footsteps in my daily life
I played tennis with T-san again: two days in a row! Yesterday, I played tennis the first time in three
months or something, so my performance was very terrible. Yet today, my body remembered proper
movement from yesterday's practice; and thus I played relatively better than yesterday. I was kind of convinced that practice makes perfect. Later on I went out with J-san for a cup of coffee.
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Distinction between "making a living" and "living a life"; which could be the same as distinction between "SEIKATSU" and "JINSEI" that Shusaku Endo proposed...
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Input hypothesis characterized by "i+1" input can be applied to a variety of things: "i+1" dream, "i+1" weight, or "i+1" something... Important thing is to rightly assess the current state of oneself...
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Expectation of family, Responsibility, Calling for serving people, and Faith...
The Spring semester 2003 is just around the corner; in fact, the orientation for incoming students has already opened today, a week ahead of the Spring semester. It's almost time for me to prepare for it: I've got to buy textbooks and the like soon... The Spring semester is my final semester at SIUC. Every single day will surely be precious for me... I have to use time well...
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Today, I played tennis with T-san again: three days in a row! I could play even better than yesterday: I'm kind of glad to find that I'm making progress day by day...; yet unfortunately, I will not be able to afford the time to practice tennis once the semester begins...
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Significance of the basics... One may be able to reach a certain level in anything without the foundations; however, if one can break through and go further beyond will be determined by whether he/she has the basics or not...
I've just got back from STL. I met P-san, J-sans, B-sans, and M-san for the first time in four months... They were all pretty fine except J-san: he seemed to be sick... On the way to STL, I saw a small statue of the Blessed Mary being placed in the yard of someone's house along the road. It was standing facing the road at the corner of the house... It looked like guarding the drivers from traffic accidents. I felt warmed as I turned my thoughts toward the resident's concern for the drivers...
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It was quite late at night when I was on the way back to C'dale. When I was passing through a vast farmland, I suddenly became aware of innumerable stars in the sky ahead of me. They were distnctly visible since there were no outdoor lights around. I'd never known that there are such a many stars even inside Orion... I felt as if I were in the huge planetarium...
It was unusually warm today: the temperature went up to about 60F. Besides, it was perfectly sunny! And consequently I gave in to temptation to play tennis again... It was fun! I ended up playing tennis for as long as three hours! I'm kind of addicted to playing tennis lately...
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Later on I went out for dinner with J-san and A-san. I learned a lot about Jordan from A-san. I imagined what it would be like to grow up in Jordan... The life in Jordan sounded entirely different from the one in Japan or in the US... I supposed that the way to perceive the world might be greatly affected by the way one was raised or by culture... It's always marvelous to get to know different cultures... Arabic coffee A-san fixed for us was also delicious!
Finally, I bought textbooks and stationeries for the Spring semester. Thus, I'm seemingly ready for the new semester now... While I was looking for a book that I was required to buy for a class, I came across an interesting book. And then I ended up buying that book as well although I won't take that class... The book contains collection of essays examining misconceptions about language and language acquisition...
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It was sunny today, and the mild weather tempted me to play tennis again!
I went to the insurance office on campus to see how the school helps me pay medical bill. According to a friend of mine, the school insurance seems to cover 80% of medical expenses... Later on I attended an introductory meeting for the international festival. Afterward, there held an party for international students as well as for American students at the Interfaith Center. It was truly nice to get to know new friends as well as to meet old friends after a long time. I had really a good time.
After lunch, J-san and I helped M-san practice driving at the large parking lot near the arena. J-san instructed M-san how to drive very deliberately and systematically, while I was just sitting on the back seat being impressed with J-san's courteous manner of teaching driving...
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Later on J-san, A-sans, M-san and I went to an American buffet restaurant in Marion to have dinner. While we were having dinner, J-san received a call from a new international student being sick, and then J-san and I took him to a hospital after getting back to C'dale. The Lebanese doctor who saw the patient was very friendly and cheerful enough to make all of us comfortable. I'm sure the new student will get over in a couple of days...
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More and more students have come back to C'dale, and it's getting active little by little.