Recently in - Kyoko Yamada Category

Spring has come here in Minnesota!

I am happy and excited but simultaneously have complicated feeling, because Spring means it's almost the time to leave here for me. I will miss my life in the University of Minnesota...

1 year and 8 months passed unbelievably quickly, and I have only several months to stay here. I had not thought that, but actually I feel, "I don't want to go back to Japan yet!"

Wait, I still love Japan. But I have too many reasons that try not to let me go .

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As most of you already know, my country, Japan is facing several crisis.

Who did forecast this situation? I had never even imagined it, and I am having feeling that i had never had before. I still feel like all of my heart, attention, and mind is not in the US but in Japan.

What do you think you do if your country has crisis during your study abroad...?

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Do you like studying?

I do not know so many people who say "YES!" even hard-working post graduate students.

...Me?

I say yes. I say no.

Spring semester 2011 is here! I'm happy to come back to this blog.

Actually, this is the busiest semester for me ever, but I'm doing pretty good. A lot of study, work, but many fun events as well. Are you wondering how come that I enjoy the winter in "Minnesota Cold"?

Here is what's going on here... :)

Imagine...
What do you answer when someone ask you, "who are you?"

When I was in Japan, I've never answered, "I'm Japanese" because all people around me were Japanese! haha

Now, I often say "I'm Japanese" or "I'm an M.Ed. student in HRD" to introduce myself.

Being an international student changed my answer.
But I realized that some characteristics of mine haven't changed, and these may be fundamental elements that consist of Kyoko Yamada.

New friend: "What is your major?"

Me: "Human Resource Development (HRD)."

New friend: "That sounds interesting.... By the way, what is it?"

Even though we are students at the U, we don't know much about other majors but ourselves.
You will be asked, "what do you study in your program?", 100 times if you enter the university.

U of M has more than 300 courses, and each one is very unique!
So, listening to stories about other programs is really interesting and sometimes surprising.

Today, I'm very excited to introduce my program, HRD, and to tell you the secrets of it.

"Omg...I will be kicked out from U of M...." (*Omg: Oh my goodness)

This morning, I found my friend posted the state above on Facebook.

Why did he thought that?
Because he couldn't pay tuition by the due date.

Being honest, I had an exactly same experience last year...

As same as many international students, tuition and living cost was one of the biggest concerns of mine before I came here.
When I was still in Japan, I had saved money for paying tuition by myself.
But it's not enough.

Are you wondering how I'm managing it...?

OK, I'll tell you the REAL stories!

Hi readers!
The blog topic of this week is "why U of M?"

Umm.... being honest, I had wanted to study in New York but changed my mind.

Do you want to know why...?

Hello! I'm Kyoko from Japan.

This is my second year in the M.Ed. Human Resource Development Program and also in the U.S. Besides studying, I work at ISSS, International Student and Scholar Services, as a student worker.