Life in London

 I used to live in London of U.K. from when I was grade 5 in primary school until grade 3 in secondary school.

 When I first heard that I’m going to move to London, I had mixed feeling of excitement and worries. I was excited because I have a chance to live in abroad again and U.K. was the place I had no knowledge about it. I was imaging new friends, new school and new environment, which excited me so much.

 However in other side of me was worried if I would be able to accustom to the new living and be able to communicate in English with the native people. Though I lived in America for 6 years before I had no confidence in speaking English, as there were 4 years of blank in between it. The feeling, which occupied the most, was sadness. I was able to be so friendly with people in the same class at last, as I had a difficulty in different system in school of America and Japan, but then I was told that I’m going to move. I almost dropped a tear when I announced that I’m going to London in front of the class.

 My first image of London was grayish and has many dead trees. Recalling it now I think I had really dark image. So my first surprise in London was that there were normal green trees. It was in summer when I arrived there so the weather was comfortable. Our new house was not ready yet so we stayed at where my father stayed which was one small room in hotel, which was actually for a person but four of us stayed there for about a week. It was very squashed but most of day we went out and explored London so it was enjoyable week.

 About a month later my first day of school came up. I was year 5 when I entered the Woodridge Primary School so everyone was quite close friend with each other as there was only 1 class in each grade. For me everyone seemed so scary at first but as the times go I realized I’m gifted in friends. When I didn’t understand the exercise we had to do in class, people sitting near me explained using easier words and also when I had something to tell them they listened to me without any rush and say to me kindly “you can speak slowly.” It didn’t take me time to get used to the new school and classmates. I commute there for 2 years and graduated when I was year 6.

  I took the entrance test and luckily passed the secondary school called The Mount School, which was girl’s school. This school had the class called ESOL, which was the class for the foreign students. Most of the students belong to this class were Japanese but there were some other people such as Kenyan and Turkish. In the Mount school I became friend with Ania who was Pakistani. She was sitting next to me in the new class and she talked to me so much even though she knew I couldn’t understand English well. She invited me to have a sleep over and also we studied for test teaching to each other. I believe without Ania my school life wouldn’t be this much enjoyable. Then when I was in year 9 a girl called Rumeysa who was Turkish came to our class. We both couldn’t speak well in English but we took time to understand each other. Before she came I used to go home with Japanese friend and spoke Japanese a lot but since then I tried to be with Rumeysa and spoke English a lot.

  I was gifted in friends and I had 5 years of enjoyable life in London.

Introducing myself

 My name is Maharu Komiya. I was born in Osaka, but actually I only lived there for less than a year. When I was about 1years old I moved to New Jersey of America. I lived there for about 6 years and came back to Japan. Then at the age of 10 I moved to London in U.K. At the time of the entrance of high school, I fly back home and went to International Christian University high school as known as ICUHS. And now I attend Sophia University.

  I have a young sister who is 13 years old and she goes to secondary school in Tachikawa. I don’t have a pet but I want to have a dog. I live with my mother, father and my sister in Kichijyouji now. I travel to university by Chuo line which takes me about 20 minutes. 

 I think my character is shy and have a fear of strangers but my friends say I’m conversable, comical and sometimes strictly for the birds.

The club, which I’m planning to join in, is G-splash. It’s a dance club and there are several genres I can choose. However I haven’t decided which one to dance but I’m interested in genre called “house”. I’ve never learnt the real street dance before so this will be my first time, which will be a challenge for me.

  I used to go to dance lessons from the age of 8 to 15 but these lessons were mainly for enjoying dance and not aiming to be a dance expert so the genre was all mixed up. But I learnt how fun it is to dance and I’m ready to start learning few genres more specifically.

  In my high school life I joint in “creative dance club”. This club differs from learning street dance. We had to first choose a theme and choose 3 creators and they had to make a piece. The first piece’s theme I made was “green cuties ~dancing in rainy days~” which was frog. I researched on frog’s movement and their habits by looking at movies on YouTube, visiting zoo and navigate through Internet. Actually I don’t like reptile so it was pain for me to do it. Anyway this piece was received well by the audiences and I learnt the accomplishment of completing apiece after having difficult times making it. Other than the theme of frog, I took many part in other pieces such as speech, mask. Stomp, escaping game, dance party and others. When I was senior in high school, I was chosen as the captain of the dance club. We took part in annual competition and my dance club took 2^nd place by the theme of “totem pole”. This award was the biggest one I have ever received.

  My hobby is listening to music. Mostly I listen to the music, which I used for dance, like ciara, maroon5, Rihanna and Britney Spears. I like to listen to both Japanese and English songs. My favorite Japanese artist changes so often but these days mainly I like Kis-my-ft2 and E-girls. I also like watching TV. My favorite TV program is “sekainohatemade itte Q” and “shabekuri007”.

  In this first year of Sophia University, I’d like to get use to the system of University and enjoy my school life as much as I can. And when I was High school student I hated to speak English in front of everyone and also hated to have discussions in English, so I want to be able to overcome these bad patches. Also I want to be a book reader this year.