Vermont Curry

こんにちは。

きょうわたしはごぜん３からごぜん７までねました。

Ew. And then I tried to take a nap but was interrupted by a fire alarm.

That's the price you pay for living in the LLC.

Even so, I am in a good mood! Because　きょうは さむいです！

Autumn and Winter are my favorite seasons of the year.

My friends back in Vermont called me a couple of weeks ago to tell me about the first time temperatures dipped below freezing overnight - and now they're telling me that the leaves are starting to really change! Ahhh! Vermont is so, so beautiful in the fall - especially where I'm from. Here's a picture of Bennington Valley! It's from the internet so it's not great, but for my next post I will dig up some that I took myself and post them.

Being in the city feels especially foreign at this time of year. In Vermont, I'd probably be outside raking leaves. But here it's been feeling like summer beach-weather, even into last week! Last year in the city I felt the same way - just a little off.

I don't feel the seasons as strongly here. New York is dominated by brick and concrete, metal and glass. The only real perceptible change is in the temperature, maybe the humidity. And the ten trees in our courtyard shed their leaves in November. In Vermont, the whole atmosphere, the whole environment changes. You can see it, smell it...it's really fantastic, you're completely overwhelmed with Autumn.

Anyway, this also got me thinking..."How can I ever explain this to someone in Japanese?"

Because...I have no idea how to spell Vermont in katakana. "Vermont" seems like a difficult collection of sounds to translate (same reason my name usually wound up sounding like MAO-UH-REE-NA until someone showed me a simpler way to spell it).

THEN. I remembered when I went to Japan two years ago, one of two things would happen when I said "Vermont" with my lovely American accent.　

1) People would have no idea what I was talking about. So I'd say it was a very, very small state near Canada. And then everyone would marvel that I was from Canada.

2) People would say some odd tagline or a bit of a jingle from a commercial. Nobody ever explained what they were saying/singing to me!

I felt like a joke.

It took me weeks to discover THIS in a supermarket in Okayama:

Thank you very much. That was a pretty great moment.

I brought back two boxes so my friends and family could revel in how widely respected our beautiful little state is in Japan. And since I remembered this silliness, I was able to find a box with katakana instead - such as this fine gentleman is enjoying below:

And so, that's how I recently learned how to spell バーモント。やった！

Why I'm Studying Japanese

I have chosen to study Japanese in college for a few different reasons!

In June 2007, I went out of the country for the first time.

The Experiment in International Living (EIL) was promoting a special scholarship program in Vermont. Some Asian corporation was attempting to strengthen its relationship with Vermont - why, I don't know! - and was sponsoring high school students to study abroad in Thailand, China, or Japan. While the program in Thailand was my first choice, my mother thought this country was too dangerous and forbade me to go! I then chose Japan, because it involved a homestay and language classes.

It turned out to be a great decision. I spent the summer in Okayama, Japan, and was able to visit Tokyo, Kyoto, and the island of Shikoku. During this trip, I made many friends. I still keep in touch with my host family, and some of the fellow American students who also went with this program. I have unfortunately forgotten much of the Japanese I learned on the trip, and I would love to be able to write to my friends and host family in Japanese again soon.

While studying here at Columbia University, I have gotten interested in Film Studies and Environmental Archaeology. My particular interest in each subject led me to Japanese again!

There are many Japanese directors I have come to admire in the last couple years (such as Kurosawa, Suzuki Seijun, and Ozu Yasugiro) and it would be great to better understand the culture and social structure examined throughout their films.

To become an Archaeology major and prepare myself for Graduate studies, I am supposed to have a reading knowledge of two languages. Since I already know Spanish and some Italian, I decided it would be fun to pick a completely different language! So, feeling a little nostalgic for that trip to Okayama, I choose to study Japanese.

As far as this class goes, I am mostly worried that I will have terrible pronunciation. Oh, I'm actually more worried about having to learn Chinese characters! But even though I've missed a few classes and need to catch up on the material, I think this class has been a lot of fun so far. I especially loved when we heard "Sukiyaki" in class. :) My host-grandparents actually played that song for me once, so it brought back a good memory. I think that it was fate that the professor chose that song to play! It must mean I've made a good decision.

Maureen

Blogはたのしいです。

わたしはマウリインです。
じゅきゅさいです。
アメリカ人です。アメリカのヴェロモントからきました。
どぞよろしく。

コロンビャだいがくのがくせいです。にねんせいです。
にほんごはたのしいです。