Brilliant Welcome Parties [6th day]
Good evening. I'm Illinois Panda.
I've participated in some welcome events and others will be held in a while. All the events I joined were gorgeous and splendid, So I'm gonna share my experiences with you.
Last night, I participated in "Illinois Sights & Sounds and Illinois Traditions". It is a welcome event held by athletic clubs such as a football club, containing the advertisements of sports games. So they hold the event to inform freshmen and freshwomen of the athletic clubs and invite them to their games. Anyway, on account of them, we are welcomed exquisitely. A marching band was playing songs and lots of cheerleaders were dancing over the songs in a big stadium. The audience was blowing their tops and shouting. All people there screamed "INI", which is a contracted word of Illinois, so many times as the sign of companionship. To be honest, I don't dislike those shouts. I would rather like them, I felt like the Ameican culture from them.
After their songs have done, the staff invited the audience to the field I went down there as well as others. We congregated in one place and staff members environed us as we formed a letter "I". And we had our picture taken. It was like an aerial photograph.
I'd like to point out that most Americans are too loose about Covid-19. I mean, although I said to you on the last blog that the measures to the virus taken here and there're hand sanitizers everywhere and bra..., I found that they are over-confident in or sloppy about Covid-19. There was over-crowded. And also other events are in the same situation. I don't have the right to insist against those events cuz I'm enjoying these events, but I was surprised by such an attitude against the virus in the U.S., which is really different in Japan.
こんばんは。ここからは日本語で他のウェルカムパーティーを紹介します。今日は僕の所属するLASという学部が昼に"List Off"というイベントをMain Quad (昨日写真にあげた大きなお庭)で開いてくれました。見てください、めちゃめちゃ混んでます。ワクチンへの信頼が厚いですね。（僕の感覚だと厚すぎですね）ここではインドから正規の留学で来た学生3人と仲良くなって後日寿司レストランに行く約束をしました。楽しみですね。
夕方にはLASの中の留学生を管轄する部局がウェルカムディナーを開いてくれました。そこでLASへ交換留学しにきている他の留学生と顔合わせをしました。驚いたことに半分以上が英語圏から留学に来てました。特にオーストラリアが多かったかな。他にもイギリス、ドイツ、オーストリア、エジプト等々、色んな国から来ていました。アジアからは韓国、台湾、日本人が合わせて5人くらいで、アジア人はめっちゃ少なかったです。そして、これまた意外なことに中国人がいなかったです。（今日のイベントを休んでただけかもしれないが）そこで仲良くなったイギリス人の人たちと来週にあるアメフトの試合を見に行く約束をしました。これも楽しみ。
After I came here, I found that people in this country are more friendly than I imagined. For example, a Chinese man living in my front room left his room door open and talked to me walking in the hallway. And an Indian woman I've talked to in a line get interested in me asked me a lot of questions. Most people are willing to exchange contacts and where they live in even if we just met for the first time. I like this culture as far and I'm wondering about securities. lol
急に日本語を書くのに罪悪感を覚えたので一瞬英語に戻りました。ごめんね。あともう一つ気づいたのは自分の性格が矯正されつつあること。テントの列に並んでいるときに見ず知らずの人に話しかけてインスタを交換したり、ウェルカムディナーで一人ぽつんと座っていた人に何の戸惑いもなく"Can I sit next to you?"と言ったり、とにかく日本では考えられないような行動を自然にとっている自分に驚きます。留学マジックでしょうか（笑）、いずれにせよこの姿勢があと9ヶ月続けばと思います。
では今日は長くなりましたがこの辺で。See you tomorrow.
