in my japan class today sensei was talking with the class about the japanese education system and how they bring up their children, and she was saying how people are often close to the friends that they graduated from school together with… apparently one friend of hers is close to a vice-president position at sony, and he was saying how this is a great time for him since he can do most of his work at home or in the bar with friends, because all he really needs to do is make a phonecall to his friends he graduated with and since they’re all high-level executives now its easy for them to get things done for each other.
she also told us how she got in contact again recently with a friend of hers from high school (they had lost contact over the years, but got back together through mutual friends and acquaintances) and mentioned how she wants to start an exchange student program between umbc and a school in japan… her friend said “ok, who do you want to talk to about this? the mayor?” since apparently now her friend is in some position where they’re friends with a bunch of different important people around their town. sensei was really surprised, hehehe… ^_^
i told her after class how i talked with the head of the study abroad department at umbc about studying abroad in japan, and how i found out umbc doesn’t have an exchange program (basically if umbc students want to study in japan they have to go through a special program offered through towson university), and if she does get it up and running (she said it’ll take a little while, but that’s ok because i wouldn’t be looking to go for another year or two), she says she’ll definitely let me know. ^_^