Cherished Moments (1)
It's been a long time since I wrote on this blog, huh? To top it off, my posts were all very gloomy! Haha well, that's because I use this blog to write the things I can't tell my friends (which is mostly about my sadness)
But you know what? I'm going to tell you something different now. Something that gave me so much happiness during my stay for the first time in Japan.
To start with, I was lucky enough to be selected as one of Universitas Indonesia's delegates in Asian Students Environment Platform (ASEP) 2017 in Japan. It was an annual event held by AEON Environmental Foundation, and all of the accommodations are fully covered! (otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford it LOL).
There are a total of 8 Asian countries who participated in this year's program, and they are Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam, with Waseda as the host university. Thus, each participant is grouped with 7 other participants from different countries, and I found my name in group C.
I first met my team mates during the campus tour in Waseda University, and they are Aisyah from Malaysia, Sophorn from Cambodia, Lan from Vietnam, Hua from China, Frint from Thailand, and Yun Jae from Korea. I remembered how awkward it was when we first gather, we didn't know how to start a conversation with one another! Even the faculty staff from Korea University noticed the silence and said that we need to talk to each other haha
Also, at that time we were 1 person short, and it was the student from Waseda itself who had not come. Not long after he did come, with pillow face and many belongings hahaha. His name is Yuki, and he was our guide for the campus tour. We went to several places, such as the Okuma Garden, the statue of Okuma (the founder of Waseda University), and we also managed to get an overall view of the campus from one of the high buildings. It was a very modern and beautiful campus indeed.
Another thing that I got my attention is that Yuki was also very awkward. I got the impression that he wasn't all that familiar with his campus, and he needs to consult his notes when he wanted to tell us something about one of the university landmarks (hahaha it's okay Yuki-san)
Then we proceed to the welcoming reception at the luxurious Rihga hotel right next to Waseda. We sit with our group members and had lunch while listening to the presentation from each participating universities. To mark the opening of the program, we had a toast, and all of us raised our glass that is filled with either orange juice or oolong tea (even though there are two Asahi beers being served at the table wkwkw)
During this time also, we were considering to make a group chat, but were having problems since each of us are using different social messenger. Hua, for example, don't have LINE, Whatsapp, Facebook, nor Instagram. He only use WeChat, which none of us are using. Yun Jae use KakaoTalk while Aisyah often use Whatsapp. Can you imagine our dilemma? Hahaha.
Well, eventually we decided to create a group in Messenger (Facebook), and it took a while until all of the members joined the group, because Hua needs to make a new messenger account, since Facebook is banned in China :(
Uh.. I may have told the details a bit too much...
Let me just summarize my wonderful experiences based on the occasions, yes?
1. UNO Time!
We were riding a bullet train from Tokyo to Sendai, and it takes around 2 hours to reach our destination. Me, Frint, Hua, Yuki, Yun Jae and Sophorn get to sit in the same section. In fact, the seats can be rotated so that we can face each other xD
Then Frint remembered that he brought UNO cards, and then we started to play right away! Hua and Sophorn didn't knew how to play, but we taught them along the way, because basically they just need to have a card that has either the same color or number. It was so much fun! We were laughing so many times, either because someone forgot to shout UNO! when they only have 1 card remaining, or the plus cards started to show up (+2,+4), or even when the cards that keeps coming is either yellow or green! There was one time when Hua keeps forgotting to shout UNO!, and me and Yun Jae were trying to teach him several times. But he finally gets the hang of it though!
Then there's also the time when Yuki himself forgot to shout UNO!, even though he knows very well the rules of the game. I also made a mistake when I thought Yuki hadn't shout UNO!, turns out it was me who didn't hear him LOL
It's also very funny when someone takes out the reverse card, which often confused us regarding whose turn it was, and the fact that someone's turn is being skipped (which includes me, unfortunately). It was equally unfortunate for me, Frint, and Sophorn to lost the plus cards marathon (?) and ended up being the victim of taking extra extra cards hahahah. I also remember that one time Yuki won by putting Hua at a disadvantage hahaha but I don't remember exactly how :(
In total we played three games, and it drains our energy quite a lot with all those laughter, we were so happy though. By the time we finished playing, I didn't get to sleep because we almost arrived in Sendai. I was so grateful that Frint brought the UNO cards in the first place, because that game really unites us (at least the six of us) in the first day, and I really enjoy that.
So, I think I will end the post here, because let's just admit it, nobody wants to read a post that is too long, right?
I will soon get back to this with more funny moments of the group that I cherished the most, so stay tuned!
But you know what? I'm going to tell you something different now. Something that gave me so much happiness during my stay for the first time in Japan.
To start with, I was lucky enough to be selected as one of Universitas Indonesia's delegates in Asian Students Environment Platform (ASEP) 2017 in Japan. It was an annual event held by AEON Environmental Foundation, and all of the accommodations are fully covered! (otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford it LOL).
There are a total of 8 Asian countries who participated in this year's program, and they are Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam, with Waseda as the host university. Thus, each participant is grouped with 7 other participants from different countries, and I found my name in group C.
I first met my team mates during the campus tour in Waseda University, and they are Aisyah from Malaysia, Sophorn from Cambodia, Lan from Vietnam, Hua from China, Frint from Thailand, and Yun Jae from Korea. I remembered how awkward it was when we first gather, we didn't know how to start a conversation with one another! Even the faculty staff from Korea University noticed the silence and said that we need to talk to each other haha
 |
| Formal pose (except me lol) |
 |
| Still a formal pose |
Another thing that I got my attention is that Yuki was also very awkward. I got the impression that he wasn't all that familiar with his campus, and he needs to consult his notes when he wanted to tell us something about one of the university landmarks (hahaha it's okay Yuki-san)
Then we proceed to the welcoming reception at the luxurious Rihga hotel right next to Waseda. We sit with our group members and had lunch while listening to the presentation from each participating universities. To mark the opening of the program, we had a toast, and all of us raised our glass that is filled with either orange juice or oolong tea (even though there are two Asahi beers being served at the table wkwkw)
During this time also, we were considering to make a group chat, but were having problems since each of us are using different social messenger. Hua, for example, don't have LINE, Whatsapp, Facebook, nor Instagram. He only use WeChat, which none of us are using. Yun Jae use KakaoTalk while Aisyah often use Whatsapp. Can you imagine our dilemma? Hahaha.
Well, eventually we decided to create a group in Messenger (Facebook), and it took a while until all of the members joined the group, because Hua needs to make a new messenger account, since Facebook is banned in China :(
Uh.. I may have told the details a bit too much...
Let me just summarize my wonderful experiences based on the occasions, yes?
1. UNO Time!
We were riding a bullet train from Tokyo to Sendai, and it takes around 2 hours to reach our destination. Me, Frint, Hua, Yuki, Yun Jae and Sophorn get to sit in the same section. In fact, the seats can be rotated so that we can face each other xD
Then Frint remembered that he brought UNO cards, and then we started to play right away! Hua and Sophorn didn't knew how to play, but we taught them along the way, because basically they just need to have a card that has either the same color or number. It was so much fun! We were laughing so many times, either because someone forgot to shout UNO! when they only have 1 card remaining, or the plus cards started to show up (+2,+4), or even when the cards that keeps coming is either yellow or green! There was one time when Hua keeps forgotting to shout UNO!, and me and Yun Jae were trying to teach him several times. But he finally gets the hang of it though!
It's also very funny when someone takes out the reverse card, which often confused us regarding whose turn it was, and the fact that someone's turn is being skipped (which includes me, unfortunately). It was equally unfortunate for me, Frint, and Sophorn to lost the plus cards marathon (?) and ended up being the victim of taking extra extra cards hahahah. I also remember that one time Yuki won by putting Hua at a disadvantage hahaha but I don't remember exactly how :(
In total we played three games, and it drains our energy quite a lot with all those laughter, we were so happy though. By the time we finished playing, I didn't get to sleep because we almost arrived in Sendai. I was so grateful that Frint brought the UNO cards in the first place, because that game really unites us (at least the six of us) in the first day, and I really enjoy that.
So, I think I will end the post here, because let's just admit it, nobody wants to read a post that is too long, right?
I will soon get back to this with more funny moments of the group that I cherished the most, so stay tuned!
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