{"id":18163,"date":"2015-07-20T10:42:47","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T01:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/?p=18163"},"modified":"2016-10-25T10:51:11","modified_gmt":"2016-10-25T01:51:11","slug":"concentrating-on-studies-in-a-more-rural-environment-than-i-had-expected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/careercompass-en\/2015\/07\/20\/18163\/","title":{"rendered":"Concentrating on studies in a more rural environment than I had expected"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\">>>From Waseda to the United States
\nUchuta Hirose
\nFifth year, School of Human Sciences<\/strong><\/p>\n

I studied abroad at Coe College in Iowa in the United States. I chose this college for the reasons that it was a liberal arts college and I wanted to live in a rural area.<\/p>\n

Iowa, the biggest corn producer in the United States, turned out to be more rural than I had expected. Although there was no urban splendor at Coe College, I was able to concentrate on my studies. Since it was a small college where all students could get to know each other, I was able to make friends with many American students. Classes were small and we had a close academic relationship with the professors.Therefore, I could proactively express my opinions.<\/p>\n

\"Japanese

Japanese students wore yukata in a Cultural Show event held for students from different countries to present their cultures.<\/p><\/div>\n

A full range of sports facilities were available on campus, including pool tables, ping-pong tables, tennis courts, swimming pools, and a gymnasium. I often used these facilities. Also, movie DVDs were available for rent free of charge at the library. On the days I didn’t have classes, I enjoyed watching movies with my friends.<\/p>\n

During my study abroad, I encountered many difficulties both in life and in my studies. I had an especially difficult time making a presentation and submitting a 2,000-word essay every week. However, I also learned many things from my experience in the United States. Not only did I understand a non-Japanese culture better by experiencing American lifestyles and culture, but I also came to appreciate what’s good about Japan. My experience with values different from my own broadened my perspective and enabled me to develop a more flexible way of thinking.<\/p>\n

\"\u25b2\u301020\u00b0C

\u25b2\u301020\u00b0C below zero in the winter; even soap bubbles and bananas freeze!\u3011 I was surprised that winters in Iowa are very cold, with temperatures falling to 20\u00b0C below zero every day. I have never experienced such cold weather in Japan. We had fun freezing soap bubbles and bananas.<\/p><\/div>\n

Experiences and impressions obtained from studying abroad vary from person to person. I hope this study abroad program can provide experiences that help students realize what they are not aware of in their lives in Japan and help them breakdown (in a good way) the values they have taken for granted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

>>>From Waseda to the United States Uchuta Hirose Fifth year, School of Human Sciences I studied abro […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3614,"featured_media":18168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[208],"tags":[221,245],"class_list":["post-18163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careercompass-en","tag-studyabroad-en","tag-news-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3614"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18169,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18163\/revisions\/18169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}