2024年4月、アメリカ、ニューヨークにあるラウンドスクエア校、Trevor Day Schoolにて、交換留学生として過ごした高等学校2年生からの報告です。
I have never been to a homestay before, so NY was the first for me. The thing that surprised me and I learned from was that NY was very similar to Jpan. Most of the stores and restaurants there were also in Japan.
Japanese culture was popular there, like Pokémon, and sushi. However, there were no Japanese people in NY. Instead, there were huge Chinatowns and Koreatowns. There were some Japanese stores, but they were all operated by Korean workers. However, my host mother loved sushi, so I ended up having a lot more sushi than I did while in Japan. I also expected the food portions to be much larger than the ones in Japan, but surprisingly, they were about the same size. A Japanese Ramen costed $25 and a bottle of water was $4, which now equate to 3750¥ and 600¥, respectively, were very expensive.
New things I learned:
I took the same classes as my host, including Mandarin. It was my very first time learning Mandarin, so I expected it to be quite challenging. Surprisingly, because I already read Japanese, I found the written Mandarin understandable. However, speaking Mandarin was a whole new game. Additionally, I learned a lot about Jewish culture from my host family, who were Jewish. I even had the opportunity to participate in their family Shabbat twice, which was a completely new experience for me.
What I enjoyed the most:
I loved Harry Potter even before I visited New York. Trevor planned for us to attend a musical, and I'm very grateful that we had the chance to watch Harry Potter. Then, there was an intensity 4, Magnitude 4.8 earthquake, and the school went on lockdown. An earthquake happening in NY is very rare; it usually occurs only once every 100 to 150 years. Additionally, I experienced a solar eclipse, which happens once every 50 years.
お世話になった皆様、ありがとうございました。
