Email, if not a letter, from Canada

Dear Dr. Tanabe,

I have not sent you a weekly report of my life in Calgary for a month but hope this second report will find you in good shape.

I have spent almost a month here. Before coming here, I thought the differences in culture and climate would affect me, but this is not the case. My new life has been going well.

We, bro-taro and myself are taking a course called ACC (Academic Communication Certificate). As bro-taro told you, the members in our class are only five; Iranian, Saudi Arabian, and one Japanese (+ us). We are the first students in this program because it is a newly established one. Both Iranian and Saudi Arabian have a lot of knowledge about politics and other social issues, and they often express themselves in a daily conversation. Their eloquence in class gave me a surprise. We are blessed with three instructors. They inspire us a lot and let us in on the secret to succeeding in undergraduate courses (which we are supposed to go on). BTW, one of them speaks with a British accent. So, it is a good opportunity to listen to British accent in CANADA!

There are six people in my host family. My host mother and father are from the Philippine. Thirty years have passed since they came to Canada with sisters of my host mother’s. They live a stone’s throw away from my home, and we sometimes have dinner together with their children.

It’s a ten-minute walk to the nearest bus stop, and the university is about a forty minutes’ bus ride from there. Most passengers say “thank you” to a driver when they get off the bus. Their politeness always makes me smile.

My fellow seminar member back in Japan tell us what's going on via “Group LINE”. I am always motivated when exchanging information with them. I’ll study harder!

Best regards,
Pochi