Saturday, July 26, 2014

Under the SEA


CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

             Hi, everyone! How are you doing? Someone may be surprised at this title, “Under the SEA.” But it doesn’t mean the famous song in “The Little Mermaid.” Now I’m in Dublin to study English in SEA program.
              First of all, Dublin is a heavenly city. Sometimes I feel like being in a movie such as “Howl’s Moving Castle” or “Kiki’s Delivery Service.” It is not so crowded for a capital city in Europe and I think it is suitable for studying. There are lots of trees even around the city center. Besides, green is the theme color of this country, so we often see something green in Ireland (the post is painted in green, too). I am happy because green is my favorite color!
              University College Dublin, where we are studying, has a huge campus which is bigger than ICU’s. I heard that UCD is the second (?) best university in this country and the rival of Trinity College Dublin, the best univ of Ireland. It’s like “Sou-Kei Sen” in Japan… We are in a general English course, not an academic one. So grammar exercises tend to be too easy for Japanese students, but the topics are interesting because they are often related to our daily life.
              ICU students in UCD have an “English only rule” during SEA program, so we communicate each other in English even in LINE app. In the first week of our stay, I felt my speaking skill was immediately improving. One of my aim in Dublin is to strengthen my fluency and activeness. I have more 3 weeks here in Ireland. I’ll stick it out :)

Saturday, July 5, 2014

The Day before the Departure


             The day is coming… the day I will visit Dublin. Tomorrow I will take 11:40 plane to Copenhagen, then transit for Dublin. I am now staying in a hotel in Narita and preparing for tomorrow.
              It is my first time to study abroad. I had long been wanted to attend SEA program since last year. In the same season of the last year, I devoted my time toward writing 2 long essays for ICU’s AO entrance examination. If I told my current situation to me of 2013, how happy would she feel?
              I must make the 6 weeks very very valuable! I mustn’t hesitate to speak English without caring about making mistakes too much. But all I have to do NOW is sleeping. Good night, everyone : )