Augst 8 My home country's farm

My home country, Japan, is famous for rice. The rice harvested in Japan is very delicious. Especially, my home prefecture's rice crop is the highest in Japan and the rice harvested in my prefecture is very delicious. My hometown is located in county side, and there are many rice fields. None of my relatives are farmer, but there are many rice fields near my house. And my high school is also surrounded by rice field.

Japanese eat rice as it is. I think it is the best way to eat rice. So I was surprised when I came to SMC and saw the rice which is cooked with salt and pepper. It was little shocking for me. I don’t dislike that rice, but I have some hesitation to eat.

However, we also cook rice. We cook fried rice, rice porridge, rice ball, etc. All of them are delicious and I like them. But we usually use rice in salad :(

 

I want to eat rice ball firstly when I go back to Japan!!

August 8 Dairy & Park

Today we visit the Gingue Brothers Dairy. Actually, I was surprised at the smell when we got off the van. And I also surprised at the many many flies.

The staff of the farm told us about the unique system. The farm use machines everywhere. By using machines, they milk cows and they know the amount of milks. Furthermore, they decide which cow is "useful". Althogh I've already known and understood, it was shocking for me that we have to kill "useless" cows because it's business. Moreover, I didn't know that they milk cows with machines. This is a simple fact, but I assumed the farm to milk cows by their hands.

There were much more cows than I expected. And there were many kinds of cows, such as white ones, black ones, blown ones and mixed color ones. In fact, I was not able to think that the farm was sanitary place. However, thanks to the farms like this farm, we can always drink milks and eat dairy product. I like milks and dairy products, so I’m glad to be able to visit there.

And then, we visited the park in Fairfax. In the park, we ate strawberry shortcake made by Christine. It was so delicious!! Thank you Christine :)

Some people play ultimate, but I went to the river. I have no ability to swim, so I didn’t go so far. I didn’t to be wet, but many people threw water to me! The water was little cold... I’m proud of myself because I wore swimsuit.

I had a very very good time!


P.S. I can't upload my photos... Why!?

August 6 5things learned from Gingue Brothers Dairy

From the facebook page, I learned 5 interesting things.

1.The color of butter (June 20)
"The yellow color of butter occurs naturally because of the beta-carotene found in the grass cows eat."
The color of the products reflect food which cows ate. If cows have eat the grass which don't contain the beta-carotene, would we make white-colored butter?


2.The products which milk ie used (May 31)
The picture show how milk is used in easy way to understand. There are many products which were made from milk. For example, cheese, yogurt, cream and butter.

3.The importance of the milk (June 3)
This vintage poster show us the importance of the milk. It implies that the milk is useful to mae good teeth and strong bones, and the milk not only gives us vitality, but also makes us endurance.Already we know, milk is good for our health.


4.The golden birthday lady (May 2)
Even though I know and understand it is "business", it is painful for that we have to kill "useless" cows... I want her not to be killed, but she has to provide the milks constantly in order not to be killed. However, it may become difficult for her because she will be old...

 

4.The difference between cows (June 15)
Actually, I didn't know the difference between these cows. And I was not able to identify which cows gives us the milk. The cows lives in Gingue Brothers Dairy farm has black and white color; they are dairy cattle.


I write this blog with concentrating with only cows. So this Thursday, when we visit the farm, I'll care about not only cows and milks but also crops!

Aug 1 at the shelter

In August 1st, we visited the shelter in downtown. I had never visited such buildings, so I was little excited and worried because I didn’t know the real lives in these buildings.

Actually, it is impolite to say, but I thought that the shelter was not well-equipped. I imagined that the lives in the shelter were much worse――for example, people only sleep and rest. However, there were many beds in the bedrooms. And the bedrooms were not so crowded. And the kitchen is well-equipped.

I learned many things from the story of shelter’s staff. For instance, how to manage the shelter without rent from the homeless people, the background of these people, and some success story of the people who lived in the shelter. Especially, how the staff became to work in COTS was very interesting. Her life is connected with lot of things, especially her father’s life.

However, the shelter has a lived-in feel. I was not able to take any pictures in the shelter because I think it is not good that taking pictures in the place where we feel a lived-in feel.

July 31 Questions about COTS

It is first time for me to visit a instituion like the shelter. Not only I am interested in but also I get nervous to go there.

I read COTS' official site, and I want to ask three questions to the COTS' staffs.

1.What is your energy to support homeless people?
    Do they support homeless people with their joy? Or do they support them with a sense of duty?

2.What is your final goal?
    I guess that because there are so many homeless people in America. And even if you have finished to help all of them, there would be many many homeless people in the world. Do you want to help all those people?

3.What do you expect us, ordinaly people, to support COTS & homeless people?
Many people have some interests or enthusiasm to COTS. We have many ways to support homeless people, for example, donation. But we have no idea about other ways. So please tell us how can support them specifically. And what attitude should we have?

These are my questions. I want to learn more about these topics!

July 25 Lake Champlain Chocolates Factory


Today, we went to the Lake Champlain Chocolates Factory. I like sweets. And I like making some sweets. (For example, cakes, cookies and maffins.) Moreover, I like chocolates! So I'm very happy to be able to visit the chocolate factory :)

Soon after our arrival, the staff told us about the history of this factory and the processes of making chocolates. The episode of confess between Jim Lampman and his staff about the expensive chocolates was funny.

Already I said, I like chocolates. So when I make some sweets, I always use chocolates. Therefore I'm very interested in the property of chocolates.
The most interesting thing was how different property each chocolates have. We were able to try some chocolate tablets ― white ones, brown ones and black ones. I was surprised at differences between these chocolate's tastes and feelings in my mouth. It is very instructive experience.

 

After the we had a time to look around the shop. I bought and ate an chocolate ice cream. The flavor was "belgian chocolate" and t was so delicious! Some of my friends also bought ice creams and tried different flavors. Other flavor ice creams were delicious, too.

I heard that there is a shop of Lake Champlain Chocolates Factory in the down town. I didn't buy some chocolates today, so I'll visit the shop and buy the delicious chocolates!

July 23 Self-introduction

Hello, my name is Chihiro Seino. I'm so excited to take the Discover VT classes with you.

I came from Japan 3 weeks ago.This is first time for me to visit America. I'm an International Christian Univercity's student. My hometown is Niigata, one of prefectures of Japan, but ICU is located in Tokyo, the capital city. Niigata is so far from Tokyo. So now I live in ICU's dormitory apart from my family.

In ICU, I belong to photo club. When I was a high school student, also I was a member of photo club. I like taking pictures.And I'm interested in Japanese history, cultures and traditions.  So I'm going to major in Japanese study.

Actually I'm so shy. But I want to talk with you, and I want to improve my English! Nice to meet you :)