This was a big week for me. I was busy because it was the end of my first semester at Osaka University...Actually the nickname of Osaka University is Handai (kind of like how University of California, Berkeley is "Cal") so I'm going to call the school Handai from now on here on LJ...

I had to turn in a semester-end report to Department of Human Sciences...but most of my week was dedicated to memorizing my speech for the Rotary Club. I really cared about doing a good job on it. I've had shorter speeches in the past, but this one was for 20 minutes. I talked about Rotary service projects in San Francisco and my first (obviously very good) impressions of Rotarians as a high school student. I also talked about the suicide problem in Japan compared with that in the US, because that is what I'm studying at Handai. I had a podium and I could have read off the paper but I really don't like doing that. It's really important to me to be a prepared speaker if at all possible so of course I memorized the whole thing. I just sat at home and forced myself to memorize the four pages. (^_^)v I didn't have music or TV or anything on to distract me. There were times when I fell asleep while practicing...haha...It was boring, but in the end it felt really good to know my own speech well.

( Read more about my Valentine's Day )