The blog is finished for this week [114th day]
Hi. It's Illinois Panda.
This is the last blog of this year, but I'll come back next year...
突然ですが、ブログをお休みします！期間は決めてませんが、今年中はもう投稿しない予定です。ただ来年には必ず帰ってきます。冬休みが終わってから再開できればなと思ってます。ただ何で休止するかの理由は言えないです🙏 ちなみに、めんどくさいから休むわけではないです笑（最近、投稿頻度は落ちてたけど..）色々な人に僕のブログを読んでいただき大変嬉しく思っています。今後ともご贔屓のほどよろしくお願いします。では少し早いですが、皆さん良い年越しを。And, Happy New Year in 2022. See you again.
Axe throwing [111th day]
Hi. It's Illinois Panda.
I apologize for skipping writing books these days. I got into the final week for this semester and I'm pressed by final exams and assignments. However, It's not an excuse not to have written blogs. I rather had many experiences to share with you. Then, I'm gonna talk about last Saturday in this blog. I played soccer and handball in the morning, ate Korean food for lunch, went driving to a lake, played axe throwing in the evening, and cooked and ate udon at night. Out of these activities, I chose axe throwing. This is a very American game. The rule is simple. You throw an axe at the center of the target like darts. I played it in Chicago 2 months ago for the first time, so this was the second time. When I knew and saw axe throwing for the first time, I laughed at how it looked like. A human holds a real axe high over his shoulder and throws hard to a wood target. It's really unnatural, a bit scary, and funny. Once you play axe throwing, you can find it exciting. It feels really good when your axe gets started at the center of a target. It's a little tricky to throw and revolve an axe as it is stuck to a target. But once you find tips, you'll be able to have fun easily. I think it's easier than bowling. I've heard theirs is a spot you can experience axe throwing in Tokyo. So, I recommend you try axe throwing.
この日の夜に友人宅のキッチンを借りて、うどんを作りました。自分の住んでいる寮では料理ができないので、時々友人宅にお邪魔して料理をつくるのにはまってます。ハンバーグ、ボロネーゼときて、今回はうどんを作りました。久々の日本料理美味しかったー。
では明日もブログを更新したいなという思いを胸におやすみなさい。Have a good night.
Zoom between Japan and America [106th day]
Hi. It's Illinois Panda.
I'm writing this at 4 am in my room. The reason I'm awake in such an early morning is that I have to attend a Zoom meeting between Japan and the U.S. I'm attending guidance held by the laws department of home university and waiting for making a speech to freshmen as an exchange student to invite them to the laws department. Before this meeting, I attended another Zoom meeting at 11 pm last night. As the time lag between Japan and here is 15 hours, I'm sure I have to adjust my time to Japan time. However, it is sometimes hard...
こんばんは。先程自分の演説が終わりました。一年生約100人を相手に留学体験談を話したのですが、口がうまく回らない場面が多く全然うまく行きませんでした、、、。自分は人前で話すのが下手ではないと自負していたのですが、無意識下で緊張してしまったみたいで、緊張が相手に伝わってしまうようなスピーチになってしまいました。場数が足りないのが反省点ですね。就活までに克服したい。それではまた、Have a good day!
Last day of holidays [104th day]
Hi. It's Illinois Panda.
It's a holiday and the last day of the long 8 days off. All the dining halls were closed, so I grabbed a pork Taiwanese noodle at MidSummer along Green St. on campus. I love this restaurant because it serves very good Taiwanese food cooked by Taiwanese or Chinese people. And I worked out for the first work in a week and regretted I didn't do exercise and had very unhealthy food every day during the trip. Basically, I spend almost all my time today playing After Effects. It was a kind of lazy day, but good to recover from the tiredness of the trip.
今日は台湾料理を食べたので、台湾に関する小話を一つ。ご存知の通り、台湾は60年くらい前から中国から一種の独立をしています。そのため、公用語は中国語（正確には台湾華語）で全台湾人は中国語を話しています。ここまでは僕も知っていたのですが、最近台湾の友達からある話を聞きました。どうやら台湾には台湾語(Taiwanese)なる言葉があるみたいです。台湾語とは台湾の中部・南部で話されている方言で、何百年前からも使われている言葉だそうです。そして中国語と語彙が全く異なり、中国語ネイティブでも台湾語は全く理解できないらしいです。台湾人でも祖父母世代はまだ使っている人が多いが、若い人は同世代との会話では使わないらしいです。ただ、おじいちゃん、おばあちゃんと話すときは使うので、大体の台湾人は台湾語を話せるそうです。面白いのが、台湾語には日本語由来の語彙が多く、弁当を「ベントー」、りんごを「リンコ」というと教わりました。興味深いです。もしかしたら台湾語は日本人にとって学びやすいかもしれないですね。ニッチな言語好きの方はチャレンジしてみてはいかがでしょうか。ではまた明日。Have a nice day!
Chicago [103rd day]
Hi. It's Illinois Panda.
We flew from the East Coast to Chicago in the early morning. Technically speaking, today was the last day of the trip. However, when we arrived at O'hare International Airport in Chicago, I just felt everything was done because the familiar city relaxed me. We didn't do anything special today cuz we were tired. We went to a coffee shop to have breakfast, and then I went to UNIQLO to buy some winter items of clothing such as Heattech shirts. After that, we ate deep-dish pizza that is a popular Chicago food. Ii was good. In the evening, we finally got back to Urbana-Champaign by train. When I saw the campus, I felt very unreleased. The whole trip was 7days, very intensive journey, and extremely wonderful Thanksgiving vacation thanks to my lovely friends.
１週間の旅行、お疲れ様でした。トルコ人の友達は本当に歩くのが好きで、毎日25,000〜35,000歩ほど歩いていました。夜の12時くらいまで歩いていた日もあったり、とにかく毎日体力を使い果たしてました笑 でも彼らのおかげで１週間で4都市も周れて色々なことを体験できました。総じてとても楽しい旅行でした。今日はぐっすり寝ることとします。Have a good night!
New York 3 [102nd day]
Hi. It's Illinois Panda.
This was the last day we stayed on the East Coast. We traveled around Times Square and are heading back to Chicago. I'm writing this blog while waiting for the flight to O'hare Airport at LaGuardia Airport in N.Y. By the way, we went to the American Museum of Natural History in the afternoon. It was a huge national science museum located just west of Central Park. It is a four-story building and has many exhibitions about a variety of scientific fields, such as dinosaurs, the human body, gems, taxidermy of mammals, and so on. It was too big to look at all the exhibitions taking a long time for each within three hours. However, I at least took a glance at every exhibition, and they were splendid.
We ate New York food for lunch and dinner. We had N.Y.-style hotdogs for lunch and banana puddings for dinner. New York-style hotdog is an all-beef sausage with homemade onion relish, sauerkraut, and brown mustard, then nestled into a soft hot dog bun. And, banana puddings we ate are very popular in N.Y., and you can't taste them in the shops called Magnolia Bakery. It was pretty good and also the best food I've eaten during this trip. I highly recommend this pudding if you go to N.Y.
こんばんは。朝4時半の空港からお届けしております。この旅行でボストン、フィラデルフィア、ワシントンD.C.、ニューヨーク、と東海岸の主要都市を大体制覇できました！この４都市＋シカゴに行ってみてわかったのは、日本人はニューヨークに集中しています。というのも、ニューヨーク以外の４都市では日本語をほぼ全く聞かなかったのですが、ニューヨークを歩いていると１日に4〜6組くらいの日本人に遭遇します。なんなら中国語よりも日本語の方が良く聞くぐらいに、ニューヨークに住んでいる日本人が多いなと実感しています。おそらく仕事（金融、商社、法律、外務、医療辺りかな？）の関係で、家族ごとニューヨークに引っ越してくる日本人が他都市に比べて圧倒的に多いんだろうなという推測です。ただ大都市ニューヨークで日本語が急に聞こえてくると何故かちょっと安心します笑 外界に出てこそ同郷の繋がりを感じますね。ではそろそろ飛行機に乗るのでこの辺で。Have a great weekend!
New York 2 [101st day]
Hi. It's Illinois Panda.
Happy Thanksgiving. This is the exact day of Thanksgiving day on the fourth Thursday in November. We went to the balloon parade on Times Square in the morning. It is the really popular annual parade festival on Thanksgiving day every year. Giant balloons marched on Times Square. It was overcrowded.
After that, we went to the central park and looked around there. It was a vast national park in the center of N.Y. It has a zoo where is the location of Madagascar, theaters, baseball fields, giant grass, and so on. It was pretty good. I like nature in the busy city but separated from the noise.
In the evening, we visited Brooklyn bridge, a very large bridge where you can look at the view of the whole city. Then, we went to Wall Street that is the financial center of the world. And we headed to Battery Park to watch the Statue of Liberty over the ocean.
ニューヨーク2日目です。今日はお昼にハラル食のケバブプレートを、夜はまた昨晩も食べた１ドルピザを食べました。ムスリムは教義的に豚肉が食べれないのですが、アメリカの食べ物は大体豚肉が入っているので、なかなかハラル食を探すのが面倒だと友人が言ってました。さて、トルコ人の友達と旅行しているので、色々なトルコ事情が耳に入ってくるのですが、ほんのここ最近、トルコの経済が急速に崩壊しているみたいで、2週間前まで1ドル＝8トルコドルだったのが、今では1ドル＝ 13トルコドルくらいになったらしく、この3日で全ての物価が二倍になってしまったらしいです。３日で物価が倍になるってとても考えられないです。大変です、、、。では今日はこの辺で。Happy Thanksgiving!
