Hello. Very welcome to this essay. It has been 6 months very fast like a "supernova" since I came here. In this essay, let me review the last three months and show you about the new spring semester here.
Continuous from the last report:
I have already noted the first thing; the atmosphere in the city of Zaragoza, the university and my dormitory, to stay here in the first 3 months report, that is why please see it if you want to know them.
The hardest memory before the Christmas:
Last December, I had a very serious problem. It was impossible for me to stay in my dormitory during the Christmas holidays: of course, all residents there were supposed to be back to their parents' home during those weeks. As you know, holidays have a very important role for most European people, which is different from the recognition as a just commercial event among Japanese society. This means that many of them share the holiday weeks with their family and close people without going to a disco or a dance club.
However, I have been looking for alternatives to avoid becoming a stray person; for example, to rent a temporary shared flat room from someone for three weeks or to book a room in a youth hostel without canteen services. Unfortunately, I could not solve those issues until the last moment of the beginning of the Christmans holidays. The first alternative: to rent a shared flat room, is null because negotiations with some room users were not agreed with each other. One case was going well just in front of the agreement but a roommate of the person I kept negotiating complained about the fee which I would pay, which made it all void. And another case was that that room user ignored my request to temporarily rent his room on WhatsApp, and then he made a reply to me after I had already found a final solution.
Going to Italy:
The final solution, unexpectedly, was incredibly great. It enabled me to visit Milan and stay in the house thanks to my best Italian friend. I had precious about three weeks in a small city, which is close to Milan; to meet a lot of new people: the friend's families, friends, colleagues. They not only did make friendships with me, but also they showed and experienced cultural aspects of the region: I add brief notes that each region has a certain identity of itself in the country, for instance, each identity or intangible characteristics among people from Turin, Milan and Venice those three areas are in the north of the country though, each of person are obviously and respectively "unique". Moreover, I really admired aesthetics which are in every piece of object and people, which means the spirit of pursuing "beautifulness". This is what one Italian guy told me that the top priority for people is "good looking" which is prior to one object's fundamental utility. Let me give you one example, please imagine that you wash your hands after going to a toilet. How shape does the sink have? In the case of Japan, probably most sinks have a round bowl shaped on itself. This is a kind of result by prior its utility to flow water quickly to avoid effects by holding humidity. On the contrary, this is just my experience though, I often saw the square shape of sinks whose bottom surface is flat without a curve when I use the bathroom where I visited.
My dream of trying "real" Italian foods came true:
Back to the subject, I also tried real neapolitan foods: Pizza, Lasagna, Pasta, Spaghetti, Mozzarella, wine, and Prosciutto (Jamón). Pizza is a really common food for ordinary people, the prices range from 5 to 10 euros, which are so friendly for daily meals. Pizza shops are more casual than I expected, you just pick up in 15 minutes from the time you make an order. A relative of my friend's father worked as a pizza chef. Fortunately, I had an opportunity to try to make a basic pizza; a dough, tomato sauce and yellow cheese, in the pizza restaurant. I enjoyed drinking a lot at lunch and dinner in a day because there were no classes during the holidays although I needed to prepare for examinations in January. I was very thankful to their kindness for giving such a thing to me. Even out of that case, my friend's father or his colleagues showed me their work or business, which encouraged my thinking of a career in the future. Anyway, no words I can find to all of them out of "Grazie mille".
Simple and light salty taste but that is good.
The evaluation month for the first semester and the beginning of the spring semester:
Whole of January was occupied by examinations. I had very hard days, although I had
just two courses in the first semester because the range of evaluations were wider so it took a long time to review each lecture. However, fortunately, I passed those courses of the first semester and I am released from anxiety. I take four courses in the spring semester because those are my favourite ones which relate to business policy and innovation. Those courses aim at senior students with a bachelor degree, so they require integrated academic knowledge and they are tough but I am so excited to study those subjects.
Conclusion:
I think the final three months will pass very fast as the last six months. I have never travelled to other cities in Spain but considering my schedule, it would be difficult because now I need to carry out job searching after graduation online. You may think it would be easier to do that online though, it is actually not because I have four courses in the semester as I aforementioned, in addition to that, I have a jet lag of 8 hours between Spain and Japan, which would make my schedule more messy. The thing which I should bear in mind again at this moment even though my schedule is busy is, "Why do I come here?" "Which is my top priority?" I think. At least, I do not have time to enjoy sightseeing. I will study more and achieve my desire seriously.
Photo gallery:
At an Irish pub, Last day of Italy is very sad. These mates are very interesting.
Well done your Erasmus in Zaragoza.
福島大学への留学案内・年間スケジュール
