From America_Report on Pleasant Hill HS_June_1st_2016

Updated Report on June 1st from Pleasant Hill High School, Oregon, the United States of America

The following is the updated report on Pleasant Hill High School, Oregon, the United States of America by Ellie Goto, a 11th grade student of Otsuma Nakano High School, who is enrolling at this high school as a one year long current exchange student.

Hey guys, what’s up?  I have only two reports including this!

I can’t believe I only have three weeks till this school is over.  Most of my friends are excited to be done. Of course I am also excited  However, it also makes me so sad.  I feel kind of weird because I’m a junior in Otsuma Nakano High, but here I’m still a sophomore.  I don’t feel like I’m 16 and to be honest, I’m not ready to be a junior.

Well, my track season is done and now I’m enjoying relaxing every day, but sometimes I miss running, so I’ve  been running three days a week.  I think I have to have more of my routine, though. My friends went to the state championships for track and placed fourth for 4 by 4. One of my friends got first place for 100 and 200. It means she was the state champion again same as the last year.  She is as fast as lighting….

Anyway, I had biiiiig fun during this month! I went to the Disneyland in California. Definitely it was a lot bigger than Tokyo Disneyland and has much more rides.  The rides at Disney lasted longer than the rides in Japan I really enjoyed that, It takes longer to ride to the end.  My favorite ride is California Screaming, which is a roller coaster in California Adventure. There isn’t that kind of coaster at Tokyo Disneyland. I rode it 5 times. The rides are not the only differences between Disney and Tokyo Disney. For example, we wear mickey ears head bands on our heads but here, it is very popular to wear mickey ears hats. We went to Disneyland to perform there with our  chansonniers and ascensions group. The performance was going well even though it was sprinkling a little.

So, I had a good time with my friends when we got really wet at Splash Mountain. (It is much wetter than ours in Japan.)  It was so much fuuuun!!!! I wish I could go there again.

One more fun event was prom, which we had last week. You may know we don’t have a prom in Japan (at least my school doesn’t). Prom is like a formal dance party which is more important than Homecoming. As usual, a boy asks a girl to go with, but I went with my friends. It is for upper classmen but underclassmen can go if they are invited by a junior or senior. Whoops, please don’t laugh at me. But I danced with my guy friends and I feel it was kinda romantic probably?  It was also my first riding in a limousine. It had sparking apple cider, TV lights, and cool chauffer. We actually went to get some drinks at the Dutch Bros drive-thru while we were in the limo.  I don’t know if I’ll have an opportunity to ride a limo again…hopefully I will. We went to eat Italian food for dinner and I had fettucine pasta.  It was so tasty…..

Even though I have been here for months, I still learn new things each day and it surprises me all time. A couple of weeks ago, I learned about WW2 in US history class. You know it is so interesting to study about that by a different side in a different country. You get to know how people here think and what they feel about it.  Often I think some people say their opinions with just only their feeling, but it's not gonna work to solve international problems in our future. I think learning anything from a different perspective is important and necessary. I'm glad I have been able to understand this better because of my exchange program here in the U.S.

Thanks for reading this month!  The next month is gonna be the last month I give a report.

I would love it if you would read my final month, too.

Best,

Ellie Goto

皆さんこんにちは！いかがお過ごしでしょうか？あと一週間ちょっとで学校が終わってしまうのが信じられません。大切な友達や、先生方と離れなければいけない事がとても悲しいです。日本では私はもう高校二年生なのですが、こちらではまだ高校一年生のままなので不思議な感覚です。

私の陸上シーズンも無事に終わり、少し寂しい様な気もしますが一息ついています。とはいえ、たとえ練習が終わっても走り続けなければいけないのですが…

陸上の州大会では、数人私の友達が出場したのですが、その中の1人の女の子は100mと200mで一位を取り、信じられないくらいとても早かったです。

さて、今月はいくつか、楽しい出来事がありました！月の初め、生まれて初めてカリフォルニアにあるディズニーランドに音楽のクラスでパフォーマンスをする為行きました！日本にある東京ディズニーランドよりももちろん大きくて、乗り物一つでも搭乗時間が何倍も長かったのでとても楽しめました。私が一番気に入ったのはカリフォルニアアドベンチャーというエリアにある California Screaming というジェットコースターです。日本にはない屋外のジェットコースターで、楽しくて5回も乗ってしまいました！

もう一つ。このレポートを書いている先週、私の学校でプロムがありました。プロムはホームカミングと似た様なダンスパーティーですが、卒業間近の生徒やカップルが多く参加する盛大なパーティーです。普通は行く前にディナーを食べます。私たちのグループはイタリアン料理店に行き、私はフェットチーネを食べました。とても美味しかったです。

残り数ヶ月しかなくとも、毎日新しい発見や驚きがあります。少し前にアメリカ史の授業で第二次世界大戦の事を学んだ時も、違う国の違う見方で学ぶことはとても興味深くて、本当にいい経験になったと思いました。

よく、自分の感情論で意見を述べる人がいますが、それだと国際的な問題は根本的には解決しないと思います。違う観点から学ぶ事こそが大切なのであり必要なことなのです。留学でこのようなことを深く理解できるようになったので、とても嬉しく感じます。

今月のレポートを読んで下さって有難うございました。来月は私の最後のレポートなので、また読んでくださると嬉しいです！

後藤絵里衣