One of my two CP's is Miyamoto Yasuko. She is a young mother and student from Shinigawa, Tokyo, Japan and just recently took her TOEFL exam. Our first outing was at Wakulla Springs! We decided to do the boat ride, which was a neat experience. It was Miyamoto-san, Toshi-san (another CIES student), their daughters, and I on one of the regular park boats, as the water was too dark for the glass-bottom boat tours.
During the trip, we got to see several species of fowl (cranes, ducks, etc.) and dozens of alligators sun-bathing on the river banks. We even saw a lot of manatees swimming in the water, even though their season is commonly in the fall and winter. There was one manatee giving birth to her calf, and it was only evident due to the fact that she remained really still in the water for at least an hour (she was in the same boat going down the river and coming back up). That was the coolest part of the trip, as I heard from other friends that there is now a baby manatee frolicking in the Wakulla waterways.
In between sight-seeing, Miyamoto-san and I shared our knowledge on the languages we were learning (Her, English, and I, Japanese). She is really good in speaking English and was close to finishing CIES at the time, but still had trouble in some areas like writing. So, I gave her some good sites like Purdue Owl and MLA.org to reference for writing tips and guidelines. At the end of the trip, we exchanged emails in order to keep in touch and send each other info on any helpful resources for mastering English or Japanese. We couldn't hang out too long as her daughter, Marin, wanted to play on the jump platforms and I'm weary of heights, so we made sure to plan to meet in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment