Great News! // すばらしいニュース!

Great News!

I want to say I am really sorry for disappearing but school became really stressful with exams and papers but IM BACK with great news!

News # 1

     While I was MIA I had time to go to the last CCI event! During my time there I finalized a list of projects to do. For the first three weeks I have at camp before I leave!

For example:

During Creative Art: 

• Write Campers names in Japanese on Fans. 
• Create Japanese Dolls 
• Create Paper Carp 
• Martial Arts (with the help of a Karate School, Fingers Crossed!) 
• Haiku 
• Woodblock Painting 
• Geisha and Oni Mask 
• And of course, Origami!

For Discovery Day

• Make a Bento 
• Bake a Japanese Strawberry Shortcake 
• Watch a Movie by Hayao Miyazaki

     In addition to planning for the summer I tested out one of my projects during Counselors Choice  I decided to write the campers name in Hiragana; since they were the youngest group. (I know I should of use Katakana, I forgot completely). In the summer the campers will write their own name in Katakana depending on their age group.

The Difference between Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji

Hiragana: Words you don't know the kanji for, grammatical parts, and a few words that are just rarely seen in kanji.
Katakana: Foreign words and non-Japanese names.
Kanji: Everything else! Verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives...

Example: 私の名前はカトリーナです。
私 and 名前 are kanji. They stand for "I" and "name", respectively.
カトリーナ is katakana and is "Katrina", which is a foreign name.
の, は, and です are in hiragana. の is a possessive particle making "I" into "my", は is a particle that denotes the subject of the sentence (name), and です is a polite sentence ender.

Here are some great pictures of my campers and their names! ツ

News # 2

Arigatou(in pink) means Thank You in Japanese

On May 1st, I became the FIRST Student from the University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth to receive the Gilman Scholarship! I will be receiving $3,500.00 for my trip to Japan ! 

I want to take the time to thank everyone that has helped me make my dream come true. 

Kira Terrill & Yorky Mercedes- For giving me that extra push I needed to actually study abroad.

Gina Reis- For helping me with the entire process.

Clint Roger - For the awesome recommendation letters

Lee Charlton - For believing in me and  reminding me that I shouldn't give up. (Also for being a great blog editor!)

College Now & Crossroads for Kids- Thank you for letting me help the campers and freshmen I hope that my message will reach them and they will go to college and study abroad. 

My Family & Friends - What more can I say you guys have been there from the very beginning knowing how much I LOVE the Japanese culture and want to go there. My dream is really coming true thank you for all the love and support!