Get Ready for the New World.

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I have posted a blog after summer break.

My last semester was a bit overwhelming taking 2 classes besides the capstone and internship classes; I have learnt so much at PLU not only on the academic side, but also the opportunities that have given to me throughout 4 years. As an international student, I have contributed to the diversity on campus from Global Get Down to the fundraising for Japan's tsunami and earth quake relief.

Well, are you afraid of jumping into the new world? - Probably I was. I never came to the United States till I studied at PLU. Everything seemed to be very enjoyable at first but I had to tell myself to be independent and humble to essentially understand the dynamics of American culture. At the end, surely, PLU gave me uncountable opportunities to connect with people from different sides of the world. To learn and understand another culture takes lots of energy and efforts as the other international students do because it's not a simple 1,2,3 process; To achieve your goal and vision, you need to clarify how you manage yourself each day. My journey at PLU would have never been completed without you: faculty members, professors, PLU community, friends and my great parents.

Now I am ready for next step of my journey- keep moving forward to develop my own map of my next career as a PR professional. After I have establish my career I am planning to come back here for my masters degree.

Greatly appreciated Allyson & Akane, who had given me the great bridge to connect the current students and perspective students at PLU.

Happy Holidays!

Tomomi

Introducing New Blogger

Hello!

My name is Lina, I’m from Norway, and this is my first year here at Pacific Lutheran University. I transferred as a junior from Green River Community College, and if I could, I’d major in Awesomeness.
Unfortunately, that’s a non-existing program, so I choose the next best, and I’m therefore majoring in Communication, with a concentration on Journalism and a minor in Global Studies.

In my spare time, I like to laugh at animated shows on Netflix – behind closed doors in my apartment of course. I also love to hang out with friends, and Seattle usually gets invaded where the coffee runs out.
I’ve been told I’m a pretty weird person. Personally I prefer the term original, but whatever works. I like to think of myself as a dreamer, but yet an optimistic realist. I never have too high of expectations; that way, I’ll never get disappointed. (Hopefully)

Besides school, I work at the Office of Admission here at PLU as an International Admission and Recruitment Intern. It’s pretty neat. I have the privilege of working with awesome people, I’ve learned so much already about PLU, and it’s really fun too!

I’ll leave you with this: Worrying is stupid. It’s like walking around with an umbrella waiting for it to rain. (:

Memory of my 2011 summer holiday

Hello everyone, I am back. It was so fun to spend my summer holiday with my parents and friends. It was so fun to meet with my PLU professor Vidya Thirumurthy in Beijing. I was so glad to introduce Chinese culture and history to foreigners, especially someone I know. My parents were very excited to see my professor even they could not communicate in English -  it is a Chinese tradition that parents prefer to talk with teachers in order to know on a deeper level the situation of their kids in school. Even though they could not talk, they felt very good to sit together, and I could tell by their facial appearance that they were pleased.

I also went to lots of places to hang out with my boyfriend's family. I learned a lot from my summer trip. My dad would often tell me it would be a waste your time and money if you did not learn anything when you are traveling. So I try to search information before I go to each place. I try to know its past history and enjoy the beautiful scenery. I very enjoyed my 2011 summer holiday. Let me share my happy moments with you guys.

A Sunny day in Port Orchard

Hi! It's been a while since I have posted a blog - my summer has been really busy working on my job-hunting, while I was helping my parent'sjob.Well, what a surprise - the beautiful Northwest landscape with the blue sky welcomed back us at the beginning of Fall. I was expected to see the gloomy weather(which is actually started to begin this week) but last couple weeks were different. I love the nature, I was surprised how the fresh air make feel us so grateful. I would say, greater Seattle/Tacoma area have a variety of recreation that allow us to explore the nature.

I will tell you the story about the visit to the town called Port Orchard to see my friend, Kelsi on the other day. She's been a really good friend of mine; we share so many experiences within my college life! Port Orchard is about an hour away from PLU, located in the west of Seattle Part, easily accessible to the Vashon Island and Seattle. (For more visit info visit : http://www.cityofportorchard.us/)

Her parents took me to the boat by water-front within 20 min away from their home. There were so many families enjoy reading, tanning and having a good time, and so did we. Her father took us to by the water then he enthusiastically showed me his favorite place, a boat - including a tiny table, the desk lump and the tiny cushions around. He's been served in the U.S Navy for more than 30 years and told us many interesting stories.

I was laying down on the boat and looking at the beautiful sky in Port Orchard. After that I and Kelsi have been to a couple of stores around such as an antique store, a cafe, and the candy store(which sells one of the best ginger candy!) In the candy store, there were a variety of candies and chocolates. My favorite was the coconut flavored dark chocolate and the ginger candies. well it was interesting enough to see all kinds of sweets in a classical tiny town.

We had a good time spending time together, and lord, we saw the two deers running around the road on the way back --- That's why I love Washington --- Great people and nature exploring. Now I am writing this in the library seeing the vividly colored leaves on the top of the trees; thinking of where i am going to be after my graduation ...

Cheers!

Tomomi

Keep a grateful heart forever!

I am so excited that I will back Beijing next month. I did not go back home for about 2 years. I miss my parents and friends. I will tell them my story of PLU. The story I will tell them is totally different from my first time back home. I remember I told them PLU is tiny with an old building style campus. It was not what I imaged. I hated to stay here for longer. The food was unsavory. I hated local students who didn't want with me in a group. Even right now I am laughing at myself about what I said before. Those were my initial emotions about PLU. Everything changed during these two years. Though PLU has a tiny campus, it warms me so much. It includes all the facilities that students need.

First, the writing center is a good place for international student to revise their paper errors. It helped me on different homework papers. Then the Academic Assistance Center, it is good place to find a tutor help you resolve problems you have. I am using my Psy tutor to help me prepare the exam each time. The library is a very nice place to study. Students are very nice and have a high quality. I've previously lost a flash drive, mouse, wallet, student ID in the library. Every time I could find them from the Help Desk in the lib. I love lib so much.

Even though the food is not my favorite, the snacks of the old market in the University Cafeteria are good. They sell some instant noodles and Yogurt. I also have a few local friends that make happy. On my birthday, all of them said happy birthday to me. Even there are few words, but I felt very warm at that moment. I can not stop talking my professor over here, all of my communication professors are so nice, they do care about international students such as myself. They gave me extra time to take quizzes or exams. I can not name every professor because of all of them are nice.

My advisor Abigail is also a nice person for me - she cares my life and study. She helped me to register what classes I need to take each semester. One of my education 205 professors always let me talk every class time. She knew I need to practise to speak in class. Each time she just called my name and let me talk. That class is the most that I have talked so far. My literature 213 professor read my papers before I turned them in. All the professor I have met at PLU are the best professors.  Thanks for all my professors who have taught me and will teach me. I learned a lot not only in my study but also in my life. Keep a grateful heart forever! LOVE PLU!

It's time for art journey!

After all the sun out for couple of days, Tacoma is back to the gloomy weather -which probably is not exciting for going out and playing volleyball in the field, yet there is a good news.

Senior art majors have showed such a wonderful pieces to the PLU communities. At the opening receptions, there were more than a hundred people visited to the Gallery in Ingram Building started at 5:00pm. One of my good friends, Risa, has introduced unique perspectives on her art pieces as "Walking Jar". Her artistic sense of exploring the different types of ceramics are amazing.

I have taken couple of art classes with different professors because I am an art minor; so far I am enjoy taking a 3D art class, making a huge airplane made out of the car boards. We were divided into different sections in the class: My role is a part of Body team which mostly contributes putting all the body parts together by using the hot glue guns, which sometimes needs a good work ethic and ability to focus on the various tasks. It's an early morning class but it's worth it because Spencer is one of the greatest professor I ever met.

For those of you who have stopped by UC during the art sale today organized by the Art Department, I am pretty sure you had a hard time choosing the piece you want; they had amazing collections of photographs and ceramic pieces which are sold from $5-$20. They will donate all the money to the American Red Cross. Surely I have got two heart-shaped bowls for my new collection of dishes. (pictures will be posted soon)

I really appreciate those of art department and senior students who made time to do this - There is so much going on and everybody seems to be rushed towards what's only in front of themselves, but sometimes it's important to realize what is going on around you and what you can contribute for other people.

Coffee Experience

One day, my dad called me and asked, "do you think you are involved in American culture already? I didn't know how to answer him at that moment. On that day, my friend and I went to Starbucks and ordered my favorite Vanilla Latte.  I was sitting at the counter at the cafe and was still thinking about that question. My friend wanted to know what I was thinking and asked me, "why don't you drink tea at home instead of drinking coffee here?"

Suddenly, I knew how to answer my dad. Yes, I was involved. I like drinking coffee right now.  I still remember a few weeks after I went to school I saw lots of classmates liked drinking coffee in class. I wanted to try it, but I didn't know how to order,  so I ended up just following one person and repeating what she said. To this day, I don't know what kind of coffee I drank that day.

Small things make me have a big idea of life. I really know what "Do in Rome as Romans do" means right now.

By Meng

How much is "a lot" in American money?

How do you manage your money when you don't know what they are worth?

You're standing in the store, looking at a sweater you really want. The price-tag says "20," and you have a 20-dollar bill in your hand. Can you really afford it? Is "20" a lot, or just a little? How do you tell?

That's what happened to me the first time I came to the United States. I had four 5-dollar bills in my wallet, but I had no idea if that was "a lot" or not. For the first few months, I just paid whatever the price-tag said, and didn't know whether I was spending too much.

5 Norwegian Kroner
(worth 93 cents)
Stylish, but useless - like me.

See, back in Norway we pay in "kroner," and 5 kroner really isn't a lot of money. It's enough to get you a stick of bubble-gum, or a few pencils, but nothing more than that. So in my head, "5" has always been a really small amount of money.

But when i went to the United States, I had to train myself to think that "5" can actually buy you a lot of things. If you've got five dollars, you can get an awesome DVD, an unhealthy meal, a gift for mom, or a whole gallon of gas.

Tourists struggle with this problem all the time; the number on their money doesn't mean what they're used to. When I was in Italy, my friend and I paid 100,000 Lire for a hotel-room, which sounded like a fortune to us! In fact, we were really paying about 75 dollars.

...which I'll admit was still a fortune.

How much is 1 US Dollar worth?

• EU - 0.68 Euros
• China - 6.50 Yuan
• Britain - 0.60 Pounds
• Trinidad and Tobago - 6.52 Dollars
• Norway - 5.33 Kroner
• Sweden - 6.07 Kronor
• Denmark - 5.11 Kroner
• South Korea - 1081.30 Won
• Japan - 82.03 Yen
• Vietnam - 20865 Dong

How to find out what is "a lot" or not.

The first thing you should do is figure out the exchange rate between US Dollars and the money in your country. In other words, if a sandwich costs $2 in the United States, how much would you pay back home?

There are lots of websites that make this easy, such as this one. Just type in the amount in dollars, select your own currency, and it will tell you. You can also just ask Google, like I do.

Once you've done this a couple of times, you'll begin to develop a "feel" for how much your new money is worth, the same way you did back home.

When you figure out that the sweater actually costs 107 kroner, or 130元, you might go ahead and buy it anyway. But at least you'll know whether it's "a lot of money" to you, and whether you can afford it.

Pray For Japan: a fundraising effort on campus

I couldn't believe it happened when I first checked the online news on Friday.

Probably most people would have thought it's just a seasonal earthquake that we have in Japan, yet unfortunately it did turn out to be one of the worst natural disasters that happened in decades around the globe.

I was fortunate that I was able to contact my family the next day via Skype - though most telecommunications were completely paralyzed due to the excessive access to the main cellphone lines, and still I couldn't get my eyes from the NHK news for almost all weekend. I was anxious and didn't know what to do about it until the point that I decided to run the fundraising event on campus.

The nuclear reactor explosions in Fukushima happened just 300km away from Tokyo and there are still many health concerns about the amount of radiation produced so far. It's time for us to step back and think about the histories that we had - No more Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Not only Japan, but other nuclear power plant accidents that had been discussed in terms of safety around the globe. You can check the global nuclear event scales here.

I was listening to NPR at some point and they were talking about how the U.S should learn from Haiti, Katrina and Japan. We don't really know when disasters happen - it is vital to make an emergency preparation. According to the BBC website, the confirmed death toll from the quake and tsunami is up to 8,450, with nearly 13,000 people missing.... Japan still needs your help!

"Actions speak louder than words " - There is something that you can do at PLU

Donation Tabling till 23rd on Wednesday

From 10:30 am to 7:30 pm in front of Old Main Market @University Center

• Cash is preferable, but checks are also acceptable at SIL desk(the basement of University Center).
• All donations will be proceeded directly to American Red Cross.

For more info visit our Facebook page:

Thank you for your support and concerns!

Love and Peace,

Tomomi

Spring Break

Spring Break : wow, exciting! This is my first sense of this holiday. It is time to relax a while and hang out with my friends. I already planned where I go before spring break. I might just have 3 times to spend spring break in the United States so I cherish this time very much. I try to travel to some places around here. This spring break I will probably go to Woodburn (not sure). It is located in Oregon. I went there several times before. It is a big shopping place. The main reason I love to go there is NO TAX! Before summer holiday is the greatest time to go shopping there. I will be back China this June so I need to buy some gifts for my family members and friends. It is a cool place to go! I'll show you the picture which I took before. One last thing I need to say "Pray for Japan"!!!

-Meng

Meet Daniel

If you see this man with
a notebook, run for your life.

Hi, my name is Daniel and I am a recovering Norwegian.

I came to PLU on a sunny August afternoon in 2009. You may have seen me; I was the guy trying to carry a huge box of bedsheets without falling asleep.

I am currently pursuing a major in Communication with a concentration in Journalism and a minor in Procrastination. I'm a frequent writer for the student newspaper, and my articles have been described as "wonderful" by my mom.

I'm usually found in the cafeteria anytime mashed potatoes are on the menu. If you don't see me there, I'd suggest you friend me up on Facebook or follow me on Twitter

Mid-term is coming

Mid-term is coming. It is a busy time for every student. We need to prepare for papers, exams and presentations. As a non-English speaker, I will need much more time than other students to work hard. This semester I am taking Psychology 101 and English 213 - both  for general university requirement (GUR). When I heard the name "Psychology" I was so afraid of this class, but it is for GUR. English 213 is a literature class. For this class I need to read English novels, and it is hard to read one-hundred pages in one day but it is a way to improve my English. Two other classes are requirements for my major: Advertising and writing class. I feel fine in both of these classes. However, I really felt I learned something after each course. It is a hard process, but caused sweet results!!! Nothing in the world is difficult for one who sets his mind on it!


Meng

Autobiography - Tomomi

Hello and welcome to our International Students Blog! My name is Tomomi and I'm a junior at PLU, majoring in Public Relations (Communication). I spent most high school life in Japan but I have decided to explore a bit more around the other sides of the world. What I most made me interested in applying to PLU was they have a small-scale-class enviroment where students and faculities can interact with. It is a great enviroment for the students who are willing to share the sense of communities with others.

I believe that challenging and jumping into new culture could be stressful sometime for International students, but I am sure it will be the great investment to achieve your goals and there will be always the light at the end of tunnel. Hope you will enjoy our blog! :)

-Tomomi

Autobiography - Meng

Hi, I am Meng, I came to PLU in 2008 from Beijing, China. My major is Communication with an emphasis in Public Relations.I have two main goals at PLU. One is the most important for me is to learn English well, because I hope I can speak English as a native speaker. Second, I want to learn more communication skills and knowledge. I consider the United States as my second mother land.

-Meng