I interviewed Yuriko Saitou, a twenty-year old student at Bellarmine University. We met a Starbuck's for the interview, and over a couple of Frappuccinos we talked about the difference between living in the United States and Japan. I asked her about her homeland. Yuriko is from Yokohama, which she describes as a "really cool, fun place." Yuriko and her friends enjoy shopping and hanging out, just like American youth. I asked her why she wanted to go to college in America. She said she always wanted to go to school in the United States, " A girl from my school came here to study and she said it was great fun, I applied and got it, I was real happy." Yuriko is a business major and looks forward to finding a job when she is finish with school, " I want to work to make money to do the fun things I want." When I told her I was doing a presentation on Japan religions and Japanese geisha, she responded with girlish giggles and said that although her family is not very religious, she and her friends like to visits Christian churches to celebrate Christmas:
Me and many friends had dinner together at restaurant to celebrate the Christmas Eve. We had a very good time. I went to the church on Christmas Eve. It's the first time I have ever been there. I saw a lot of people, but many of them are not Christianity, they went there for curiosity just like me. People sing songs and a little dance. It's really different, but I don't think it's the one I have expected. I hope to see how western people do in the church.
I invited her to attend church with me and she responded again with her girlish giggles. She said that she and her friends are more modern and that she is not really interested in the Geisha culture, "My [American] friends are more interested in that." I asked her if she saw Memoirs of a Geisha, and she giggled and said she likes Japanese and American horror movies, like The Ring and The Grudge. We closed the interview with both of us feeling the caffeinated effects of our Frappuccinos. Yuriko seems to seems to me like any other American twenty-year old, and I think she wants it that way.
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For this project, I chose to interview Ms. Marilyn Akindele. She is a graduate student in the Pan-African studies department. She is new to the United States and has only been here for nine months. When I learned this, I was so interested to find out what brought her here, how her experience has been, and what are the most difficult things about being so far from your home culture. I expected her to have the same trials or similar problems with our diversified culture that African Americans have (i.e.: racism, prejudice, isolation, etc.); however, to my surprise, she has had a very honestly positive experience in both America and at UofL, and although she is missing home, plans to make a new one here in America with her family. I think this experience really opened up my eyes to how I view diversity and immigration in this country, and really gave me hope to know that someone of a different culture can have a positive experience here in America.
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