Back in March, when the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, we spoke to Kana Igarashi.  Kana is a Japanese student at Santa Monica College in California, and her family lives in Fukushima, about 80 km from the damaged nuclear plant.  At the time we told her we’d look forward to talking to her again in happier circumstances.

A month later, I wish the circumstances were happier than they are, but the worst certainly seems to be over, so we caught up with Kana over email to see how she’s been doing.

Japan Ground Self-Defense Force members sift through rubble (Photo: AP)

First of all, how is your family doing?  Are they still in Fukushima Prefecture?

My family is doing okay, thank you. They are still in Fukushima prefecture trying to have a normal life while people in the ocean side are still having difficulties with their livings.

When we last talked, about a week after the earthquake, I don’t think anyone could have imagined this would drag on as long as it has.  Are things getting better for the residents of Fukushima Prefecture?

Many people were evacuated to other prefectures. More people who passed away around the nuclear plan were revealed. Aids from other prefectures were arrived. I think the situation has changed a lot in a way that people have to face the reality after this unbelievable disaster.

I cannot really say that things are better for them comparing to before considering the fact that they have to start everything from nothing and that those who were evacuated to other prefectures have been discriminated by other citizens just because they think that they will get the radiation from them. But I am believing in that everything will be okay.

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Now added to our Glossary of Confusing Words: gymnasium

In the U.S. a gymnasium, more commonly referred to as a gym, is a building where athletic activities take place.

Most colleges and universities have a gym for students to use for sports and athletic activities.  The gym will usually have a fitness center where students can work out.  In every day English, that fitness center is also called a gym.

The building where indoor varsity sports are played may also be called a gymnasium.

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Spring showers, thunderstorms, sunshine and 70 degree weather can only mean one thing in Syracuse- it’s almost time for summer. The last few months have flown by and this is my last week of classes before finals.

Creative commons photo by Flickr user leeroy09481

Uggg, finals.  Can you sense my excitement? Three months away from the classroom is just around the corner, but today, I doubt you could find a single student on campus who isn’t feeling the pressure of finals week.

There are a few tips to keep your head above water when the month of May starts to roll around, but it might take some extreme willpower to stay on track. I know it does for me.

Make a schedule

After my first year at Syracuse I realized that I needed to rework how I go about studying for finals week.  Writing a paper in one night and then leaving yourself only an hour or two to study for an exam just doesn’t work.  Trust me, I’ve tried.

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This video was created by a UGRAD fellow from Pakistan for their “Day in the Life” video contest. If you watch through to the end, there’s a crazy shot of him riding a rollercoaster at Universal Studios theme park.

This isn’t our first encounter with UGRAD-Pakistan fellows. We spoke to some for our article earlier this year on what it’s like to be a Muslim student in the U.S.

Namulang is from Tibet and has been in the U.S. about two months studying English at the University of Kansas Applied English Center. What does he like best about the U.S. so far? The sports, he says, especially KU’s well-known basketball team.

Recently I traveled from San Francisco to the east coast, for what was a lifetime opportunity to see the real America. When I say “real America” I don’t mean fast food, Hollywood or skyscrapers, but rather the history and culture.

Like many other people I also had this perception that America starts with Christopher Columbus and ends with a continuous progressive nation forever. Before last week I was of the view that America has a past but no HISTORY, as it is such a young country. But I was wrong as I saw the place where revolution started, where leaders like Benjamin Franklin worked and struggled for independence and brought a revolution.

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Studying in the States has offered me many worthwhile experiences. I have learned a great deal both inside and outside the classroom, and have made numerous life-long friends.

There have been certain negative aspects of life here as a student, though. They are learning experiences too, but, at the same time, even after more than three years here, I find it difficult to digest some practices among some of my fellow-students.  The commemoration of April 20th as a celebration of marijuana is one of those practices.

Yesterday was “4/20,” as Americans call it. In the U.S., the number of the month precedes the number of the day of the month when writing out dates, so the 20th of April this year is not 20.4.2011 as it would be in other parts of the world, but “4/20.”

Pi Day pies (Creative commons photo by Flickr user Dennis Wilkinson)

The Americans have cute and creative ways of commemorating certain dates. For example, they designate the n-th Friday or Monday of a month as a public holiday, thereby guaranteeing a three-day weekend every year.

“3/14” (again, the 14th of March) is marked by students and mathematicians as “Pi Day,” which celebrating the geometrical constant π, as its decimal form begins “3.14…” I once heard an Australian, I believe it was, complain that “Pi Day” should really be the 22nd of July, as pi is often noted as “22/7” as a ratio.

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If you’re planning to apply to graduate school in the next year, you’re probably thinking about taking the GRE – the “Graduate Record Examination,” which is required for admission to many graduate programs.  You’ve probably also heard (possibly with some trepidation), that the GRE is making some changes to its test format and scoring, starting with tests administered in August, 2011.

According a GRE rep interviewed by the New York Times, these changes are meant to measure more practical skills that students actually need to succeed in graduate school.  And it more closely mimics graduate school realities – students now get to use calculators to answer math questions.

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Working on a class assignment

By the end of this semester I will have a total of seven graduate-level classes under my belt.

Although different professors have had different teaching styles, I think I’m finally getting used to what to expect from a graduate school political science or history class.

A lot of class discussion

All but one of my graduate school classes have had less than twenty students. Such a small class size means that participation in class discussions is often a large part of our final grade (about 20-25%). Even if it isn’t, our professors always make clear that they expect us to actively raise points and engage with one another in class.

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Maria Guzenko is from Russia and is currently studying in the U.S. for a degree in translation. On her blog, Maria lists some quirks she has noticed about American society:

Only in the U.S., she says:

* can a person who has no house still have a car

* people go out to eat sandwiches and subs, which in other country you wrap up to eat for lunch at work

* a “small” ice cream equals European “large”

If it sounds like she is bashing America, don’t worry, she says. A similar post is coming soon about her home country of Russia.

“I want to study in US college but I do not know how,” wrote Mohamed on our Facebook page. “Before starting the process, I was really nervous and most of the things were confusing,” said Farima in her most recent blog post about applying to college.

There are many steps and many things to think about, and this month our bloggers have discussed how they overcame each of the challenges of applying. And they did overcome them. Farima added:

You should not worry about what doesn’t make sense at first. You will learn everything; though one thing to have in mind is to be yourself.

[Read Farima’s full post on applying to college]

First steps

Getting here can feel a long (and confusing) way away

EducationUSA breaks the preparation process into five steps, which makes the whole thing a bit more manageable. The steps start from when you decide to pursue an education in the US and end at preparing to actually depart, and the very first step is researching schools.

[Read our post on first steps and breaking down the process]

There are many tools out there to help you research schools – websites, live webchats, and college fairs to name a few. But the key to effective research is to figure out what you want out of a school or program (oh, and to make sure you fit the requirements of the programs you want).

For Jaime it was easy. She knew she wanted to go to journalism school so she “didn’t have to put too much thought into picking a university. I applied to all of the top journalism programs in the U.S. and then some back up schools.”

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This funny and informative video supposedly comes from a Columbia Business School Orientation in 2008. Topics covered: (1) How to recognize an American; (2) how to greet an American you’ve just met; (3) how to greet an American after having a few beers.

Videos from the rest of the presentation are on the uploader’s YouTube channel (we’ve sleuthed out that his name might be Dan).

I am on my way out! Yes, all year it’s been on my mind that this is my final year at college; that I shall be graduating with a bachelor’s degree in May.

What then?

Ladies and gentlemen, your future leader! (Photo courtesy Elaine Fortuna)

Well, in truth, I have known for a while now which path I wanted to pursue. I have been interested in politics and international affairs for a long time and would like to be a part of that world, whether in terms of policy and decision-making or analysis and commentary. So it wasn’t too hard for me to decide to look for master’s programs in that field. I know politics can be a real pain – both for the politician as well as the citizen – but it’s the one sphere, I feel, where I can achieve a meaningful impact.

As far as research into institutions went, the APSIA website (Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs) was a good place to start. I can’t say I did much beyond that, as that website listed many top institutions. I did also have a look at Ivy League colleges, and – I must confess, even though this is a blog of international students in America – that I looked at options in other countries as well.

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Did you know that the Student Union has sister blogs in other languages?  There is a Spanish version of the Student Union called “Comité de Estudiantes,” and a Russian version called “Альма-матер.”  So, if Spanish or Russian is your native language, now you have twice the great blog posts to check out!

And if you don’t speak Spanish or Russian, you can still read their blog posts if you just run them through Google Translate.  That’s what I do anyway…