Daniel- HIPPO Intern 2012-2013

HIPPO Intern 2012-2013　(Daniel)

I think that my participation in various high school plays, yearly church Christmas plays, and innumerable high-school English class presentations have finally payed off!

I am constantly being asked to present, speak, and even MC at HIPPO events. These events range from a small to a very large number of audience members. The topics that I speak about include my experience of being a HIPPO intern, my discoveries while learning Japanese, living in a multicultural and multilingual environment, American culture and lifestyle, or any other topics that may be related.

Presenting to future year-long exchange students about the importance of living in another country.

Speaking about learning Japanese at my welcome party in Ota-ku.

I was a fellow at the Daigakuse Family. Leading everyone in my favorite "Song and Dance Activity" - Shampoo SADA!

I was an MC at event HIPPO hosted for Southeast Asian youth on the SSEAYP program. I spoke about my first encounter with the HIPPO as well as the importance of enhancing our world view by learning the languages of our neighbors.

Also, some exciting news! HIPPO is sending me to Osaka soon to conduct a few English interviews for future year-long exchange students. I'm pretty excited. Not only are English interviews a fun part of being an intern, but Osaka is well-known for its special foods. I'm planning eat lots of takoyaki! [fried octopus, mmm...]

A photo of Mount Fuji that I took on the way to work. Osaka is somewhere in that general direction.

VAMANOS!

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Stephanie-こんにちは！Konnichiwa! Hello!

こんにちは！Konnichiwa! Hello! My host sister Asuka and I in 小えど, Japan Hi everyone! My name is Stephanie, but in Japan I've already been given the nickname Su-chan　す－ちゃん (su from Stephanie since the Japanese pronunciation is su-teh-fah-nee, and -chan is added to the end of a name when you are speaking to a younger person or a friend), so you can call me Su-chan! I am one of the five Hippo interns working in the LEX headquarters office in Tokyo this year. In addition to me, from Wisconsin, the intern team is made up of Tino from Mexico, Sakun and Ken Ken from China, and Hiu-chan from Korea. It's great to have such an international group! Before coming to Japan I attended the University of Wisconsin and graduated with a degree in fine art. During that time I also worked for Wisconsin 4-H International Programs, which is how I first learned about Hippo through the 4-H/Hippo summer and yearlong exchanges. Last summer I had the opportun...

Daniel- Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas 「メリークリスマス」　(Daniel) A knock came at the door around eight in the evening, just as we were finishing eating dinner. I yelled out, " IRANAI～～～ ", meaning "we don't need it", pretending that it was some late working door-to-door salesman. My host mom laughed and went to answer the door. She came back carrying a huge USPS box from America. Oops. Just kidding. I need that. I really need that. My parents in the US decided to surprise me for Christmas by mailing me a box of my favorite items from America. They somehow managed to pack a pair of pants, two jars almond butter, five boxes of gum, four giant chucks of halva , and four packages of chocolate. I have no idea how my parents managed to shove all of that stuff into such a small box. But knowing my parents, there is always a way. Needless to say, I was ecstatic to receive my gift. Although my parents told me about the package beforehand, its physical presence was so overwhelming. I fe...

Daniel- I have Guests!

I Have Guests! [訪れていた] (Daniel) After a trip to the Middle East, my sister and her husband decided to return to the US flying over Asia instead of Europe, so that they could stop by in Japan and say "Hi". Y-A-A-A-A-Y. It felt really good to see some family after seven months away. Unfortunately, the two of them could only stay for 3 days, so we were quite busy during that time. The three of us visited obvious famous places like Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya, Asakusa, and Akihabara. But I personally enjoyed going to a park where we did the tea ceremony in a tea house on the park's pond. The two of them found it strange that there were no chairs and the process to drink some tea was so formal. I guess I didn't really think about it, I have become so used to traditional tea ceremonies that they don't seem strange to me anymore. I guess I'm becoming a local I also really enjoyed introducing my sister and brother-in-law to my co-work...

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