I am back in Japan and enjoying my summer break here It feels really good to be home!! June is the rainy season in Japan, but it has not rained much. It usually rains a lot around this time.  It has been really humid and also hot in the past week.

Last week, I went to Minakawa, Gunma which is about 2-hr driving from Tokyo area with my sister. Why we went there is to do bungy jump! My sister had wanted to do it for a long time, so I decided to do it with her. There is a bridge bungy jump site in Minakawa and it is the only bridge bungy jump site in Japan! I love heights, so it was a lot of fun for me My sister was scared before she jumped, but she liked it, too! It was such a beautiful day, too, so we enjoyed the view and wonderful nature

There are great video clips by SDSU International Admissions on YouTube that will help students get to know about SDSU and learn useful tips for class registration and many more!! Check it out http://www.youtube.com/user/iscconnect

The semester is finally over!! I felt like this semester was the longest ever and hardest; at the same time, I feel that I accomplished a lot this semester It feels really good!! Group projects were a lot of work, but I could get along with my classmates and it was great learning process!

The last weekend, I attended my friends’ graduation ceremony at SDSU. It was a wonderful ceremony! It was such a joyful and happy day :) Graduation ceremony is such a big celebration here; families and friends cheer for graduates and celebrate them. I was really happy for my friends who were graduating, too! I can’t wait to be in the ceremony as a graduate and have my family and friends there with me!!

Time is flying! It’s almost May… There is only 3weeks left for this semester:D The weather has been nice lately and the flowers are blooming all around the campus! I love this time of year <3

Every Thursday, there is Farmers Market on campus:) I did not realize that is here in the beginning of the semester, but when I was walking on campus on one of the Thursdays, I found out about it! There is fresh fruits, drinks, different kinds of food!! I really enjoy trying the food there and having lunch outside on grass   I feel like I am on picnic and not in school!

Here is what I had at the Farmers Market. It is Hawaiian crape which includes Brie cheese, spinach, tomato, avocado, and mushrooms :9

There are obviously many things that are different here from my country and that I have experienced for the first time in the U.S. I’ve learned that I am responsible to file taxes in the U.S. I have worked on campus and filed taxes before, but it is still confusing and complicated process for me.

I have a friend who is in Accounting major and she told me about SDSU’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance. I went to their walk-in hour the other day and they helped me file taxes. They were very helpful! I was really glad that I could get help from somebody who is knowledgable about taxes. If you need help for filing taxes and want to see if you are eligible to use the SDSU’s VITA, visit http://vita.sdsu.edu/

For more information about taxes for international students, visit http://www.isc.sdsu.edu/Current/immigration_taxes.htm

It’s time to start looking for an internship since I’m graduating in the end of this year! I haven’t been active finding an internship…I want to get an experience first before I find an actual job!

SDSU Career Services has free workshops for students. I attended “Effective Interview” and “Resumes that Work” workshops at the Career Services this week. They were really helpful!  I could learn how I can improve my resume and how I should prepare for interview and so on. The Career Services is great resources!! The advisers there can take a look at my resume, help me improve it, and also can have a practice interview with me.  I want to take advantage of the Career Services more!

Last Tuesday, I went to watch an amazing show in Del Mar! I’d felt like I had nothing but school lately, but I heard about this show from my friend and decided to have a getaway from school!

The show is called “Kooza” performed by Cirque Du Soleil.  Cirque Du Soleil is a group of great performers & artists from all over the world. They have several shows in Las Vegas. Also, they travel all over the world to perform their shows.

I’ve seen their show, “KA” in Las Vegas and it was great!! This time, because I decided to watch this show in such a short notice, I didn’t have any expectation. But Kooza was an unbelievable and entertaining show!! There were lots of crazy acrobatics, magic shows, humorous performances and many more!! I was so amazed, shocked, and laughed so hard till I cried! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing was real!! I’m in love with Cirque Du Soleil <3 They had student discount on weekdays, so it was a good deal, too. It was really a nice getaway from school

If you are interested in the show, here is the link: http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/kooza/tickets/san-diego.aspx
They will be performing in Del Mar till March 28!

I got up this morning and didn’t know today is the daylight saving that adjusts time for the summer by adding 1hour. So my clock was still 9:30am; my cell phone which sets time automatically was 10:30am… I felt like I lost my time… I still don’t get used to adjust time because we don’t do that in Japan. If my cell phone did not automatically know the daylight saving time, I would be one hour behind..

But this means that the summer is almost here!!! It’s been cold and cloudy in San Diego…I cannot wait for the hot summer!!

Many exams are coming up and school has been getting really busy…but I’ve been pretty good with time management following my plans and getting study for exams started in advance So I haven’t been stressed with school much which is very good!

Last Sunday was Valentine’s Day <3 My roommates and some other friends cooked a special Valentine’s dinner at our house! It was so much fun cooking all together and just talking, laughing, and spending time together Plus, the dinner was AMAZING!!!! My roommate had great recipes for salad, soup, entree, and dessert which she got from her chef friend!! :9 We had such a wonderful time <3 We all have different schedules, so it had been a long time to get together and have dinner since the last time. I wish we could do it more often!!

In the first and second week, I was still figuring now my schedule and crashing some classes to find out what I want to take this semester. Crashing is sometimes risky because I don’t know for sure if I can get into the class. If it is a big class (some classes have over 200 students), usually, professor takes crashers; if it is a really popular class and many students are crashing, a chance to get into the class will go down. I was crashing upper devision GE classes that many seats were empty, so I could get into all the classes I crashed!

SDSU has about 3 weeks to let students add and drop classes. It is useful time to get an idea of how your semester is going to be , to find out if the class is what you thought it is, and to decide what seems to work for you. I usually end up with different schedule from the first day of school and I did this semester as well. My schedule is set now and I like my schedule for this semester! Even though I am taking 6 classes, I have Wednesdays off It’s nice to have a day off from classes in the middle of week! I wanna manage my time effectively!!

Here is my schedule for Spring ’10