This July I (Rachel) got to take a trip for school. When you go to graduate school in America, you have the chance to go to conventions where you can give a talk about something you are working on. This July, the International School Psychology Association (ISPA) conference was in Montreal, Canada. It has not been in North America for some time to it was my chance to go (Next year it is in Portugal, which is very far for me...) While I was giving the talk myself, I went with my three friends to the conference, Lea, Carina, and Aaron. We decided to drive because it is very expensive to fly to Canada for us. Aaron did most of the driving. It was over 14 hours of driving! But we had a lot of fun. We stayed in a very nice youth hostel close to the conference.
I got to speak some Japanese at the conference too! There were quite a few Japanese researchers and graduate students there so I went to their presentations. I talked with one student a lot and in the lunch line she asked me about working internationally. Then she asked if I spoke Japanese. I told her a little but my Japanese was very bad and strange. She was so kind to not laugh at me! I should study Japanese harder but I have so much psychology homework...しょうがないね？I got the chance to see my friend from Tokyo Mayuko, who is studying French in Montreal. She speaks Japanese, ENglish, and French. She's my inspiration! We went to Mont Royal park and played frisbee and watched some folk dancing. There were many mosquitos and raccoons but it was really fun! Luc, who lives in Kurashiki and is a good friend from my ALT days, was also on vacation in Montreal the same week! What luck! He took us to a famous smoked meat restaurant called Schwartz. It was sooooooo good! I was really happy to see my friends; especially Mayuko because I didn't get to see her before I left Japan. I also got to meet my 2 of my favorite researchers. They came to my presentation and told my professor who I was representing that I did a good job! Lea, Aaron, and Carina also did a great job. Even though we had the conference, we also did fun things like playing frisbee, cooking dinner together, and going to the Biodome/Botanical Gardens (we went to the Japanese garden of course...)
On the 11th of August Brian heard there was going to be a festival at a buddhist temple in Chicago that is kind of close to us. We didn't know there was a temple here. The festival was called Ginza festival and there were many people there. We got to watch a Judo demonstration (I miss judo...), eat kintoki, and see many crafts that people were selling. I saw a few people wearing yukatas as well. It made Brian and I both miss Japan very much. We didn't buy any of the crafts this year but we will next year! And they are having a mochi making ceremony for the new year so Brian and I will go to that as well.
This is (from the left) Lea, Aaron, and Carina after we played frisbee!
Easy English:
Hey guys! Last month Rachel went to Montreal in Canada for conference. She drove to Canada with her three friends Lea, Carina, and Aaron. It was almost 14 hours to drive there. They had a really good time! She got to meet two of her old friends from Japan: Mayuko (who is an international student in Montreal. She is from Tokyo) and Luc (who was an ALT, he lives in Kurashiki with his wife Sumie).
Brian and Rachel also went to the Ginza festival in Chicago at a Buddhist temple. There were many demonstrations of martial arts (judo, akido, etc.), festival food (we ate kintoki!), and crafts. It was really great and it made both of us miss Japan a lot. Take care guys!
