Marketing + Tourism

At Marketing class, the professor explained about projects and assignments of this semester. One of them is "Experimental Marketing," which is exploring something new place and research its place, consumer, services, and marketing strategy. That sounds interesting!! I've never done such field study when I was undergrad. It might be exciting :)

Web courses

Finite Math class requires me to use online program as well as eBook. I registered it and spent more money for just getting my account... yes, even though I bought a cheaper USED book or eTextbook, I need to pay more money for online course..., which means no discount...OMG.

Anyway, online course is very useful because I can access it anytime by my laptop, eReader, and even my smart phone! I couldn't imagine it when I was a undergrad student (almost a decade ago though). But I worry a little about my Math skill in English. Oh, it's rain like my mind now.

International club

On Sunday, I attended a meeting of International club. There are student from several countries such as Russia, Norway, Arabic countries, and East Asian countries. Some activity plans were shown at the meeting. Each plans looked very fun. And good thing is that it might be a good opportunity to meet and to get along with some international students including American.

Second Day of school

I visited the office of the student adviser who suggested me about my class schedule in the semester. After talking, I changed my schedule a little. I postponed some classes such as International Business and Accounting, and then I chose Marketing and Finite Math, which is a sort of Mathematics and covers a fundamental calculation theories for business related numbers.

Anyway, I don't have so much class on Friday. Because I need to buy calculator for the new class, I went to STAPLE, a shop of office supplies, afternoon. By the way, there is fantastic calculator application as an extension for Google Chrome, the name of which is Calc SS3. Actually, I found this App after buying a new calculator...

I also found another nice Google extensions. TiltShiftMaker is a picture editing app, by which you can make a miniature(midget) picture. Just try it :)

First day of classes

Finally, I started new classes. Because I thought my first class was at 8 am, I went the class room 7:45. When the professor of the class came, she suddenly began to speak Spanish, and then she wrote "Español" on the white board. "What a hell is that!?" I asked a student who was sitting at my next seat what kind of class it was. She said "This is Spanish class," so I showed my schedule. She added "Today is the first day, but it is not Monday, it's Thursday. I left the class immediately. I misunderstood the class on Monday and on Thursday! Fortunately, my class which I need to attend first was later than the time of that Spanish class.

The actual first class was a closed class, which means that maximum number of students had already registered it. But I asked the professor of the class before beginning, and then I was permitted to attend the class with "Permission Code" that is the special number to register any closed course.

Despite I got the permission code, when I tried to register online, I couldn't add it. Because I'd already registered maximum units that was not able to exceed, I couldn't add classes anymore. Hmm, this is the first problem I should consider well...

Textbook - nook - Ceres

I got up late, and then I went to the library on campus to study(?) for a while.

Because the library closed at 4 pm, I left and stopped by the bookstore to by textbook and some stuff. I was actually surprised because the price of the textbooks are really expensive!! It was much higher than those I saw at the University of Arizona. But there is another option which is "eTextbook" provided by "nook," the second famous e-Rreader.
(*1st one is Amazon Kindle Fire now)

In the evening, I picked up my package at FedEx in Modesto, I stopped by BestBuy to see "nook" just in case. That looked very nice, and it is quite lighter than many heavy textbooks. I made a decision.

And I dropped by a cafe in Ceres, a small city next to Modesto. Yes, I come to Starbucks  almost everyday.

The capital city of California

I have not known that Sacramento is the capital city of California until I moved in California. By one and a half hour driving, I arrived Sacramento. There is Capitol, which is the parliament and museum building. I stopped by the building and took a picture, and then I walked around the downtown of Sacramento. It was more sophisticated than I expected. I found a big shopping mall in the center of the downtown named Westfield. Even though there was few people in there, stores were good enough to stop by.

After that, I took a rest at Ambrosia Cafe, a coffee shop, for a while. At the cafe, I drank "Kenya Dark," a special coffee of the day, and ate a cup cake. Actually, after I ate a cup cake of Magnolia in New York City last year, a cup cake is one of my favorite food.

Sacramento is a wonderful city as my English teacher said. Yes, whenever I hear "Sacramento," it reminds me the teacher, who graduated from UCB and taught English when I was a senior in university.


By the way, the big cities in California are listed below.


# City and Population
1 Los Angeles 3,792,621 (I've been)
2 San Diego 1,307,402 (I've been)
3 San Jose 945,942
4 San Francisco 805,235 (I've been)
5 Fresno 494,665
6 Sacramento 466,488 (I've been)
7 Long Beach 462,257 (I've been)
8 Oakland 390,724
9 Bakersfield 347,483
10 Anaheim 336,265 (I've driven through)

Korean Kitchen

I considered whether I really needed the cable TV or not. The answer was simple, "No."

Actually, last week, I forgot how to use the remote controller of my cable TV and how to switch the cable TV to the regular TV, so I decided to cancel the cable TV. In the afternoon, a technician of the cable company came to my home and fixed my TV problem, but I had not still changed my mind. I just canceled the cable TV.

Not only did I cancel it, but also I ordered upgrading the Internet connecting speed. The technician was very kind and nice guy. He said he grew up in Arizona, so we talked about Arizona for a while. Anyway, my home's Internet speed got faster!!

After that, my friend sent me a picture, in which my Arizona friends had dinner of Kalbi cooked by my Korean friend. It made me hungry! I immediately  decided to go to Korean restaurant; however, there is no Korean restaurant in my town. I drove to Modest again because there is a Korean B.B.Q restaurant named Korean Kitchen. I ate Kalbi It was very awesome!

I stopped by Starbucks along "Coffee Road" after dinner.

First Sunday @Starbuck

It was rain again. I spent almost a half day at Starbuck.

As lunch, I went to Samurai Sushi, which was a small Japanese restaurant and the owner of which was Japanese. I tried to order Suki-Donburi, Sukiyaki on the rice bowl, but there was no beef at that time, so I change to Oyako-Don, Chicken and scrumble egg on the rice bowl. The taste was...hmm, it seemed to be expected too much.

As my dinner, I found a Chinese restaurant named China Cafe. It was a huge meal for me even though it cost just $6ish.

Anyway, I find out that this city is smaller than expected. 30 minute is enough to drive around in whole city.

First visit -> Stockton

I got up late on Saturday morning. I decided to go to Stockton where located north from Turlock and which is a bigger city than Modest.

In Stockton, there are two university in center of the city. I went to a shopping mall next to one of the universities. After eating lunch and shopping, I went to another university named University of the Pacific. The university looks christian university because there is a church like building and a high tower on campus. Most of buildings are made of bricks, not wood, so exterior was like European. I studied in the library of the university until evening.

After that, I found a chicken bowl restaurant named Luu's Chicken Bowl. It was not excellent but tastes OK. That chicken bowl reminded me Yoshinoya Beef Bowl... 

Rainy Friday in Modesto

I don't have any schedule until next week. It was rain on Friday.

I went to the next city called Modesto which is a bigger city than my current town. Why I went to this city was there was that Google map showed there was an Asian market!

At first, I went to Starbucks to study and to write this blog. Then I went to "Asian Market;" however, the result is only small shop which has only Indian foods... I moved to another place named "Extra Pita" to eat late lunch.

Finally I arrived a big shopping mall after looked around the city.  Inside the shopping mall, there were many shops such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, EXPRESS, etc... and near the mall, there was BestBuy! I bought a new External HDD. From BestBuy to my home, it took 30 minutes. Hmm, it's not convenient but good enough for my life.

First orientation

There was an orientation for international students of this new semester in university.

I arrived on campus 30 minutes before the schedule and walked around the campus. Not only there are some ponds and small rivers on campus, but also there are so many gees and ducks. I also found so many green poops.

During the orientation, I noticed that there are about ten international students and I was a only Japanese. Also, I'm only one international student who is going to take MBA program.

After the orientation, I got my student ID card. I met an American student who worked at the Student Union. He was really nice guy. He talked to me friendly and show around a library on campus.

I started studying at the library in the afternoon. This is still winter session, so there are few students on campus. The library was extremely quiet. After a couple of hours study, I visited to Help Center to set a secure WiFi connection onto my laptop. I will be able to connect faster and securer network, yeah!

Third day in the small city

In the morning on Wednesday, I bought other stuffs such as a self, a sofa chair, and floor lamp.

In the afternoon, I wend to DMV again in order to change my license plate. After one and a half hours waiting to just do paper work, I need to go to an auto shop to take a smog test (called "Emission Test" in Arizona). I took another hour. And then, I came back DMV to take a car verification and to be done another paper work. I waited another hour. Total hours I took to change my license plate from Arizona's to California's was over four hours... I was exhausted.

I found a big grocery store whose foods are very cheap. It is like Costco. I bought some cup-noodles. When I tried to buy some frozen food, the frozen foods reminded me that there is no microwave in my house! Oh, I need to buy a microwave...

Second day in new town

I went to the Department of Motor Vehcle (DMV) to update my driver's license on Tuesday.
*The name of this offce is called MVD in Arizona.

As I expected, there was a long line to wait at the reception. I was surprised because I need to take a paper test again! Because I have not studied about the driver's license since a half years ago, I was really worried about the test. I felt the traffic rule is a little different from Arizona's but I managed to pass the test. Yeah!! It took about three hours to just update...

After DMV, a cable company staff came to my home to set the cable TV and the Internet. Finally, I could connect to the Internet! I talked with some friends through Skype at night for a long time.

I noticed that my air-bed was broken... Night of this town is really cold.

First day in Turlock

After 11 hours driving, I finally arrived at the new town named Turlock on Monday. I felt very quiet town and felt there are a few people live in there.

First thing I had to do was to open my electricity account because I cannot get a key of new apartment without new account. I found a duck in front of the office of the electricity company. I felt this is kinda rural area. After procedure of opening my new account, I went to my new apartment before appointment time. I brought my passport as ID, new electricity account number, and check book to pay for rental fee. However, there was a problem. The office staff said that they couldn't accept the check. They accept only "Cashier's Check" or "Money Order." I misunderstood "Cashier's Check" and "Personal Check." At that time, I thought I had to wait until next day because it was a national holiday and any banks are not open and I cannot get Cashier's check. But the apartment staff told me that CVS, a pharmacy, serves "Money Order" at their store despite they are just a pharmacy!

After that, I went to Chase bank because only cash is the way to get money order at CVS. Another problem occred. I need over $1,000 but I could withdraw only $500 per day. I anyway withdraw $500 and then left Chase. Suddenly, I found Citi bank along the street. Yes, I have a bank account at Citi, too!! In my Citi bank account, my total amount of money was just $500. It was very lucky. Then I got money order and finally got into the new apartment. If I did not have enough cash, I had had to be a homeless one day!

The new apartment is very old building. It was built in 1973. I've never lived in such old house. Anyway, I went to Walmart and got basic furniture at the first day.