I’m finally blogging! I have been dying to blog for the longest time now, but the Japanese Proficiency Test seemed to dominate my life for the longest time. Thank goodness that’s over with. Now I can think about other things (at least until I have to take level 3 next year!)

I think things are really going well in my global issues class. I think everything is finally coming together now. I think the most exciting thing is that whenever I watch the news are read the news on the internet, I can see things that we have been talking about in class. I feel that because of this course we can all understand what is going on in the world a lot better (me included!) For example, just the other day I read that over 1000 people are dying every month in the Congo because of the war that is going on there. It’s shocking to think that we are all living such safe lives here in Japan, but there are so many places in the world that are suffering so much.

We talked about Chanukah in class yesterday, and we were talking about the meaning of Chanukah. I think of the meanings of Chanukah is that we have to remember all the people who are suffering in the world. Just like the Jewish people suffered under the Greeks during the time of the Maccabbees, we have to remember all of the people who are suffering now. Until the whole world has peace, we have to keep lighting candles . . .

Anyway, there are only four and a half days until the winter holiday! Yahoo! I’m going to Canada. I hope it’s not too cold!