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.

Dinner with My Friends

For dinner, I went to a Korean restaurant in City with some of my friends. We can get a discount every Tuesday ($20 meal for just $9, which is a good price!).

We could grill pork by ourselves, which was funny!

Besides meat, some dishes were included in the meal. Kimchi and salad were delicious.














This dish was very spicy. Korean rice cake Topokki was in it and good.









I like spicy food, so I enjoyed so much. However after I got home, I had a stomachache. I think the reason is that I haven't eaten so much spicy food since I came to Australia.

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On the other night, I went to a Thai restaurant. One of my Thai friends took us to there. We ordered a big meal and shared it. Phat thai is a fried noodle, and I thought we have similar dish in Japan. I tried sticky rice which my friend recommended to me many times. As she said, it was so good!














This dish was so spicy that I had lots of water. However, Korean girl ate it easily and said it was not so spicy, which surprised me.










The restaurant was so good and I wanna go there again!

Not Special but Pleasant

Many things make me happy, even if they are actually not so special. 

I bought this large pack of TimTam for less than 3 dollar. The price was extremely surprising for me, and now I regret not buying more packs!

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I could get some food for just 1 dollar in Surfers Paradise. This ice cream is available in the shop in the front of the beach. It was so delicious and I really recommend it to everybody. The drink is Frozen Fanta offered by McDonald's, which we can also buy for 1 dollar. To be honest, it is not as good as the ice cream, but I like to spend time at the beach with it.

 By the way, the day I went there was extremely windy, so the beach was closed.

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UQ also has a lot of things which make me happy.

In my class EAP I Red, we have morning tea outside every Friday. On this day, our teacher Glenn brought ANZAC biscuit and lamington. They were so good! This event is one of the reasons why I like Friday.

On 21 May, I cooked lamington in the cooking class held by activity centre of ICTE. I made a group with some of my friends and new students. Our work was going well. However, we run out of chocolate, so some piece of cake were plain. Anyway, the class was funny and lamington was delicious.

I belong to Pokémon Fan Club of UQ. On 22 May, I joined an event of the club. I made some friends and played games together. We talked a lot, eating pizza we ordered from pizza cafe in UQ. However, my English is so poor that I sometimes couldn't understand what they said. Yet, they helped me by speaking slowly or paraphrasing the words. I really appreciate their support, and I'll try hard to keep up with their natural conversation. 

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I found what I've written was almost about food. Anyway, I'm sure that I will find more of something pleasant for me in Brisbane.

Pretty Animals

On 26 April, I went to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary with some of my friends, which has many kinds of animals. Firstly we enjoyed the show of birds'prey. Getting food thrown by the bird keeper, they flew just above my head, which was amazing.

Next, we watched the job of sheep-dogs and sheep shearing. The dogs were so clever and adorable. The sheep were a little pitiful but shearing was intriguing.

Their move was funny.
The flock never split up!

He looked relaxed, but I wasn't able to read a mind of animals, so I'm not sure how he was feeling.

After that, we saw kangaroos. There were a heap of kangaroos in a broad meadow, and they were jumping, eating and sleeping.

They were very familiar with humans, so it was easy to take pictures of them.














The younger and smaller they are, the much prettier they are!

Of course I saw koalas because the place was Lone Pine "Koala" Sanctuary. They were so cute when they eat food. However, I saw more and took more pictures of kangaroos than koalas. I definitely prefer kangaroos. Sorry koalas.

I got relaxed so much in this place, and I wanna visit there and see animals again!

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On 3 May, I went to Sea World in Gold Coast with the members when I visited Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary plus three more. I was thinking that Sea World is like an aquarium, but my expectation was wrong. It has variety of marine animals outside, some attractions and interesting shows.

We watched a show of sea lions. They were skilled and playing very well. The actors were comic, and I found the shows in Australia different from those of Japan in terms of way to make an audience laugh. Anyway, I like both!

We rode on a roller coaster, but the rail was too short and not so thrilling, which made me a little disappointed. There were many kinds of marine animals, like a polar bear, shark, ray and starfish. We also watched the dolphin show. Dolphin is one of my most favorite animals, so I was exhilareted. Four dolphin jumped at the same time, which was dynamic!

A big turtle were swimming slowly, very slowly.

A man was scattering snow. That was making penguins scared and run around, but for their comfortable life.

Parent penguins were feeding their child. I'd never seen it until then.

Sea world was much more exciting than I expected. I could spend a good time with my friends and marine animals 

Discovery in Everyday Life

I found something new every day, everywhere.  The first thing which surprised me was the bus.  There is no announcement on the bus, so I got so worried when I caught a bus to home for the first time. Even now, I have to look out through the window of the bus when I go to the places where I've never been.  The road is also surprising for me.  Compared with the road in Japan, that in Australia has less crossings.  It is inconvenient.  I sometimes see the people getting across the road without crossing, which is terrible.

The most surprising and unpleasant thing is the price of everything, especially food.  Eating at canteen or restaurant, I can't avoid spending a lot of money.  Therefore, I've made my lunch by myself to save money.  I love sandwiches with these.

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I could make discoveries also in my house.  They are two more members of my host family.  My host mother is feeding them in backyard.  She calls them girls, so they are female. They 

sometimes run away from the yard and get into our house, so they bother her.

 

He is a neighbor living in a forest at the back of my house.  He is a wild peacock.  While I was having my breakfast, he came and peaked the window.  My host mother said to me that he comes home about once a week to receive breakfast from her.  I was very surprised, but now am also looking forward to seeing him when he gets more beautiful feathers in spring.

Lovely time in Gold Coast and South Bank

On 28 March, I went to Gold Coast with my friends.  We met at Roma Street station and caught the train.  Arriving at Gold Coast, we walked around and enjoyed shopping and lunch.  We went to the beach which was so beautiful and had many people.  

It was windy, so surf was high.

Gold Coast at night is also great.  Many people were performing, such as singing, dancing, juggling and magic.  They were so amusing.  I can't forget the jolly atmosphere in there.

We went to the restaurant.  I had fish and chips which was so delicious that I want to recommend to you !  We stayed at backpackers for one night, where we shared a room with a woman from Germany.  She was travelling around Australia, and her English was so fluent.  On the next morning, we went to the beach again and had breakfast with a gentle air from the sea.  After that we departed from Gold Coast for Brisbane.  I'm sure this short trip was wonderful !

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On 11 April, I and my friends in my class 5 GOLD, went to South Bank.  We had decided to meet at South Bank station, but one girl was late because of a trouble.  We were worried, yet she could finally join us.  We had lunch at the Asian food restaurant.  It had the cuisine of Japan, China, Korea, Thailand and Malaysia.  I tried Nasi Goreng from Malaysia which was good but too much for me.

We were talking about many kinds of subjects such as favorite food, expressions of each languages, ages and plans for the future.  I got to know some surprising matters.

This crazy bird got on the vacant table and picked up the food left on it.
So terrible !

After lunch we walked around markets.  There were a great number of markets because it was a sunny lovely day.  We afterwards visited the museum where the exhibition of marine animals and dinosaurs were open.

We had enough time, so decided to go to the cinema.  We watched the movie of SpongeBob.  To be honest, I couldn't understand English well because it was so fast.  However I could enjoy it.  It is pleasant to go out in a group of mixed nationalities.  I want to enjoy in this group again !