone has to bring one dish either homemade or dish made by factories or shops. For us, there were miso soup, gratin, curry, rice and cupcakes. In addition, one man brought a cake as a surprise with our name written on it. I was so surprised and so glad to have very kind friends. I enjoyed that day indeed.

On April 1st, Easter’s day, my host family took me to their daughter’s house to celebrate Easter. In Japan, we don’t usually do that except Tokyo Disney Land, so that I was feeling the western culture. I just watched the Easter Hunt, but I could see how it works. It was too simple that I shouldn’t mention about it in here. Also, in there, the surprise cake was prepared for my birthday. It was a perfect birthday for me. I hope I can spend more stimulating time this year.