What is my precious thing?

I have many precious things. As Mark wrote down in his blog, I think my family, grandmother, friends, church, and many other things are the precious. However, not people but memory, experience or feelings are also precious things for me. Today, I will write about one of my precious memories.

When I was 5^th grade in elementary school, I went to Australia as a homestay program. It was about 2 weeks. As I wrote in my blog, I took part in the long camp in the previous year. Through this camp, I came to think that I want to challenge anything without hesitation. Therefore, I decided to visit Australia in the next summer break.

The experiences there were so fantastic and precious!! I had been only to Hawaii before visiting Australia, so I could not imagine the atmosphere of outside Japan. Life styles, language, foods, school… all things I experienced were quite different from life in Japan. First of all, I had to speak English!! Although I went to English school in Japan, I had never talked with native speakers before. It was even hard for me to tell my host mother what I want to do. However, I gradually realized that even if I cannot speak English, I can communicate with others and enjoy my life there if I make an effort to achieve them. Though my English skill did not make progress well after the homestay, I got a precious thing; that is, to communicate with others from my heart. I think it is important to have an enthusiasm to tell something to others in order to make them understand what I really want to say.

My Memory of the best experience.

When I was 10 years old, I took part in a 29 nights and 30 days camp in summer break. About 30 children camped in the forest, challenged many programs given by trainers and had valuable and interesting experiences. We cycled 84 kilometers by bicycle in 2 days, milked a cow, made an open-air bath by using hinoki, built a tree house and so forth. We could not meet our parents until the end of the camp. It was really hard for me to live without my family at that time. In addition, I was the youngest in the camp members so I often cried alone at night in a tent. Although there were many hard and difficult things to overcome and I felt like quitting and going home many times, I worked together with others and finally reached the end of the camp. I gained confidence in my own ability to challenge things that is hard to achieve through this camp.

Thank you:)

Who am I?

I am Natsuki Shimizu from section BB. My birthday is October 5th and now I am 19. As I said in my presentation, my hometown is HITACHI, Ibaraki prefecture where is famous for cherry blossom and mine. I went to Ibaraki Christian Junior High and High School and learned bible for 6 years. I had never been interested in bible or Christianity until entering that school. However, I gradually realized that reading a bible and praying to God relaxed me because I can feel I am not alone. Then, I was baptized 3 years ago.
Now, I am here at ICU and live a life happily with my lovely parents, sisters, ICU friends and all the people who support me in every respect. I am deeply grateful to them.

Thank you:)

My Parents♥

　As I introduced in my presentation, we are a family of 4, my father, mother, older sister and me. To tell you the truth, my dad and mom are doting parents!! They email and call me every day and ask whether I am fine or not. However, when I was thinking of my future university, they told me to go out of my house and live by myself. I intended to go to a local Christian university because I did not want to be apart from them. I was not sure why they recommended me to go not to a local one but to a university far from my house in spite of their doting feelings. Therefore, I asked my parents and they answered, ‘’we wanted to live with you forever, but we think it was the best love to let you go out of our house and make you independent in order to live strongly in a future society.’’ Now, I am really grateful to them for making me come to ICU.

Thank you:)

My favorite sport♥

I have been playing tennis for 7 years. When I was an elementary school student, I had been playing basketball for 6 years. At that time, my mother was a coach of my basketball team. I was planning to continue playing basketball before entering junior high school. However, my junior high school did not have a basketball club!! Therefore, I belonged to tennis club against my will. I was not interested in either playing or watching tennis. However, the more my skill got better, the more I became to love playing tennis. Now, my most important game is close at hand, that is, Kanto Tennis Tournament!! I am going to play women’s doubles in that tournament. I am waiting that day with a pounding heart!!
Thank you:-)

Do I like towrite? Why or why not?

To be honest, I do not like to write as for academic writing. When I write an academic thing, I have to pay attention to writing styles. For example, we generally cannot use ''I'' in an academic writing, and a font, a size of words and margins are specified. To the contrary, I really like to write a blog or to keep a diary because there is no regulation of writing styles and I can write freely. I feel like coming up with more ideas and substantial contents in free-style writings than in academic writings.
Therefore, I want to make interesting and fascinating writings, taking this ELP class!!

Thank you:-)

Week1 Why did I decide to take this class?

The first class was really interesting!! Although there were few people who I knew in this ELP class, I gradually opened up to others by icebreaking games.

Today's main topic is why I decided to take this class. The answer is simple!! That is because I like Mark's style of teaching. He was my ARW teacher of last autumn. The interesting class is still vivid and after finishing freshman ELP, I felt that I wanted to take his ELP class again. Therefore, I signed up for it. His teaching style is really easy to understand even for the non-native speakers because he explains and analyzes what we are learning specifically but simply.

I am really looking forward to this coming sophomore ELP class:-)