この記事は次の言語でも読めます：日本語
Hi, this is Mizuki!
It has been 6 months since Jeff and I started a long-distance marriage life between Japan and US…again.
People in the US often ask me “Don’t you feel lonely?”
Well, we had been through 4 years long-distance relationship before, so I am used to it. haha
In this blog, we have shared some episodes about our relationship.
By doing so, we received messages from readers who are in the same situations such as people with disabilities, people in long-distance relationship, and people in international relationship.
This time, we would like to write our stories from the beginning one by one.
On April 7, 2007.
The next month I graduated from a junior college in Japan, the 20 years old me flew to Wisconsin in the US with other 6 Japanese students.
Study abroad has been my dream since 17 years old.
I studied hard and saved money to catch this dream.
I was just very excited to go to a new country, U.S.A.
On the arrival day, I moved in a dorm which was for female students.
Some Japanese students lived in the same dorm and helped us a lot.
It was a totally new environment from my previous life in Japan.
I had new findings every day and it didn’t take time to love the new life.
Couple of days later, an older Japanese student asked,
“Do you guys want to come to a party for international students?”
We, new Japanese students, had not attended a regular class and didn’t have a chance to meet other students yet. So, our answer was “YES!”
On April 12, 2007
The party was held in a classroom located in the basement of library on campus.
When we got there, already many international students from different countries were eating and chatting.
At that time, we couldn’t speak much English and didn’t have the courage to talk to someone, so we kept talking in Japanese.
Then, one smiling guy came to us and said,
“Hi, I’m Jeff. What’s your name? Where are you from?”
That was our first meeting.
He could not speak Japanese but he could speak English then.
So I replied to him in English too.
“My name is Mizuki…I am from Japan.”
Jeff also asked the same question to other new Japanese students.
So I simply felt
(Oh, he must want to have more friends from other countries. )
I moved to a different area to try to talk to other people, but after a while I noticed that Jeff came toward to me.
(He probably came to this group because there were more people here.)
I was thinking that way, and went to get more food in the different corner.
Then he followed me, and said
“Where are you going? Do you want to eat this? “
I felt strange a little, but smiled at him and left from him quickly. But he came to me again.
(There he is again.)
I noticed him, but kept talking to other people.
Then, accidentally I spilled my juice to my pants.
As soon as Jeff saw it, he grabbed a piece of paper napkin and gave it to me quickly.
(Oh…he is nice.)
When I was thinking this guy may be a nice person,
he asked me and other new Japanese students that,
“Are you single?”
We didn’t really get the meaning and got confused.
Then Jeff continued,
“It means..you don’t have boyfriend?”
“(Oh, he is asking if I have a boyfriend.) No, I don’t have a boyfriend!”
After we had a casual fun conversation, I needed to leave for another appointment.
“I’m leaving now.”
I said to Jeff. Then he said,
“Do you have phone here? Or e-mail address?”
He did not ask only me, but also other new Japanese students too.
By seeing his attitude, I thought,
(Oh, he really want to have more international student friends.)
I gave my email address and left the party.
I didn’t have any special feeling to him, but didn’t feel uncomfortable either.
The first impression to him was “super friendly guy”.
Our long love story has started like this.
To be continued…
You can read our previous articles related to relationship from here.