Fall Quarter Activities
In the second half of Fall Quarter the days grew noticeably shorter, but HTC students remained quite active. The Shoreline Soccer Team made it to the first round of playoff games, but got eliminated, so the two HTC players – Hironori Igarashi and Ryo Takigawa – were able to return to their regular class schedule and catch up with the work they had missed. Edmonds students performed some community service by dancing to “Soran Bushi” at a Japanese culture event at the Edmonds City Library in mid-November.
Thanksgiving
The last weekend in November was a 4-day holiday for Thanksgiving. Most students spent that Thursday at home with their host families, enjoying the Thanksgiving feast of turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, etc. The next day, recently known as “black Friday”, is the day when savvy shoppers go to the shopping malls early in the morning, or in the middle of the night, to take advantage of special sales at the start of the Christmas shopping season. (The stores hope that the shopping rush that day will put their balance sheets “in the black”, so it is called “black Friday”.) Also that day there was a holiday parade in downtown Seattle with a lot of local high school and college bands playing Christmas music, and Christmas characters, like reindeer, snowmen, penguins, and Santa Claus marching through the streets. And that Sunday the Seattle Marathon was held. Six HTC students joined me in running the half-marathon – 13.1 km – as practice for the Honolulu Marathon two weeks later.
Christmas is coming
By early December, the skies were already getting dark, and freezing-cold, as students headed home from school around 5:00 PM, but Christmas decorations began appearing on neighborhood houses, making the dark streets more cheerful and bright. At school the ESL classes had Christmas parties, and the students learned some Christmas songs in English, and tried some holiday crafts, such as making gingerbread houses. Both schools also had some holiday-related field trips. The Edmonds students went to watch Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol performed live at the ACT Theatre in Seattle. The superb performance brought tears to the eyes of even the teachers who watch the play every year.
The Shoreline students went to watch an African American Christmas Gospel show, with singing and dancing in the traditional style of the African American church. Some students also received tickets to the Nutcracker performance of Pacific Northwest Ballet – Seattle’s top ballet group.
Honolulu Marathon
Just after final exams, 57 HTC students and I flew to Hawaii to run the Honolulu Marathon. During our stay in Honolulu, aside from running/walking 42 km, we hiked to the top of the Diamond Head volcano, swam with tropical fish at Hanauma Bay, and enjoyed some beautiful sunsets from Waikiki. Some students visited Oahu Island’s North Shore to see the pristine beaches and watch the surfers maneuver the huge waves. Some of us were given a tour of the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel by a former Seattle HTC student – Hiroaki Takahashi – who is now working there as a one-year intern. It was a pleasure seeing him again. We were really lucky with the weather this year – it was warm and sunny every day of our stay – a nice break from the cold of Seattle.
Our students ran rather well in the marathon. Hironori Igarashi achieved a new record for HTC students, finishing in 3 hours 30 minutes. Two students finished in the 4-hour range, several in the 5-hour range, and all 57 HTC runners finished in less than 10 hours. Kotaro Sakamoto was joined in Honolulu by his mother and brother from Japan, and the three finished the race together in impressive 5:08:32! For me personally, the good weather helped me improve my time compared to the past two years (when it rained heavily), so I finished at 3:16:35, though it was not a personal best. Maybe next year? We had no serious injuries, but many students suffered from swollen joints and sore muscles for the next few days.
Winter Internships
Two HTC students - Misato Shirai and Saki Kuroda - remained in Honolulu to work a 5-week internship at the beautiful Hilton Hawaiian Village. Two other students – Rei Shimosato and Megumi Mizuno – are heading to Las Vegas for 2 weeks to work at IACE travel over the winter vacation. And another four HTC students – Shunji Yoshida, Norio Takagi, Marika Mizutani, and Ai Nakahara – have gone to Whistler Ski Resort in Canada for a 2-week internship at Delta Hotel.
Seattle’s weather in the first half of December had been very cold and dry, but on returning to Seattle after the Honolulu Marathon, the weather had become more typical of winter in Seattle – mild and rainy. Students who are not traveling are enjoying Christmas parties with their host families and church groups, ski/snowboard trips to the local mountains, etc. With no students on campus the HTC office has been very quiet these days, but I suppose “no news is good news”. Christmas Eve and Christmas day are supposed to be sunny and cold. If New Year’s Eve is also dry, perhaps I will meet some students at Seattle Center for the Count-Down Fireworks.
I wish all of you readers a Merry Christmas and a peaceful, happy New Year.
Neal Colodner
December 22, 2009
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