Smith College Rally Day 2012

Today is Rally Day, when Smith students get the day off from classes to relax and celebrate accomplished alums. As seniors, we put on our graduation robes and silly hats, then gathered at the CC to receive pennants and rally (?). Later, we walked together to JMG to hear alums speak and learn who our commencement speaker will be.

This year, our commencement speaker will be JANE LYNCH, from the hit TV series Glee. In honor of this, seniors have decided to replace graduation robes with red track suits.

Boston

Yesterday I went to Boston with some friends to interview for the JET program. All our interviews went well, but the best part of the trip was definitely the food. We got to eat dim sum and korean bbq. Yay! The Korean bbq place was the best because they gave us a lot of side dishes and services. Here's a shout out to Korean Garden in Boston!

Bridal Show

New York City - Career Tracks

The Smith College Career Development Office (CDO) took a group of us down to NYC to network with alums and other professionals. My group was the "Sustainable Foods" track, and so we went around to different businesses dealing with some aspect of sustainable food.

One of the locations included The Green Table at Chelsea Market, where they serve local and organic foods including delicious cheeses from New York State.

It was interesting seeing the different career options and thinking about where I could end up in a few years. Although, I'd rather not live in NYC. It was a huge wake up call to go from the fairly clean Tokyo to dirty, smelly New York City.

We finished up the evening at an alum's townhouse on the Upper East Side. There we ate dinner, drank wine and sparkling water, and chatted with fellow Smithies.

Last Day in Tokyo

I've returned to Tokyo. Only for one day, but I didn't waste my time here! Today I went and ate great Indian food, did hours of karaoke, and ate a green tea parfait. All of my favorite things to do in Japan.

Tonight, I FINALLY met up with Chie, Yuka, and Ayako, my Japanese friends that I met in Alabama. We went to "Dessert Paradise," an all-you-can-eat pasta and dessert restaurant. I'm so full... 

Kyoto

Since I'm in Japan, I figured I might as well head into Kyoto and see my friends from last year when I studied abroad at Doshisha University. Although it's expensive, I got a JR pass in America and was able to take the shinkansen round trip from Tokyo to Kyoto. 

My first night there, I got together with some girls from my Joint Seminar class and we did a sort of 女子会, girls night out, and went to karaoke, Oosho for gyoza, purikura, and karafunea for parfaits. It was so nice. It was like being back at school again in Japan.

On my second day in Kyoto I went to Ohara to visit Ohara Kobo, where I interned for two months in the spring. Ohara is so beautiful. I got to see everybody and even baby Yu, who was born when I was in Ohara and is now big and SO cute.

On Thursday, I went to karaoke on my own, since all of my friends were busy. It's kind of embarrassing to go to karaoke alone but I see salarymen doing it all the time. Like, I'll walk by a room and there will be a 50 year old salaryman inside singing enka or something.

Next, I coincidently ran into a friend outside of the library at Doshisha, and she invited me to an okonomiyaki party at her dorm. A girl from AKP this year also went.

Finally, on my last day in Kyoto I met up with my host mom at her cafe and she treated me to lunch and we talked for a long time.

I finished up the day by meeting up with current AKP students (about ten of them!) for dinner and drinks. It was so interesting to hear the differences between last year's AKP and this year's. People aren't really having that great a time this year and two people have already quit the program. I don't know what the difference is. It seems like a lot of problems are related to homestays, though.

Sunshine City

I finally explored around Ikebukuro. Even though I'm staying here, I haven't really gotten a chance to walk around the area except from the station and back and when I get lost. Today I went to Sunshine City with two girls I met in my hostel and we ate a Western lunch and went to karaoke. There really is a lot to do in Ikebukuro besides be surprised by the number of love hotels in the area.

Since I wanted to eat ddeokbokki, we went to dinner in Shin-Okubo, Korean town and ate spicy food and drank makori.