My name is Samantha Loree. Everyone calls me Sam. Currently I go to a small, private school in Michigan called Alma College. My major is communication and my minor is Japanese. Right now I am a senior, but I am looking at a fifth year at Alma before I graduate.
I originally became interested in Japanese because my aunt and uncle live in Japan. I studied Japanese for my first two years at Alma and realized that I wanted to study Japanese further and be able to speak more fluently. Since my school offered only two years of Japanese, the best way to learn more seemed to be to come to Japan. After looking into many programs, I decided to come to the Japan Center for Michigan Universities.
I have been in Japan since the beginning of September, a little over 3 months, and am planning to stay at least until the end of April, 1997. During my time here I have stayed with a Japanese family. I have to say that my homestay has been one of the best parts of my time here in Japan. My homestay has three children: Aina, Yuuya, and Yuina. My host family has really welcomed me into their home and made me feel like a member of the family. Staying with a family has also helped my Japanese a lot.
My nickname "Sam" provides my host kids with quite a bit of humor. In Japanese my nickname is pronounced "sa-mu." I complain that I am cold a lot. In Japanese cold is "sa-mu-i." So, they quite often laugh about my name and my being cold.
I contributed thoughts on Japanese garden composition and a Zen Buddhist temple in Hikone called Ryotanji to The Shiga Project. I hope you enjoy reading them.
Please relay any comments and suggestions to
Samantha Loree (97Loree@alma.edu).