meet cows

Today, we went to Gingue Brothers Dairy farm!!!! At the moment we arrived at the farm, we smelled wonderful smell...!!!!! I thought like my hometown lol  First of all, a farmer told us about his own farm.  The most surprising part I've heard was that female cow has 2 months vacation after they birth children!! And he told that after vacation, the quality of milk would improve. It contains more proteins, he said. Amazing!!! After that, we looked around milking center.
All cows have ear tags that shows each number and amount of milk.



mooooooooow





After we looked around, we took in van and went to great field!!! We all enjoyed picnic! What a beautiful sunny day it was!! Sweets made by Christine were sooooo delicious!! Thank you so much.  And we discovered the stream... no, big river!!! Everybody totally got wet!!!lol Water was chilly, so it was appropriate to play in!
This trip helped us knowing about Vermont industry and great nature. It would be unforgettable day! Thank you all teachers!!!

farming in my country

In these days, decrease of the population that participate in the agriculture has been an issue in Japan. So self food-sufficiency rate in Japan is pretty low. Because of this problem, Japan has to depends on other countries to import huge amount of crops. However, the only crop that is not imported from foreign country is, "rice". As you know, Japanese main diet is composed of rice, vegetable, raw fish and stuffs like that! So Japan is famous for its amount of the rice harvest. Especially, my hometown is proud of the pretty delicious rice and of course I love them!!!!!

Japanese staple food is rice, so in Japan, you can taste various kind of foods made by rice. For example, rice cake; mushed rice, sushi; rice with a raw fish and things like that! My most favorite one is rice ball. It's pretty simple, so we can enjoy its taste obviously. The way to make it is so easy.

Boil some rice and shape like ball or triangle with your hands. Pretty tasty! If you have a chance, please try it!! :)

                     　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

five things I found in the Face book page of the farm!

I learned several things from this farm's Facebook page. First, I knew that this farm is growing up corns too. It is also used to feed cows in the farm. Also, they mention that an acre of corn removes eight tons of green house gas. It's amazing!!! In addition, I could learn that the four most common purebred cows in Vermont are Holstein, Jersey, Ayshire and Guersey. First two names of cow are also common in Japan, but I've never heard about Ayshire and Guersey before. Forth thing I gained from this page is that there are lots of protein in cheese and these are main component in it. At last, I could see a slogan like following. "Farming is not just a job, it's a WAY OF LIFE." awww, sounds cool. I'm exiting about going farm!!!

My first visiting to COTS shelter

Last Thursday, we visited COTS shelter for homeless people. It was first time for me to go visit homeless shelter, so everything was unbelievable for me because all I saw and heard was beyond my imagine!!! First of all, we access into the shelter and looked around in it. It was my first surprising point since whole the floor was so neat and we all could see the bed enough to sleep well. Next, we go down to underground and looked around the living room. There were television, brief kitchen, refrigerator and many books and videos that they all residents can enjoy. All it was amazing for me. After that, we had opportunity to listen to a woman who works for COTS organization. The most surprising part I heard was the fact that there were several people who is working for somewhere  in the day time. And also she mentioned that some residents in the COTS shelter are hunting their job in the day. After I heard those lecture, I thought that Japan should have more intuitions that accept homeless person and support their independence. Anyway this trip gave me much opportunities to think over about social issues that should be argued by whole world.

about COTS

in the value and dignity of every human life.

that housing is a fundamental human right.
that emergency shelter is not the solution to homelessness

These are COTS's beliefs.

This committee  that provide emergency shelter for homelessness people in Vermont. And COTS advocate for long term solutions to end homelessness.

COTS has founded in 1982 and it has enough place to sleep, take a break and have a relaxing time for homeless people. They welcome the young, old and also their family. Also, it is possible for us to make a financial contribution.

-How did the founder prepare money at first?
-How many residents lives in?
-Who is unacceptable people?

A memory of awesome trip to Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory!!!

Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory Trip today!!!!!!!
The factory locates near downtown and it took only about 15 min from St. Michael's. First, we heard a short lecture about process of chocolate production. It was amazing!! A woman of stuff told some interesting stories. The part I think the most interesting was white chocolate is a chocolate which is the easiest to melt and soft one. And second surprising story was... unfortunately, cacao tree cannot be grown in Vermont...!!! What a sad full fact it is!!! But we learned that South Africa and Central America are appropriate area to grow cacao tree! After the lecture, we could taste wonderful taste of chocolates!!! That sweet taste still remain in my mind...!!! Anyway, we enjoyed awesome chocolates!!! Also, we tried EXPENSIVE but DELICIOUS chocolate ice cream! I enjoyed a scoop of banana chocolate ice cream. I cannot forget that thick and awesome flavor forever!!! If I have a chance again, I wanna visit there again :) I love that<3

ABOUT ME

Today, I'm gonna do self introduction!
First of all, I wanna introduce myself!My name is Satomi Konno. It may be little hard to pronounce, so you can call me Sato.My birth place is Miyagi, east side of Japan. And I grew up in the biggest city in Miyagi. It's little cold town there and we have much snow in winter!! I love my town. I felt here, Vermont is bits similar to my home town so I liked this town so much!! Also, I am a student at ICU, International Christian Univercity. As you know from our college name, it's Christian college. I also love to attend worship on Sunday. And my favorite things are following. Talking to my friends or my sisters and gymnastics. I used to do gymnastics as a player, but now I've quited. I'd like to have an opportunity to do it again x(
Next I introduce my family. I have parents and two sisters; elder and younger. So I'm a middle girl. My family members're all lovin talking!!! So my home is always cheerful and full of laughing!! Especially, we sisters are pretty loud.lol  But love them soooo much and little missing them now.

Anyway, I love Japan, I love ICU and I love my family!
If you have a chance, plz come visit Japan and go around some wonderful place!!!!!!!

Satomi(Sato)