Letters to the Editor#1 A Letter from Ms. Hoang Thi Yen

A Letter from Ms. Hoang Thi Yen

 

I write down my true heart feeling about the first two weeks in Japan.

 

A five-hour flight brought me to Japan at the end of 2020. I stayed up all night during the flight, possibly because of the excitement of this trip. I landed at Narita Airport in the morning, it was an honor for me that a UEC administration staff member greeted me in person at the airport, and then I got on a bus to a hotel near the airport. Must say that I came to Japan during the covid-19 pandemic, so a 14-day quarantine was mandatory. The hotel stay had been arranged by UEC in advance for the MEXT scholars, the arrangement was extremely thoughtful and careful.

And then the two weeks of isolation at the hotel began. The first two days with a strange surprise, I looked out the window to see a beautiful paddy-field of late autumn, Japan is beautiful from the first impression. In the following days, I felt time was going by so slowly, I was really looking forward to meeting my professor, my lab mates, and other teachers on campus. And luckily, I was arranged by UEC to take a basic Japanese class, called “Survival Japanese Class” online. For someone who totally does not know Japanese like me, it takes more time after each lesson than the lesson itself, and that was also a way to pass the time.

  The period of 2-week quarantine with Japanese lessons, with online seminars with Lab, with buying food at the convenience store in the hotel, with enjoying the view through the window and exercising in the room ... then was over. I was transferred to the UEC by hired car arranged by UEC on a beautiful day in November to start a new life of study and research. I have been at UEC, “my second home” for more than one year by now, yet all the imprints from the first day are still intact in my mind. The quarantine was not a bad time-period for me, it was like a relaxing time before starting a busy study and research schedule.

 

Best regards,

 Hoang Thi Yen, PhD student at Professor Sun’s Lab