My sentence is...

"She lived a simple and ethical life".

I'm not sure I'm practicing  now, but I'm trying.

 First, about "simple". I am interested in ecology. I believe "to be simple" leads to ecology movement. I'd like to stop mass-produce and mass-consume and keep my suroundings simple. In addition, I would like to value "simple" feelings. For example, I smile heartily when I am happy, and I want to cry when I am sad.

 Second, abot "ethical". I am in the fair trade club because I believe that fair trade is  a "ethical" trade. And fair trade industry is closely related to organic fashion and food. They are produced with care about our health and safety.I think they are also "ethical". I want to live with these ethical products.

 Finally, I hope to be "simple" and "ethical" to people. It means "to be honest" to people.

Week two

My long-term goal:

I have two long-term goals.

First, I would like to work with various people in the future, especially people with various nationalities, because they will broaden my horizon.

SEA program was the prompt that made me to think so. In the program, I met a lot of people with various backgrounds. It was so precious experience for me!!! I knew that my sense of value is not absolute at all.

For example, my host mother was Irish. I gave her Japanese sweets as souvenir. Few days later, she brought these sweets and said “I do not like them, so can you eat them?”

I was so surprised at her behavior, because it is unbelievable for Japanese people. However I soon found that she was so kind that she said so. I really thank her for being honest.  

The experience is just one of examples. I faced these cultural differences many time. It looks to be a hard experience, but I really enjoyed it. I got to hope to meet much more people and their ideas.

The second goal is to use what I have leaned in ICU for making our society good in the future. I like the book “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes. In the book, I was moved the word that “wisdom without love is useless”. Before reading the book, I had thought that I study for just my future and interest, but now I changed my mind.

My possible major is anthropology. I would like to try to think how anthropology makes our life better.

My short-time goal:

To communicate with foreign people, English is the most useful tool. Sadly, I do not have enough confidence in my English skill, especially speaking and listening skill. Therefore I had been ashamed to speak with people sometimes during SEA program. I regret so much.

However I realize my English improved in the first year of ICU. I hope, no try hard ro study English hard!

In addition, l would like to learn how to communicate my intention effectively and understand what people want to tell me (maybe it is “interpersonal communication skill”). I believe I can learn in LILTDY!!

Preface

One of the hardest situations I have ever experienced was losing way in the mountain at night.

When I was 10 years old, I participated in camping school. The main event of the program was “Kimodameshi”. It was a program that groups of four kids walked through the small mountain at night. The way was short and teachers watched out us secretly, so it must have been safe. However our team lost the way (because we did not follow the way teachers told us, we were so bad kids).

We got panicked when we found we lost the way, but soon we laughed at the situation and began to get help. We shouted for help and notified our place by flashlights. In five minutes, teachers found us.

I think we could practice the 3^rd and the 8^th strategies Perkins suggest: “instilling optimism” and “finding something to laugh about”. Although it does not seem to be a serious situation, it was frightening for 10 years old kids. To be honest, I was so scared because it was so dark and I heard a ghost story about the mountain. However, I could behave unashamedly thanks to friends.

We learned a lot of things from the experience although we were so scolded by teachers.