Finally... the LAST Day
Hi, it's Illinois Panda.
How are you doing? I'm pretty excited about going back to delicious Japanese food, meanwhile, I'm not feeling like leaving here, to be honest. I have very ambivalent feelings.
Just 272 days ago, I landed in America and started a new life abroad. I had never lived either alone or in the dorm. This long trip embarked in the dark. I couldn't either speak or listen to English at a daily conversation level, and I had no experience learning something only in English and communicating with people who have other races, religions, and cultures. Everything I touched was new to me. The fact that I upload as many as a hundred blogs describes how surprising everyday life here was. I was anxious about the new life and literally struggled to live from one day to another. However, as I didn't realize, that life was changing from peculiar to usual to me, and I unconsciously found it comfortable. Get up in the early morning, do exercise at a gym, take lectures with scrubbing sleepy eyes, study (and sometimes sleep) at a library, hang out with my friends, go to a bar... That life was really exciting and gave me a fun time. I made friends with a variety of friends here and visited many places completely different from the places I had been to. If I hadn't decided to study abroad in America, I couldn't experience all of them by any means. I'm fortunate to meet amazing people and have invaluable experiences here.
This is the end of the exchange program, and I'm heading back to my home. However, the relationships, experiences, and memory I've got here will never disappear. They will surely take me to a wonderful life.
長い間ブログを読んで頂いた皆様に、心より感謝申し上げます。僕の私生活を垂れ流していただけなような気がしますが、みなさんに少しでも楽しんでいただけていたら幸いです。
1年間お付き合いいただきありがとうございました。ではまたどこかでお会いしましょう。 See you guys. Have a wonderful life!
In 24 hours [2 days remaining]
Hi, It's Illinois Panda.
It's almost the last day in America. In 24 hours, I'll be waiting for my flight at the airport. Just only 24 hours. I wrapped up all the things today. I took the final exam in the morning, got the certificate for covid19, packed up all the stuffs, and now I'm having great dinner with my amazing friends. That's why this blog 's finished here, lol. Good night! 
明日は朝6時のバスに乗ります。このままみんなと徹夜です。楽しいね！じゃあ皆さんはおやすみなさい！Have a great day!
(wanna) Beat Finals (3day remaining)
Hi, it's Illinois Panda.
Only three days left! I'm just feeling time has passed fast. I remember the time I came here clearly. I cannot believe that was 9 months ago. The time comes, don't be left behind.
Today, I photographed the scenery on campus to log my memory. I walked around the campus and took pictures of my memory so that they could remind me of what I went through during this long trip. And I tested for covid-19 to issue a certification document that proves I'm negative to enter Japan. I'm relieved that I got a negative result a while ago. Also, as a preparation, I packed almost all of my stuff into backs. It was exhausting to put them neatly and hard.
At night, I visited my friends' home and had buffalo wild wings fried chicken so that I said goodbye to my favorite taste. I love its sauce... It tastes very American.
I forgot to talk about the main topic, lol. I still have finals. One is an exam, and the other is a project. I have to get up very early in the morning and take an exam from 8:00 a.m. I'll manage to get them over...
こんばんは。テスト勉強やばいです。明日早く起きねばなのでもう寝ます。おやすみなさい。Have a nice day.
Get Souvenirs [4days remaining]
Hi, it's Illinois Panda.
I was just surprised that the last blog recorded 23 views. I didn't expect many such people still visited my blog although it was updated in a while. Thanks :)
Today, I had lunch with some of my friends who also are exchange students. We went to Murphy's pub and ate hamburgers, just because we wanna ger something American. After that I head to the County market, which is a grocery store, and purchased some food as souvenirs. While wandering around there, I was thinking that "What is American?". I was confused about what American food is. When I try to think about American food, I come up with hamburgers, steak, and chips... That's it. Except those, that you can get in Japan what you can buy in America. So, I was looking for and barely found some "American" items. When I see you in person, I'll give you some. Looking forward to that.
食品とは別でお土産用に、UIUCグッズも買いました。アメリカの大学あるあるなのですが、どこの大学もオリジナルグッズを本格的に開発・販売してます。UIUCはチャンピオンとナイキと提携しており、パーカーやシャツのクオリティが高いです。うちの大学ももっと力入れてグッズ売ってくれないかなー、絶対買うのに。と思っております。ちなみにNYUやUCLAはほぼ全部の主要アパレルと提携してグッズを作っているようです。さすがですね。ではあと3日ですね。また明日。Have a good night.
About to Leave America... [5days remaining]
Hi, it's Illinois Panda.
Long time no see you guys. That's totally my bad. I have other things to do than this blog and wasn't in the mood to write the blogs. However, it's the 10th of May, and there are only 5 days remaining for me to stay in America, which is why I just thought that I resume the blog that I did write every day last semester. I forget how I wrote blogs because I've come to this site for the first time in four months. Anyway, I'm gonna type as I speak. Let's get started!
I went through a lot of things while I stopped uploading blogs. I took a trip to California, Grand Canyons, and Florida. Also, I visited an amusement park and opera house and watched a baseball game that Ohtani Shohei played in Chicago. I did a variety of things as much as I cannot note all of them. So, I don't write them here. If you see me eye to eye, I'll tell you about funny stories that happened to me. I'm gonna talk about what happened to me these days, not in the past, as usual.
I'll go back to Japan in 5 days, so I've seen you to my friends that I acknowledged here and said goodbye to them. I went to my friend's house and had dinner together with his family and my international friends. He is a priest of a church in Champaign and also a father of three kids. I see him twice a week. He teaches international students, including me, about American cultures and bibles. I have almost no idea about Christianity except the knowledge I've learned in the world history class in high school before this semester. But, on account of him having taught me and answered all of my questions, I get to know about Christianity from scratch. And also, he let us experience American culture; for example, we had Easter dinner at his home. He is very kind, and he invites me to his house sometimes. Last night, he invited other international students and me to his home party and had a farewell dinner. We had homemade American dinners, such as hamburgers. I was glad to have typical American dinner at American house as a last meal with him. I don't feel like thinking that I won't see my friends anymore, but in reality, it's realistic. So, I barely accept that fact and try to say good goodbye to them. Farewell always makes me feel bitter.
あと5日でアメリカを去ります。先週までは日本に帰って早く美味しいものを食べたいと思ってたけど、帰りが近くなると急に寂しくなるものですね。今日は自分の一眼レフで友人の卒業写真をとっていたのですが、撮影をしながら「もうみんなと頻繁に会うことはなくなるんだよな」と、もの悲しい気持ちになってしまいました。そうは言っても別れはいつも訪れるので、残る日々を大事に日本に戻ることとします。
ちなみに今週はちゃんとブログ書きます。じゃあまた明日。Have a good night!
Keto friendly food [??? day]
Hi, it's Illinois Panda.
I'm on a ketogenic diet that needs very restricted food control. I'm gonna teach you the pity food I've been eating recently. You can't succeed in working with a ketogenic diet without being patient with food. If you decide to do a ketogenic diet, you need to cut off almost all carbohydrates and eat tons of fat, instead. Concretely speaking, you have to reduce the number of carbohydrates to under 50g at most daily that a healthy adult usually consumes about 300g. It goes without saying that staple food such as rice, wheat, and corn basically contains many carbohydrates, though food people usually eat also includes carbohydrates. And, you have to consume fat up to it reaches over 70% of daily calories that is insane. To meet these two conditions, the food I can eat is meat, fish, oil, mushroom, a small number of green vegetables, cheese, whip cream, and nuts. I'm prohibited from eating rice, wheat, most vegetables, milk, sugar, snacks, dressing, any juices. As for me, it is more disgusting that I have to eat only fatty food, including greasy meat, than that I can't eat sugar. However, because I've kept this role intensely and basically eat fat, I'm on the right track to succeed, and I've already lost weight by 2kg on the fourth day.
こんばんは。ケトダイエット4日目にしてケトーシスに入ることができました！！普通の人はまず１週間はかかると言われていることから、僕にはケトの才能があるのかもしれません。ケトーシスに入ったので、明日からは脂質の量をだんだんと少なくしていき、摂取カロリー＜消費カロリーになるようにして体脂肪をガンガン燃やしていこうと思ってます。先程ナッツはケト中でも食べられると言いますが、ナッツにも糖質は含まれているので、その量・種類に気をつけなければいけません。実はカシューナッツやピーナッツは糖質が多く食べてはいけません。よくケト食といわれるアーモンドも糖質がそこそこあり。そんな中でも一番優秀なナッツはピーカンナッツです。ピーカンナッツは65%以上が脂質で、糖質はわずか7, 8%しかなく、これなら一日40粒くらいなら食べても大丈夫です。普段のご飯は油に油をかけたギトギト食を食べているので、隙間時間に食べるピーカンは僕にとってオアシスです。ケト中の方には強くお勧め！ではまた。Have a cool day!
I'm back and start a big project [??? day]
Hi. It's Illinois Panda.
Lng time no see!!! Nice to see you guys again, and Happy New Year 2022. While I stopped uploading blogs, I was on the winter break for almost one month. I can't speak what I did for this period in detail for some reason, but it was basically a good time. By the way, the Spring semester began today! I took some classes for the first time in more than a month. I was a little bit nervous, wondering if I could still speak English as before, lol. But, it was not so bad as I feared. I take four or five classes each week this semester, which is not confirmed yet. I'm planning to take most classes to learn and use Python. I regret a little bit that I didn't arrange classes, considering how they will help my career or improve the skills needed for my career. Therefore, I will take at least three classes that have in common in that they employ Python. And, I'll take a political science class because I'm a sort of PS major. Anyway, after deciding on classes I take this semester, I will definitely share them with you.
Let's move to the next subject. I began a big project about my own yesterday. That's weight loss with Keto diets. A ketogenic diet is a way to lose fat, controlling the composition of nutrition. Simply speaking, reduce the amount of taking carbohydrates to about 50 grams a day and increase the amount of taking fat to over 70%, instead. In addition to diet control, I do intense exercise almost every day to keep muscles. I plan to go on the Keto diet for approximately 50 days, which depends on how well I lose weight at the time. I'm gonna write how the diet is processing in the blogs, so wait for the next news, hoping my good luck.
ケトジェニックダイエットは、糖質をカットして脂質を増やすことで体をケトーシスという状態にさせて、体脂肪を燃焼させるという仕組みになっています。（詳細はネットの海に溢れています）そのケトーシスに入るために特に最初の１週間はより厳しい食事制限をしなくてはいけなく、毎食辛くなりながら食べています。何が辛いのかというと、実は炭水化物を食べられないということではなく、脂質をいっぱいとらないといけないことです。上の写真は今日の晩御飯ですが、油ギトギトの肉とアボカドと僅かな野菜に、MCTオイルと呼ばれる油（写真奥の透明な液体）をこれでもかというくらいぶっかけて食べます。私の消化器官は油に弱くて、もう胃もたれがひどいのなんのになってしまい、毎食30分以上かけて頑張って食べてます。早くケトーシスに入って食事をもう少し楽にしたいですね。ではまた明日。Have a nice day!
