Takahiro "Taka" Maeda

2005-06 Inbound from Japan

Date of Birth: December 14, 1988

Hometown: Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan

Sponsor: Kanazawa Rotary Club, District 2610, Japan

Host: High Springs Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida USA
School: Santa Fe High School

Bio

Taka's Bio

I like to play basketball, and my hobby is skiing. My father works at a family owned business, and my mother is a school clerk. My home town is famous for gold leaf. Sightseeing is a prosperous business. Now I’m living in High Springs, Florida. That city is very small, but the nature is so wonderful.

September 24 Journal

I arrived at the Gainesville airport on July 29th. There were about 15 people waiting to greet me, and I was really nervous. So I could say only ‘Thank you or nice to meet you’. They warmly welcomed me, and I was so tired then. x_;

I’ll introduce my host family. There are three in my family. Cameron, Deborah, and Jackie. Cameron is an engineer, and he goes to his office early in the morning. He is really kind to me. Deborah is a housewife. She is good at the computer and cooking. Jackie goes to the university. She was an exchange student 2004-2005. And she is so nice! There are six cats, four hermit crabs, one dog, and one snake. How many animals there are! Fortunately, I could meet a wonderful host family, and I am really happy now.

I go to the Santa Fe high school. I commute from here to the school with my friends. The first day, I was so nervous and I didn’t know anything. Because, American school system is completely different from Japan. In Japan, we don’t go to the next class. Except P.E or special class. Teachers come to our class. So I was confused at first. The subjects I study are English 1, English 3, Math, Biology, American History, and Basketball. You know we have a lot of homework and tests, and I hate tests. Anyway I like basketball class so much, and I also like to play basketball after school. I sometimes go to the High Springs basketball court, where they play ‘Street ball’. That’s so much fun. We gather at the court at 7:00 or 8:00 pm. And we always play 5 on 5. Some people can dunk!!! Incredible ^-^;!!. Because I had never seen anyone dunk directly in Japan. I also belong to the church basketball team with my friends. I’ll try out for the school basketball team in September or October.

I have been to a variety of places, the river, the beach, the mall …….and so on . Have you ever shot a gun (?_? ) I had a chance to shoot a gun!!!! That’s too dangerous for me, but it’s soooooo much fun and crazy. When I shot a gun, I couldn’t hear anything, and there was a strong recoil!

I also went to the orientation weekend. It was ‘freaky awesome’. We shared a great time there. I was shocked that everyone spoke English so well. I need to study hard, I guess. I am looking forward to meeting all of you guys next event!!!

See == ya (+_0)

Taka's photos can be seen at: http://photobucket.com/albums/b278/TMaeda/

November 27 Journal

What’s up my dear friends!!!

I wish all exchange students are having new wonderful experiences..

Almost four months have passed. How quickly the time passes… One night, I had a dream in which they were talking to me in English!! I was surprised at myself. Because I had never had a dream in English before I came to America. I think America is changing something in me. I expect to change some more.

Anyway, I am used to this American life. About three months ago, I was so afraid of talking. Because I didn’t want to talk with my wrong accent English, but I understood that this idea is big mistake…you know.

So, let me talk about these two months. First of all, I’ll tell you about my school. My friends are so crazy. Especially basketball class. They like to teach me bad words. It is … funny. One day I ate lunch with my friend in the cafeteria. Somebody fought behind us. I was excited to see that. Yes, in my school sometimes fights occur. It’s really crazy. My grades are… really bad except for basketball class. I have to study much more.

Homecoming: I had never heard of homecoming before my friends taught me what it is. I went to see the homecoming football game at my school. We lost the game, but that was really exciting. Before starting the game, some Mustang ran around the court. That’s really cool. Incidentally I also went to the Gator homecoming parade.

We had an excellent meeting on October 22, at DeLeon Springs State Park. I didn’t arrive in time. So I missed breakfast, but I had a great time there. We did canoe, swimming, and eat lunch. After canoeing, I don’t know why almost students got their T-shirts wet (they splashed each other with their paddle).  Our ties of friendship are getting strong whenever we meet, I guess.

By the way, I went to the Gator game, but it wasn’t football game. I went to see the first basketball game. I was really really excited about the game. I saw a lot of great slam dunks. Almost all of people who cheered the Gators wore the blue or orange T-shirts. When the other team had a free throw or bad play , we did boo. It’s just like a NBA game. I couldn’t sleep well that night. And I met Ondrej and Laura there.

I went to the Busch Gardens in Tampa with my host family and host sister’s boyfriend. It is an adventure park. There are a lot of ride attractions there. And there are also have a small zoo. It was so much fun. I also went to the Down Town Disney World before going to Disney World with Rotary. I arrived there about 8:00 pm. Down Town Disney is very hot place. There are a lot of night clubs. I was so excited !!!

I’m really looking forward to the Disney World Trip!!

Disney World Trip is coming soon…..

January 15 Journal & Pictures

What’s up yo?!

Did you have a good time during the break? Of course I did have a great time!!!! I didn’t anticipate that I had such a wonderful time. Oh first of all. I’m gonna talk about Disney World Trip with Rotary and Jaguars’ game and whatever…Before talking about my holidays.

I really enjoyed Disney World Trip. That was my second time to go Disney World! But I didn’t know anything at all about Disney World!! ’Cause I only went to Down Town Disney the first time. So I could say that was my first time! I realized Disney World is huge!!!! I can’t compare with Disney Land in Tokyo. We went to MGM STUDIO, MAGIC KINGDOM, EPCOT, and ANIMAL KINGDOM. Magic Kingdom is similar to Tokyo Disney Land. I especially like Epcot. I could touch many different cultures. I appreciated the other countries in Disney! That sounds weird but it’s the truth.

Next weekend, after Disney World Trip, I was in the Jaguars stadium with a Rotarian and his daughter. It was first time for me to see the Jaguars’ game. So you know I was so excited. And I met some exchange students there.

I moved to second host family. But nothing is around the house…like there is a small park, gas station, and fire station. And I couldn’t hang out with my friends. My friends whom I sometime hang out with live in High Springs. But I lived in Lacrosse which is 20 minutes from High Springs. So my counselor found a new host family. In fact, I stayed 10 days at the second host family.

I stayed in Jacksonville during the break. And I met with CIH students (Christmas International House) who came to Florida from the other states. They came to Florida for sightseeing during winter vacation. They are college students. And I was surprised at mosts student were from Asia. I met a lot of Japanese people. And my host brother was an assistant of CIH students. So I could join this program! We went to a lot of various places around Jacksonville.

On Christmas Eve two CIH students came to my host family and they spent a night. On Christmas we got some Christmas presents!!! I got two plastic models of cars. I found these models in host house before Christmas. And I was like ‘Cool!!’ Then these began my Christmas presents. I got a jersey of Duke which is the best college basketball team in America. My first host family gave me five bottles of hot sauce. ’Cause I love hot stuff a lot!! After Christmas I went to Disney World on a three day trip with my host family! CIH also went to Disney World at the same days. I could meet with CIH students there.

I was on the truck and held Japanese flag at the Gator Bowl parade. After that, we transferred to the party house. Kyoko and I planned to wear ‘Kimono’ at the party. She prepared it for me! So we put it on before starting the party. We showed it to all of people. ‘Kimono’ is clothes for summer. But the weather was warm enough to wear that.

I had a lot of events last year!! I think last year is the best year I have ever had! I swear that I feel like really comfortable whenever I am with exchange students!! This exchange program is the best chance for me to change of my mind.

See you y’all at the Seacamp.

April 21 Journal

How ya'll doing??

I haven’t written a journal for little while. But I’m doing well. Since last two months and a couple weeks, I’ve been a bunch of neat places. I’ve been quite busy. I had so many things to do. I don’t even know which stories I should start talking about first.

Ok.... I’ll start talking about Key West. We had an awesome time at Key West. We met students from Michigan and we became friends immediately. We had lots of fun times with them, snorkeling, dancing, whatever....anyway that’s so incredible!! I just say thank to this Rotary Club for giving us special time.

After some days, I went to Gator basketball game again! I gotta tell you, I ‘m a Gator big fan!! And I got lots of Gator stuff already hehehe. Before going Gator game, I put the Gator jersey on and I cheered. They played so powerful and fast. I’m really happy that Gators are national champions!!!! I assumed that. Congratulations!

And the next week on Sunday I went to Daytona 500 which is a NASCAR race. Stacy Gay, a Rotarian took me. There were three hundred thousand people there. That’s amazing!! and so LOUD!!! Sometime they crashed each other. That’s so exciting!!

In March I went to see Harlem Globetrotters which is funny basketball team! They don’t participate the NBA, ABA, or college, whatever. We just call street basketball! They are just cool and funny! All the players have played in college. I mean they’re pretty gooooood ! What’s so funny?? They sometimes took little kids to the court, and let them play. The guy who is the opponent pull the other player’s pants down. Finally they played football on basketball court. Funny isn’t it??

I moved to last host family. My host dad is also president of my Rotary Club. My host dad, his brother, his son, and me went to Gator National which is drag race!! That’s the loudest place I’ve ever been. More than NASCAR. I had to put on the ear plugs. I tried to watch the races without earplugs, but every time after the races, my eardrum was shaking. So, most of time I wore the earplugs.

Before spring break, Larrisa came to High Springs to meet the girl who’s gonna go to Brazil next year as an exchange student. She spent about 3 days. In the mean time, there was the prom at my school. So we went to the prom. I danced with Larissa. That was a great experience. I complained about we don’t have a prom in Japan!!! Yeah....I wish we’ll have it some day. Anyway we had so much fun!

In the Spring break!!!!!!!!! Yeah I was waiting for a long time....I went to court to watch the judgment. But I didn’t understand a lot, you know. Next day I went to Atlanta with Jim and Jean who were my 4th host family. I met their daughter’s family, and spent nights. We went to Mall of Georgia which is three stories mall. So huge!!!! Next night, was excellent day... We went to see the NBA basketball game!!!!! That was what I wanted to do during my stay in U.S.A. That was my dream. And it came true!! I watched Atlanta Hawks against Washington Wizards. That’s so exciting, you know and our seats were a suite! It’s like a hotel room when I came in the room. The dinner and some drinks were prepared. That was so coooool! That was big competitive game, but Hawks beat Wizards. I can’t explain how much I was surprised and enjoyed. Next day, we went to CNN broadcast, and we are in the tour to see CNN. Then we went to Georgia Aquarium. That’s kinda big!! There are aquarium on the roof! That’s neat!! Spring break was really short for me...I had lots of things to do. That tells me that the time goes fast. If I have nothing to do, I feel like the time goes slow, you know...

I had a chance to ride in a private airplane. My neighbor has his own airplane. He took me to the sky!! We flew around Gainesville and High Springs! And he let me drive! I turned the plane a few times! That’s kind a hard to get control. Every time when I ride on airplane, I just feel how big the earth is! Next day I went to WCJB broadcast in Gainesville! I watched cast in front of me in live broadcast. The guy who is a sports director invited me there, just for me!!!

Last weekend I went to Jose’s beach party!! Yes, beach!! Awesome! Amélie, Carole, Dana, Gulten, Nard, Viola, Zsolt, Jose, and me were there. There is a beach about 5 minutes from Jose’s house on foot. So let’s go to the BEACH! We tried a skin board, and a boogie board. Those were first time for me. And those are really fun!! But sometimes I hurt myself by big waves. When I got waves, I just yelled and it was fun!!!! The next early morning we went to see the sun rise. Needless to say, that was beautiful. In the morning, we had a new American tradition experience. Guess what?? Yes, it’ s Easter. We painted boiled eggs cutely. We also had lots of candies. Jose and his host parents hid some plastic eggs with money, and we tried to find them. And then, we went to the beach again. I put on sun cream every time, even though we definitely got tan.

That’s all that I did for 3 months, but actually I did some new experiences more than I wrote. I wrote some particular experiences, I’ve never done such a lot of stuff for this short period!! One day there was Rotary steak dinner, and I could talk to some Rotarian that I haven’t talked to yet. They’re like “Oh you’re an exchange student from Japan. I want to take you some neat places . Just tell me your schedule.” I was just surprised. They just try to give me some new experiences in sunshine state Florida!! What nice people they are! I just feel like I’m really glad to be able to be a ROTARY exchange student!! I want to say thank The High Springs Rotary Club. I don’t want to think we’re gonna leave this incredible country pretty soon. But we gotta go.........

See ya’ll, until final meeting!

Bye

Taka