After a decent night’s rest, the students started their first full day with positivity and full of spirit! We began the walk to another part of campus to meet with some cheerful young college women from the Boston area. The students had several lessons about what is an identity. Topics then ranged from the meaning of their names, to the soundtrack of their life, to Holland’s RIASEC personality model used in career searching. It ended with a cute twist of fruits basket, with the students standing and moving about in response to the questions the GPL teacher asked.

On our return trip to the dorm cafeteria for lunch we encountered several wildlife creatures. Squirrels chittered about the ground and trees of the campus, and rabbit families hopped across our paths.

After refilling our bellies, we met up again with our new college friends for some get-to-know-each-other time. The girls rotated about the groups in 8 minute intervals, sharing personal details and giving our students the chance to practice the English they’ve learned throughout the years.

Next was the biggest task of the day – riding the local public transportation to Harvard campus! Our students navigated the trains like the pro Tokyo-ites we know them to be! At this point some of the students began to feel the effects of jet-lag, but everyone still cooperated to get to our destination without problems.

Once at Harvard, we walked about the campus. There were many impressive buildings and many languages could be heard all around us. We met our tour guides in a large conference room, and the students asked many thought provoking questions of the tour guides – who were all students or recent graduates of Harvard University. We then broke off into three groups and had guided tours. They learned about the “Three lies of Harvard”, the legend surrounding the statue in Harvard Yard. Some students even touched its foot, which is rumored to bring good luck.

With jet-lag consuming most of the students, they ate a light dinner and made their way to bed early. They are eagerly looking forward to visiting Dana Hall tomorrow, the school their temporary exchange classmate hailed from.