an invitaion from my flatmate

Among five flatmates in my flat, three of them are from Malaysia. After I moved to dormitory, I have made many Malay friends. It is the independence day of Malaysia, today. The Malaysian festival was held in Darling Harbour. My flatmates said to me 'come come!'

One of my flatmates was working there because she belongs to Malaysian Society at UTS. The event was organized by the Society in some Universities in NSW. Can you imagine so many international students from Malaysia in Australia? According to Malay friends, Malay people come to Australia to study because there are some educational discrimination in Malaysia. It seems to be because of races (Malay, Indian, and Chinese). Since this diary would be very long, I cannot write about the issue. Anyway, it is common for Malay students to study abroad when they are university students. That's why they can have such a big event by themselves...

In the event, we could taste many Malay foods. As my friends said, Malay foods are mixed with Chinese, Indonesia, and Thai. So, it is a bit difficult to define what Malay foods are. What we ate there are Nashi Remak (the left side of picture, cooked rice, spicy sauce, cucumber and anchovy), Roti (plain bread like Nan and spicy sauces) and Ice Kacha (ice and sweet syrup, like Kakigori). For me, these tested too spicy or too sweet. But, I had never eaten Malay foods. I will ask my friends how to make them. At the stage, some people danced with traditional clothes. Dance performance did not stop for a long time... different races have their own special dances. Umm, it is complicated country, Malaysia. I think going traveling to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian capital city, because the city is famous as a good sightseeing resort. However, how many tourists know that complicated fact of Malaysia...? I should know more about Malaysia not only for studying but also being close to my flatmates from Malaysia!

In-fusion!

An international feast of food, music, dance and more...which is called 'In-fusion'! In this week, UTS was vibrant with the multicultural event. It's just like multicultural country, Australia!

Today, one of in-fusion event was held at a UTS dormitory. Only student residents can attend the event. We were asked to take part in some contest or performance. In particular, we joined the cooking competition! Speaking of Japanese food, a lot of people would imagine 'Sushi' especially 'roll sushi'. It is not interesting to make expected food, so we made 'tsirashi zushi'. It was hard to collect special ingredients of it. But, some friends led us to manage our roles. Thanks to them, we did make a beautiful and fantastic Sushi! (Japanese foods are quite colourful!) Unfortunately, though it could not win on the competition, our sushi was eaten out. Also, there were many kinds of foods from over the world. For example, India curry, French cakes, Vietnamese spring roll, and so on. I ate too much foods! (Because of it, I have stomachache now...) While we were eating, some people had performance from their countries. It showed that everyone has opportunities to tell their culture in Australia. It's nice event, isn' it? If possible, I want to join again!

to my health...

Nowadays, I'm thinking about loosing my weight seriously....because I gain weight a lot! Three months later, I will be in Japan. My family, friends, teachers, and people who know me might be surprised to see my change! I always say myself 'I HAVE TO EXERCISE'.

One of my choices is YOGA. It was a bit popular among young women in Japan, wasn't it? My friend who is from Hong Kong suggested that I should do YOGA. As she introduced me a cheap trial course, I decided to try it. (I can go whenever I want within two weeks.) Although I had never done before, I thought that it must be easier than running or muscle training to keep doing.

We have to move very slowly and to keep postures and balance well, which looks easy but makes me feel tired. How to breathe is one of the most important elements in YOGA. Some friends said I must have a big amount of breathing capacity because I belong to a wind orchestra...I betrayed such an expectation and was shocked how rigid I am. All lessons are held for ninety minutes. During lessons, we can sweat and make our bodies flexible. Unfortunately, YOGA is not for loosing weight. However, we can feel relaxed and keep our posture beautiful! Also, teachers teach us how to move in English. It is a rare experience so hard to catch specific names of a part of body that I copy others many times. I will go to do YOGA as much as I can.
This is my current way of spending time after school. How long can I keep going?

distance sisterly love

I received an email from my younger sister in English. It was her reply of my present. Though there were many mistakes in her English, I could tell she put her effort on the email.

My younger sister's birthday is 17th August. I sent her a birthday card five days before her birthday, which was my surprising event for her. She must not have expected me to do something for her birthday because I had not done anything some years in Japan. How bad sister I was! But, in fact, our relationship was so terrible. We had quarrels almost everyday, which made my mother bothered. If our relationship is still bad, I might have done nothing...
So, we are going better now! I can say that my studying here changed our relationship. I had lived with her for 18 years since my sister was born. It was the first time for us to live separately. I didn't care about my sister when I left Japan and so did she, I thought. But, my sister gave me a letter and a picture. (She is good at drawing.) To be honest, I was so surprised and happy that I was likely to cry when I got them. I put the picture on the wall in my room as an encouragement to me.

Although it is natural to do something for siblings, I could not help doing something for her this year. In particular, I wanted to tell my thank and love for her. The reason why I wrote in English is because she is studying English to enter a university. According to my mother, my sister looked up a dictionary to understand meaning of my card. I was glad to hear that and thought she is cute. I could feel her love from her email as well. Yeah, she is only one my sister! I hope we can be sooooooooo good sisters that my mother does not have to have troubles any more! Anyway, happy birthday my sister, Naho~:)

1/70.000

No one would not expect me to run 14kilometers in Australia. Me neither...!

Sydney has a big running and walking event from Hyde Park to Bondi beach in every August, which is called 'City to Surf'. Although I had heard about it from one of my classmates, I had not thought to join it actually because I don't like a marathon competition, races, and something like that. However, if I miss this time, I will never join the event...Such an idea came up to my mind again. Also, one more reason why I joined is to be able to buy UTS team T-shirt. It might be trivial reasons...But, I guess most of Australian runners are not serious to run:) I had seen some pictures of runners who wore funny costumes. Anyway, even though we knew how long I would run, I was so busy that I could not do any exercise.

When we got to the starting place, Hyde Park, there had already been soooooo many people! This year, about 70,000 people join the event!! Can you imagine that number of crowd? Even if I wanted to run, I couldn't do because of people, people, and people... Some adults were taking baby cars walking as participants. On the way, landscape was really nice. A lot of children worked as volunteer worker and cheered us up. (One of my English teacher said having fun at mass events was a kind of Australian culture!) After three and a half hours later, we finally got to the goal. Though I had run much longer didistance, I was satisfied with a sense of achievement X)

Our name will be printed on a newspaper day after tomorrow...