More photos from Robert

Last Sunday, my host mother Sumiko took me on another excursion into the countryside. I met her sisters, brother, mother, and their families. I took another bike ride around the local town, and here are some of the photos that I took from that day.
*Meeting Sumiko's mother and sisters.


*The red roof picture is Sumiko's childhood house. It is on a farm where they grow a variety of vegetables.
*The Samurai-looking photo is a family picture that was hung in the shrine room of grandma's house. I am not sure who it was, but I thought it was a great picture. *You can barely see from the next photo that there are family portraits hung above the shrine.


*This hallway picture was the hall that connected the kitchen to the bathroom. The house was/is very old and in pretty bad shape, but it was cool anyway.
*The Kitchen stove...

*Right-on, [I found] Amall!

* Japanese yard ornaments...

* Lunch with the family. The young boy later helped me with my Japanese homework!

*The food was yummy!

* Working on the family farm.
* neighborhood shrines (tombs actually)

*View from the driveway of the farm.

Evanston Fall Photos

Our weather has been pretty yucky for September. I really hope that October is much nicer! It's just been gray and rainy and humid here for the past weeks. And yesterday, we had a tornado pass through, with hail and gusty wind and thunder and lightning!

I just learned yesterday that our building "Tech" (in the far upper left of bottom photo and shot across the pond in the top photo) originally had more surface area than the Pentagon. I think it is the largest academic building in the world. It cost nearly $7M to build in the 1930s. And yet it only had one women's bathroom! I read that it has a working stream in the basement.

Gretchen's Role at Willard Residential College

Here are some photos of the dorm where I'm working. My (large!) office is inside. I love having the space here, though I'm not yet sure what exactly my job is. I'm assuming I'll figure that out as the quarter progresses. I'm working for Willard Residential College, built in 1938 as an all female dormitory. It was named after Frances Willard who founded the Northwestern Female College in 1871. Frances Willard was also the founder of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, a prohibitionist organization. In honor of her temperance values, Willard Hall used to throw a huge Frances Willard Party (hailed as one of the top ten college parties by Playboy Magazine in the late 80s). However, because of the rampant alcohol abuse (catch the irony?), the party was recently shut down. Part of my job might be helping the students get it going again.


To those who are asking me what a residential college is? Northwestern's residential college system was developed by University faculty in the early 1970s. In 1972 the residential college system was finally established, beginning with five colleges (now eleven). Willard is one of those original five, and one of two nonthematic residential colleges at Northwestern. Northwestern's residential college system was developed in response to a report by a faculty committee that urged the formation of smaller intellectual communities within the larger University community. The original purposes of the residential colleges were threefold: first, to extend the learning environment from the classroom to extracurricular life; second, to provide relatively small supportive communities in which the students would find something of a small-college atmosphere within the University; and third, to nurture better relations between faculty and students by establishing informal connections between student members and the colleges' Fellows. Generally, the goals of the residential colleges are to enrich the intellectual, cultural, and social lives of their students.
So what is my role in the Residential College?
All residential colleges have a designated graduate student, known as the Assistant Master. These are full-time graduate students who serve as resource persons and perform various organizational and administrative tasks under the direction of the Master (a senior faculty member). My tasks include: building relationships with students and faculty, working with the Master to ensure that Faculty Fellows are actively engaged in the life of the college, attending meetings, writing reports, participating in college events, interacting and dining regularly with students and faculty. I facilitate budgetary procedures and coordinate event details for the Master, as well as advise the Willard executive board in planning and executing academic and social programs. I also oversee the use of special equipment or facilities for the college (so far that means making sure the grand piano in the common room is tuned twice a year).
Hopefully I will get my digital camera soon, and I can take some more photos of my office and the Willard facilities. I think it's a lovely old building.

Robert's Trip to the Countryside with Sumiko

Sumiko took Robert on an excursion on Sunday. They stopped at a mineral springs to fill several bottles with fresh water. Then, they went to Sumiko's family in the countryside where I think Robert said she worked in the garden while Robert rode around on a bicycle. Here are some of the photos he took that day:



Of course Robert always manages to get in a few reflection shots!

Dragon at the temple (Pat asked for lots of dragon pictures, so Robert is on the look-out!)

This is Sumiko filling up large sake bottles with the fresh mineral spring water.

More Photos from Robert!

I'll do my best to add some narrative based upon what Robert has said on Skype, and then he can add some when he gets a chance. It sounds like Robert is having lots of fun and making the most of his Sapporo experience. He has already made friends (Japanese, British, and American), been to traditional baths and spring waters (hot and cold), visited the countryside, etc. Here are some recent photos he sends.

These are photos of his host mother, Sumiko at her family's temple.



Photo from a field trip with classmates to visit a local elementary school.
A water gargoyle and buddha at a temple he visited with Sumiko.

More Photos from Sapporo

More photos of Sapporo from Robert! Included are some funny photos of interesting usages of the English language! I'm not even sure what to make of the bathhouse sign!

DEEPPRESSO! When you need a pick-me-down!
Photos of Sapporo. The radio tower looks a lot like France's Eiffel Tower to me!


Rob's friend Dennis from Lewis & Clark.


A J. Ro purse?

Robert Knows Japanese!

Just a short update to say that Robert managed to place into the third year of Japanese (Level 300), meaning that he managed to skip a whole year since he only took the first level last year. And he thought he remembered nothing! Go Bubby! He says he'll have to study a lot and learn some new vocab and Kanji, but we all know he can handle it.
His commute to school is 35 minutes. This week he only has language classes, and next week he will add two additional culture classes (could be on film, religion, business, etc). He's enjoying exploring Sapporo with new friends.

Sumiko and Yoshiro

These are just a couple of snapshots of my host mother Sumiko and her son Yoshiro. The first two were taken at an informal tea ceremony and the last one was taken at Sumiko's vegetable garden.

Today I went out with "Yoshi" and met up with his mother where she was volunteering at a community event that was geared towards families with children... It was fun: we ate some snacks and toured some community centers and schools. I am tired right now, so I'll try and fill in the blanks at a later time.

After that excursion with my family, I went off on my own by bicycle and explored downtown Sapporo on my own. I do not live too far away from downtown -- I could probably make it there in about 15-20 mins (cycling). Anyway, I rode around for about 2 hrs. and took a few photos and then I just rode home. It felt good to just go out and see if I could get myself lost -- the challenge of finding my way back is fun! So far, I haven't gotten lost... Now, I suppose, I should be knocking on wood.

Anyway, if it wasn't so late right now, and if I had a more reliable internet signal, I would be posting more photos, but as it IS late right now, and my internet IS currently slow, I am only posting these and I will add more later... Gomenasai!

For now, Sayoonara!

Love,

Me