#experiment abroad

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Animation School Graduation

(Note-The animation school graduation happened back on July 14).

On our last day of animation school we finished up and presented our animations in a special animation room. At the end, the professors held a graduation ceremony, giving everyone a certificate of completion and a bag of Yoani goodies. We presented the professor with a Japanese autograph board everyone signed and other gifts. It's sad to realize this portion of the program is over but yet we are so excited for Hokkaido!

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We made the local news! Our visit to the elementary school mochi making was filmed by a local news crew.

Mochi, or traditional sweet rice cakes, are traditionally made by one person pounding special mochi rice with a hammer while a second person turns it. the rice is very hot so experienced volunteers did that for us.

[16eilars1-blog]

Community Service

By Brenda Santos

July 15, 2016

The experience of being able to help others from other communities just filled my heart. We went to a church called Iglesia de San Francisco and helped out by cleaning a storage room. The room had broken objects, old chairs, and many pieces of wood with nails. We carried out everything from the room and cleaned it. We stained the wooden chairs and tables, we painted the outside walls, and also painted the inside of the storage room. After it all dried we threw away what we didn’t need and trash. We put the tables, and paintings back inside. On the last day we didn’t have to bring lunch because the church was going to provide us lunch. They made the best burgers ever. I had a blast helping out and painting. Helping out is something I enjoy doing.  Hopefully I can comeback in the future to help again.

[16eiljln1-blog]

Karaoke and Art at the Studio Ghibli

We celebrated the completion of our manga lessons with karaoke and good food. Everyone took turns singing for two hours in Japanese and English! 

We spent one afternoon after animation class visiting the famous Studio Ghibli exhibit in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo. After learning from animation masters it was so cool to see all the artwork and behind-the-scenes work that went into our favorite Ghibli movies!