0122 Lisbon to Amsterdam

Lisbon day 3 so it means the last day of my two weeks travel. I only have 40 hours to get the plane to go back to Japan. It's unimaginable. Last I talked with the girls staying at the same room as me till 1 am. They have been staying at the same place for two weeks to film the movie in Lisbon. The crew kept intense discussion till late at night and they look a bit tired, but at the same time, look really exciting, and in fact she said it was really exciting. They are full of ambition and wanna work as a film maker or a graphic designer. Throughout this two weeks travel in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, I saw many artists mainly on the streets and watched many arts in the museums and went to the cathedrals that are considered as a sort of art and man-made creative things. If I had another life, I would like to do creative things to earn money instead of practical things which I will start from next April. But I think I can do art things as a hobby and also dance is a kind of art for sure. Becoming a businessman and getting older and probably having family means that I need to take more responsibilities to things other than me, however, don’t forget to be ambitious. These things should be compatible. 

Said goodbye to my new friends from England and went to the tower of Belem and the blah blah monastery. And had lunch with Australian friend, who is the best guy I’ve met in dormitory and told me a lot of things about the culture of Europe. He is half Chinese and half Australian so has some identity of Asia, even though he has never lived in asian nations. But as he said, however accelerated the expansion of globalization is going to be, there is a still big difference between Asia and Europe as I thought it cannot be helped if you consider the very long history of human beings. Still remember the time I met him for the first time, then I could not understand what he said to me. Among native speakers, his English is very fast and contains many slangs which Ive never learned at school. But my ears was getting used to his fast English and today I managed to understand him like 70-80% and did enough conversation I think. After going back to Japan, I should keep studying English not to be overwhelmed by other Japanese students who are gonna study till July. Went to the coast and talked with him for a while, looking at the western Pacific Ocean. The main topic was about the memories of my exchange. If I dare to pick up three best moments I had in Leiden, firstly the dormitory life especially Wednesdays’ dinner. I was extremely fortunate to join this dinner and meet many international friends in the dormitory. Actually I’m not sure tho, according to my friends, I was the guy who started the weekly dinner, so that, the first organizer. I was really appreciated by many people joined this dinner but I think I was just lucky to meet really nice people in the very early time of my exchange. One thing I can praise me was that I had open-minded and didn’t hesitate to invite people who I didn’t know well before coming to the dinner. From my experiences, I did know introducing my friends to the other friends of mine consequently the best way to make many friends and enlarge my friendships. This law worked very well and fortunately could be the first organizer of the weekly dinner and be said thank you by many people. And the board game bar should be ranked in second. I had really good time with international students. Wanna say thanks to those who asked me to join. Thirdly, of course, Einstein, whose style was in the middle of bar and club and we there every Wednesdays agter the dinner time. There were 15 Wednesdays during my stay in leiden, I’m honor that I skipped only twice out of 15. So it means I went there 13 times even though sometimes I was messed up with assignments. Dancing and talking with people with beers are definitely gonna be unforgettable memories. Thanks to the Einstein, I had many chances to show my dancing skill and the way to express the music, and which leaded to impress my existence to other Internationals. And also gym session was awesome. I’m sure my dorm was the best one in leiden and I’m sure more than half of my memories are from the dorm mates. Shamefully, I didn’t study so much in front of the table as I expected before starting the exchange, I am really honor of my self rather than regretting the decisions I made. 5 months might be a bit short to get completely used to life in abroad and didn’t have any specific achievements I can boast of, but it was enough to make many international friends and improve English for a bit and to know how hard it was to communicate with people with different backgrounds. Sometimes I was super depressed, I would say mostly despair to know how weak and helpless I was. But I’m sure every single moments I had there made me grown up in some directions, even though it is very difficult to say how much and how like I was able to grow up specifically. And the experience of studying and getting a few credits in Leiden university Law school, in which many intelligent international students with ambition are seriously studying, gave me a little confidence. Supposed that working with them in the future in the situation of global business, I strongly realized that I should make efforts continuously and expand my view of thinking, communicating with many people with different background and touch other way of thinking if Im gonna work in a global society. Not noticing that I kept writing unrelated things with this travels, I felt really sad when I said goodbye to my best friends. Flying back to Amsterdam from Lisbon and stayed at my friends place.