I was invited by Digital Library Lab and have been studying in the University of Waikato, which is located at Hamilton city in New Zealand since December in 2010. There are 2 semesters (A semester and B semester) every year in this university. The maximum number of courses you can take for each semester is 4. One of my friends is taking 4 courses right now and she could not get enough sleep because her assignments just drive her extremely busy every day. I had been taking a course called IELTS for 1 month since this February. I had been studying about the strategiesfor getting score at IELTS examination. IELTS class had a 2 weeks cycle and was started at 9 am and finished at 12 am from Monday to Friday. There was a 15 minutes break from 10:30 to 10:45 between. My writing skill was improved significantly. I have been doing the most popular subject for computer science department, Design and Analysis of Algorithm since March. There are 3 lectures and 2 tutorials each week. During the lecture, like normal lecture in Japanese university the teacher uses white board and marker pen to explain the topic to students. For tutorial mainly tutor will explain about the assignment and answer questions from student. Every student is full of passion about what they are learning in the class. They ask questions frequently during the lecture. Sometimes the lecture says jokes in the middle of the class. It is a fun course that I really enjoy. This course has a code registered as comp317. Comp stands for computer science paper, 317 apparently shows this is a third year level subject. Here in New Zealand, the bigger the number of this code is, the more difficult it is. This means you have to spend more time after your lecture and tutorial in order to do well.

I am living in a girl's only boarding center called Rimbrook. There are 4 managers and 6 students including me. In this center, every resident has to follow the rules. Everyone has her own job for keeping the whole house clean. I was helping in washing dishes last month and told to clean bathroom and toilet this month.
Before A semester started, I had a lot of fantastic experience in New Zealand. The first New Zealand Christmas and New Year were 2 examples of them. I also went to a Maori village, black beach, sail, watch a rugby match, Hamilton Garden for a concert and a play as culture experience in New Zealand.
The first 5 months just passed so fast. I am more adapted to my life in New Zealand. I could not make many friends because I have been busy with my course study for the past. I am planning to study more in Digital Library Lab and make as many friends as I can for the next 6 months.