Though it might be stereotypical, I previously thought that American students were not shy at all and that they would be very talkative. But at the welcome party I realized that people are not talkative just because they are American. Since some of them were really shy, the GP students in our group didn't know at first how to talk to them, but little by little we could get a conversation started and we could also laugh about funny things. Talking with the students from Dickinson College was such a precious experience and I could learn many kinds of things. Among the topics we talked over, I found amazing that they have foreign language classes everyday during the week. I wonder how much better my Chinese would be if I had Chinese classes every day. Also, I found out that the U.S. government encourages them to study by giving them scholarships which are not as difficult to get as in Japan. It was hard to find time to hang out with our small groups, every student had part-time jobs or other things to do after school. But we managed to take the students from Dickinson to some interesting places. Besides the Atsuta Festival, my group went to places like the Midland Square(a high-class shopping area), Osu (a local covered shopping arcade area), a maid cafe, Mountain ( a famous local restaurant) and the Cat Cafe. Since I'm not from Nagoya, I had opportunities to go to places which I would not have been able to go otherwise. When we talked with the Dickinson students we asked about their lives back in the U.S. and they asked about Japan too. I could see things in a different way after I talked with them. Though some of them could speak Japanese, our conversation was possible because we've been studying English. Like Professor Suzuki said at the farewell party, I want our friendship to last forever and I'm looking forward to seeing the Dickinson students again.

by Ayumi