ESSAY
American Cake form a Housewife who studied abroad
Essays from Akiko Hirano who studied in the U.S. at age 45.
Reproduced and translated with additions from the 2000 Sojusha Publishers' publication (sold out).
Ⅰ hHousewife's dream
1.The dream of exchange to the U.S.
2.Invitation to Illinois
3.The illusory exchange
4.An 8 million yen investment in me!
5.The struggle with English begins
6.Inside a multi-cultural class
7.Japanese food in an underground kitchen
8.My composition appears in a text book
9.If only I had read more books when I was younger
10.The death of a Chinese exchange student
11.American style stress relief
12.Finally, a real university student
13.Independent students in the states
14.Driving debut
15.Amazing silver power
16.Visiting New York City
17.Crossing North American Continent by car
Secretary was not really true, it was more like a gopher but he was a nice friendly professor who would often ask me to lunch and when I told him I couldn't type he retorted that it was fine "I will type, you can arrange the books and the appointments!"
Compared to other professors he was very kind to his secretaries and dispensed with formalities of hierarchical relationships. And perhaps for that reason my days were a lot of fun and our families got together often.
After 6 months of teaching he came back to Japan and asked me if I would like to go to Illinois? For someone like me who wanted to study somewhere other than Japan it was the best thing I had ever heard. And not only that he asked me if I would like to live with him and commute from there!?
I told my parents what the professor had said and my father who is usually very strict said "if he is the one asking then it’s fine". However my mother was against it and only gave in on the condition that the professor's son came to stay with my parents. In a way it was a cultural exchange program between our families and my parents were somewhat relieved. All I had to do was wait for the day to come.
The road to Illinois was long - literally.. The professor's mother was living in California and was looking after his car. He was to pick up his car and drive me across the mid-west (and the country) all the way to Illinois.
First we passed through Los Angeles and then on through the mountain ranges which turned out to be a major journey - I was amazed at the grand scale of America. Driving eastwards I exclaimed "No wonder we lost the war" when I saw the Grand Canyon - although I was born after the war it was one of the first things I thought when I saw the magnificence of it all.
When we arrived in our destination in the state of Illinois we were welcomed by the professor's family. After settling in I spent my days studying English at ELS (English Language School) and practicing my typing in the evenings at typing school. You name it, it was all new to me and time flew during those first few months.