Great Internship at Viva College

Since the 9th of November, I've been doing internship. My workplace is Viva College, which is an English school just like ICTE-UQ. For the first 2 and a half weeks, I was working at marketing department. My supervisor and other colleagues taught me general knowledge about marketing. I helped them by creating and organizing documents for contracts, which was sometimes very complicated but interesting. I joined the party held by the school, and I met a lot of students and teachers. I felt a litttle strange to talk with students as one of the staff members, but I really enjoyed.

For the last 2 and a half weeks, I've worked at the reception, which was a new experience for me. I'd never worked as a receptionist even in Japan before this internship. At first I had much trouble due to the lack of my knowledge. However, my colleagues supported me so much and my work has been going so well. I really appreciate their help. One of the hardest work is to answer the phone calls. This school is international so phone calls are also from foreigners. Their accents made it difficult for me to catch them. Moreover, students were talking around the reception, so it was sometimes too noisy to listen to. I asked them on the phone to speak slowly and clearly. I really appreciate their kindness. My usual work is to answer students' questions and solve their problems. Those are sometimes complex and I get tired, but when the students say thank you to me, I feel so happy.

Not only these kind of tasks, I also helped teachers and to organise the activities for students. For 2 days, I joined the class as an assistant. I helped them to learn present continuous, which was fun and a very good experience for the person who wants to be a teacher like me.

My internship is finishing on the 11th of December. I feel sad to leave this great workplace. I'm sure that this experience will expand the range of my future job.

Study in EAP II Gold

While I was studying at ICTE, I’m sure that the most impressive moment for me was the time in EAP II. The class focused on how to write academic essays, which was so hard at first because I didn’t know what kind of words are academic. However, I gradually got to know the way to write and discuss like the university students.

In addition to the academic skills, I could enjoy study thanks to my classmates in EAP II Gold. We had a lot of assignments such as essays and presentation, so we had many opportunities to work together. We could help each other because each of us had different problems with English. Even after finishing the class, we've met a few times. I will never forget the lovely time with them in EAP II Gold, but I will definitely miss them after back Japan.

What I want to do in Brisbane

6 months having passed, I've met lots of people at ICTE, UQ clubs, homestay etc... Gradually I've become able to have a good conversation with their help. For example, when I joined the activity of UQ club, other members welcomed me and spoke slowly for me, so I could enjoy the activity with my poor English. I feel my English is still not enough. I know the reason: my listening. In the next session, I'm going to take AECS (class for English communication). I'll try hard to improve my listening skills and also of course speaking skills as much as I can!

In the days in Australia, I've been becoming more and more eager to exchange cultures. There are lots of people who are interested in Japanese culture and language in Australia, so I've taught them. At the same time, I could learn about other countries. I'd like to tell accurate Japanese culture and language to people here.

What I can enjoy only in Australia is its beautiful nature. I've been to coastal areas and they were wonderful, but it was winter. Now it is warmer and will be summer. I'd like to stay at the beach under the sky of Australia. (UV is terrible though.) Also I want to try bungee jumping. No idea about where I can do, so I have to find. Travelling to other cities like Sydney and Melbourne intrigues me, but obviously it costs a lot. I'm wondering which is more fantastic travelling to other places or visiting all over Brisbane. Anyway, I'm sure to make a special journey.

Dream World

On 16th July, I went to Dream World in Gold Coast with some of my friends. We were in the session break of ICTE, so it was not crowded. We were lucky! I really like thrilling roller coasters, but two of my friends were not good at such terrible rides, so we made a kind of compromise sometimes. Firstly, we tried the Giant Fall (the tower in the picture) which I'd heard was so scary. Reaching the top of the tower, we had to wait at there for seconds, then fallen down suddenly. As I've heard, it was very thrilling! Besides it, we tried many rides. Then I want to recommend one of them. It is the ride of Kung Fu Panda. It looked like a ride for children because it was featuring the cartoon movie. But it was so scary. It spined so fast and we got upside down many times. For me, it was the most thrilling in the park, and I like it the best. (My friend said it was terrible haha.) 

In the train back to Brisbane, all of us were so sleepy. On this day we enjoyed this theme park so much, and I’d like to go again!

Skydiving for the First Time

26th July was a very special day for me, because I went skydiving for the first time. As I've written, my friends and I couldn't fly last time due to the bad weather. In this time, it was a little bit cloudy but had no wind, so we could fly. Before going aboard the plane, I was a little nervous, but instructors were so friendly that I got relieved. From the plane, the beautiful view was seen. My instructor told me that we could see a whale in the sea and pointed at it. (I actually couldn’t find it though.) The plane was shaking and rumbling. Finally, the door opened and I sat on the edge of the plane with him. The wind was blowing strongly, but I was pretty excited. When falling, I was going through the thick cloud and felt cold. After passing the layer of the cloud, a magnificent landscape appeared in front of me. I really enjoyed the Byron Bay from the sky. While parachuting, my instructor let me handle the parachute. (Maybe this moment was the scariest part of the skydiving haha.) After the exhilarating journey in the sky, I landed safely. Some of my friends got sick because of the swinging parachute, but I didn’t. I guess I was too excited to get sick. Anyway, I really want to do skydiving again in beautiful places like Byron Bay!

Windy Byron Bay

On 12th July, I went to Byron Bay in a group of 6. We took a bus from Roma Street station at 5:50 which I wondered why is so early. It took about 2 hours to get there. Actually, our main plan was to do skydiving. However, we couldn't do that because it was too windy. So we decided to walk around Byron Bay.

A stroll along the beach was pretty good, but I supposed it would be much better without crazy wind. We were unfamiliar with the place, so we were not sure how to get to the lighthouse. Then, we met a group of tourists with a tour guide, and followed them.

From the most easterly point, a magnificent view could be seen. Around 10 dolphins were seen near the coast, which was amazing. There were a lot of tourists around the lighthouse. It was pure white and beautiful.

After that, we were walking at shopping streets where I enjoyed ice cream, even in a cold weather . After back to Brisbane, we went to a restaurant in City and enjoyed dinner. Actually, I was disappointed that we couldn't do skydiving, yet really enjoyed beautiful Byron Bay instead. I got satisfied with it.

End of Session and BBQ

On Friday in week 5 of this session, we had BBQ. My class EAP I Red had food together.

Small birds were around us and picked up food we dropped on grass. One girl threw a piece of buns, but it was too big, so scared a bird. 

When I was enjoying pineapples, suddenly, one bird bumped my head. No hurt but it surprised me.

After this session, some of my friends will go back to their own countries, so I will miss them. However, I'm sure that we could enjoy class and have a lovely time together. I'll never forget'em. They will go, but also new students will come. I wonder who will be my new friend.

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This is a dog of my neighbour. When I pass by the house, she stares me through a hole in the fence, which is so cute and makes me happy.