This Blog

In this blog, an international student from Japan used to write about what she felt lovely in Ann Arbor (A2), Michigan. Although she graduated in 2007 and went back to Japan, she still loves A2 and continues to write her recent situation, comparing to her life in A2.

↓This is a bilingual blog
日本語版 (Japanese ver.)

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About Me

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I graduated from The University of Michigan (umich) in 2007, and now work as a TV reporter in Japan. I went to the U.S. in Jan. 2005 to study communication - it was the first time for me to go abroad.
I got an A.A. degree in speech communication in California, and B.A. degree in psychology at umich (+ music minor).

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Working on an Assignment...

I have an observation study assignment in which I look into a psychological difference between each gender through unobtrusive observation of more than 100 males and females enacting a certain behavior. I am looking for a possible behavior which I can unobtrusively observe, but every idea coming up to my mind doesn't seem to work well.

The first one I thought was "bathroom study," in which I observe if females are more likely to go to bathroom with their friends than males (something called "ture-shon" in Japanese: Ture = together, shon = pee). But I don't want to observe more than 100 people going for a pee in front of a bathroom for a long time (and it won't be unobtrusive but just strange).

The second idea was seeing if females tend to wear more clothes than males - but I cannot exactly know which person wears more than others because some people wear fat instead of clothes (and I have no idea what psychological difference this behavior represents).

The third one was lunch choice. On the basement of Michigan Union, Subway and Wendy's stand next to each other, so I observe which one males and females tend to choose and how long they need to make their decision. But... what's the difference between Subway and Wendy's!? Both of them are fast food and I can't see which menu each person chooses.

Finally, I found out...



I am thinking about the topic for 3 hours (OMG!)

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Friday, November 9, 2007

I hate fire alarms!!

I was just “evacuated” from UGL knowing that it was unnecessary. You know, I was evacuated at least 3 times in this week: from East Hall, Angel Hall, and then UGL. All because of fire alarms! I understand fire prevention is very important, but as long as I know, none of these buildings have suffered from a fire. I even wonder someone is playing a trick repeatedly.

When I was in Angel Hall, I was finishing up my paper. Today, I was on the 4th floor of UGL and had to use stairways to go down. What do I wanna say? That Sucks!!

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Saturday, November 3, 2007

Shapiro Library

I’m in the computer lab on the 2nd floor of Shapiro Library right now, Saturday at 4am in the morning. This library has been almost my home: I stay here any time day or night.

This lab was practically full when I came here from the Fish Bowl (The Angell Hall computing site) around 12. But people began to leave around 1, and some of the people who were left started to fall asleep
Now, 3 people, including me, are here although the other 2 are in a deep sleep... No matter how many pages I print out, the sound of printer does not wake them up!

While they are sleeping, I will write up this entry about Shapiro Library.


Shapiro Library is not really a stately building compared to Hatcher Graduate Library, which is located next to it, but Shapiro is more like a functional place for me. It's easy to access (in the center of the central campus), and open until 5am during the fall and winter semesters (cf. Library Hours page). The basement, the 1st floor, and the 2nd floor are "Shapiro Undergraduate Library," also called UGL, and the 3rd and the 4th floor are "Shapiro Science Library."

There are many study spaces in Shapiro; for me, the best place to study is the 4th floor since it is fairly quiet and tends to have some empty seats. Other floors are likely to be crowded and noisy, especially the 1st and the 2nd floor... Few days ago, I was in the back of the 1st floor and suffered from a man's snoring Conversely, when I study with my friends, we go to the 2nd floor because we feel freer to talk (in a low voice though).

For group meetings, there are some group study rooms on the 2nd floor, which are probably soundproof. These rooms are on a first-come first-serve basis and I often see people staying in one of the rooms alone. So... (I won't say anything further ).

When you don't bring your laptop and need to work on a computer, the computer lab on the 2nd floor has more than 50 PCs and Macs as well as some scanners and printers. But sometimes, this lab is full or occupied for a meeting. If this is the case, I look for a computer in this order:

3rd floor -> 1st floor -> basement. From my experience, this is the best order considering how many computers there are on each floor, how fast the computers work, and... how far they are from the stairs (this is important! I don't wanna walk!!)

Shapiro library offers a number of lovely services. One of them is what I have mentioned in the last post: free ride home service. From 2am-7am, you can use shared-ride taxi service for free. That's really easy! Just go to the circulation desk at the entrance and you will find a phone and the instructions. Once you call the number on the instructions using the phone provided, a Yellow Cab operator asks you to tell him a phone number (This is not your number! The instruction tells you which number you should tell him.) and the address you are going to.

Then, wait for a yellow car outside (broom-broom~~ )

In the last blog post, I said I used this service; actually, that was the first time for me to use it! I had lived so close by before that I didn't want the driver to bother to drive such a short distance... After using the service, however, I kind of regretted that I had not used it until then!

If you forget to bring your textbook when you need it, go to the circulation desk; they lend many textbooks for a limited period of time (4 hours or so). You can check the availability of the books on Mirlyn (library catalogue).



Finally, let me tell you about Askwith Media Library, which is located on the 2nd floor, to the left of the elevator. You can borrow media such as DVDs there for free! They have a great number of various films; before you go to Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, drop by or use Mirlyn to check if Askwith has what you want!

Link:

- Shapiro Undergraduate Library (UGL)

- Shapiro Science Library
- Shapiro Library floor maps with VISUALs -> Basement-2nd floor / 3rd-4th floor

- Hatcher-Shapiro Library Navigator page (call numbers, study space, etc...)
- Mirlyn (Library catalogue)



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