20061225
Yes, today is Christmas. And yesterday was Christmas Eve. We had “KORE” following the Tomic/Croatian tradition. “K” was as you can see from the picture above beans, bread, garlic and some soup. Taste? Garlic flavored beans soup with bread.
This morning we, (Antonela, Daniela and me), woke up at 9am, a cup of coffee or mint tea for Antonela, and open up the presents which Santa Claus brought last night while we were asleep.
It is 1pm on December 25th, both Danijela and Antonela were still on their pajamas. Danijela has been reading a book “Though Choices by Carly Fiorina, former Hewlet Packard CEO, and Antonela is reading a book, “What to expect when you are expecting. Danijela strongly recommend the book if you are interested in leadership and corporate American. She told me that she would be one them in near future, and fly us around the world by her own jet. Antonela rushed into bath room a few times throwing up every thing. Sorry, Antonela. On my big flat TV screen, there is a NBA game between LA Lakers and Miami Heat. Antonela is eating Tortilla.

20061222

Hmmmm. It is 2:17pm on December 22, 2006. Yes this is my last day of work for the year 2006. I am so exhausted and worn out, to be very honest, but there are still way too many e-mails to read and respond. Indeed gazillions of e-mails are killing me, and it is very hard to live away from this computer based letter system. Development of new communication system enabled us to go beyond a lot of burdens and surely this system has made us so easy to reach the other side of the world, my appreciation level cannot be described. However, we will need to find a way to get out of this convenient system, or at least I need to find my own way. I need to go home, and have some rest, but e-mails are popping up from all over the world…

昨日の夜にマイアミに住むアントネラのお姉さん、ダニエラが我が家にやってきました。
クリスマスとお正月の休暇をフォートスミスで一緒に過ごす予定です。
ダニエラは１８５CMの長身で、以前はプロのバレーボール選手をしていたこともあります。
今はフロリダ国際大学のバレーボール部の監督さん。
今年は総監督となって2年目でしたが、”監督賞”にも恵まれ素晴らしいシーズンを過ごしたようです。

アメリカの大学スポーツは日本の大学スポーツとはまったく違い、
ほぼプロに近いものがあります。
アーカンソー大学のフットボールの監督さんのお給料は1億5千万円ですし、
（ダニエラのお給料は秘密です★）
監督ともなると大学から車が支給され、家も支給され、
至れり尽くせりの待遇で、
驚くものがあります。

おっと仕事に戻らねば・・・。

アントネラの妊娠が14週目に突入。
先週はあかちゃんの心臓の動きを聞いたし、
そのついでにすでにアントネラをキックする音も聞け、
かなりエキサイテイングになってきました。
少しずつアントネラの体調も良くなってきているようで、
もどしたりする回数も減ってきていますが、
それでも昨日の夜は夜中の2時にトイレに・・・。
妊娠するっていうのはかなり大変なんだなと、
毎日、感じています。
次の検診は1月11日（木）。
ウルトラサウンド（超音波診断？日本語でなんていうんだ・・？）もして
あかちゃんの様子を確認します。
その次の日曜日からはTAKEOの東南アジア出張が・・・。
よっぽどこの前の東京からのフライトがきつかったのか、
22時間もかかる・・・という現実に、
「一緒に来る？」と聞く前に
「いってらっしゃい」と言われました。
「BABY服を買ってきてね・・・」とのこと。
男の子か女の子かまだ分からないのに、
「黄色なら大丈夫」だって・・・。
アントネラは待ちきれない様子。
いまだに男の子でも女の子とで
良い名前の候補が見つからずに困っていますが、
まあそのうち妙案が思いつくことを願いつつ・・・。
アントネラはYAHOOで調べた日本人の男の子のTOP１００リストの
どれも気に入らなかった様子。
女の子はいくつか気に入ったのがあったんだそうだけど、
男の子が生まれたらかなり大変なことになりそうです。

20061203 Seoul
This is simply too cold. The chilly wind penetrates to my skins and bones, and I felt as if I were walking through the ice. I knew Seoul is much colder than Ulsan or Osaka, but I should have better prepared.

Nandai-mon market was not as big and large as I expected. Then markets in KL are much bigger and they had more varieties of restaurants, foods, and shops. I just bought world-famous Korean seaweed, and some cell phone straps.

I am having a cup of coffee at Coffee Bean, but it is not the same one we have in the US. I found very young group next to me and asked as a few questions. They must be high school students or even younger. Their English is not that good, but they were kind enough to show me the universities I am planning to visit on my map. This must be a popular part of Seoul for younger people. There are not older people at all. These people are wearing black, gray, and white clothes. As long as my eyes can reach, there are not bright colors in the coffee shop at all. Interestingly I am the only one who is having a cup of coffee alone here. Everybody has nice cell phones with camera, or camera with nice cell phone, but they are taking pictures each other or showing pictures they took each other.

Seoul is the busiest city in this trip. My impression on Tokyo was changed after staying one night here. Tokyo was the biggest and the most powerful city before; however, Seoul has more power and energy everywhere. The stands and strolls in the streets have louder venders in this cold, and people talk much louder compared to the ones in Tokyo. I just wonder where the westerners are in Seoul. In last a few hours, there were no so many westerners but only a few.

As my last diary shows, Koreans are extremely polite and kind. Both the old and the young are very kind and I have not notice any rude attitude at all.
Lotte Hotel is in the middle of Seoul. The location is the best of the best, and the chancellor and our first lady will be happy to stay at the hotel.
I need to check out tomorrow and need to visit Enhwa Womens university at 9:30am, another appointment is at 2pm. My flight leaves from the Incheon airport at 7pm. It will take at least 90 minutes to the airport, and I will need to be at the airport at least one hour before the departure, which concludes I have to head for the airport at 4:30pm at the latest.
It is already 4:18pm. I will need to go to Lotte Department store and buy Kimuchi for my mother. I have not find anything nice for Antonela yet, though.

20061202 Ulsan Airport 2:42pm
This visit was the greatest so far in my trip to Asia. Officials at UOU were so generous and kind and I sometimes felt their hospitality was even too much for me. Ulsan is the third biggest city in Korea with 30 million people. My impression about people here are very polite. People at department stores, at small shops, even at the parking lot, they are extremely polite. Driving in Ulsan was crazy, and it surprised me that I did not see any accidents in such a driving manner. Meals were excellent. I was expecting even spicier food, or my friends made my dishes.
UOU officials showed the greatest interests in sending students to UAFS. Not only regular exchange programs, but they are willing to send 15+ students for summer ESL programs. That was a great sign for us.
My flight to Seoul is leaving in a few minutes. It seems I am the only Japanese here now. I have no plans tomorrow. Let see what I can do in Seoul.
Through this visit to UOU, I learned a new skill to communicate with people, which is I never say NO to any proposals they make. Actually I did not say NO at all to any proposals and questions from UOU officials, and they seemed to be very happy meeting with me.
Hotel Lotte Ulsan was great. Dr, Jin told me that when Dr. Beran is visiting UOU, he will stay at the even better hotel, Hotel Hyundai. I just saw the hotel from outside but he will like it. That hotel was one of the greatest hotel I have ever seen.
Antonela has been sick. I called her last night as well as this morning, but she did not sound good at all. She told me that she would not have any problems but I know she does not feel good. I hope my mother will not keep her busy in Osaka.

香港のニューズウイークに記事が掲載されました！
10月に記者さんがフォートスミスに来られたときのインタビューと
うちの大学のプランなどが掲載されました。
で、ここからがすごいのですが、
以前に書いた「香港出張」は
その記事を読んだ香港の商工会議所の方が
「是非、友好関係を結びたい」とのことで
飛行機代からホテル代まで全てを負担していただけるとのことで、
それで出張が決まったんです。
なんとも太っ腹！

アントネラが妊娠していることがわかりました。
妊娠12週間目で、経過も順調！
今日は心臓の鼓動を聞きにドクターに診察へ。
元気な心臓だそうです。
まだ男の子か女の子かは分かりませんが
今から二人でわくわくしています。
予定日は6月18日。

初めての子供で
さらにアメリカのお医者さん。
地元でも有名な産婦人科医で安心はしていますが、
このブログではおもしろい報告も出来ると思います。
お楽しみに！！！

1月の中旬から末まで
香港と中国3都市、ベトナムのハノイにシンガポールを訪問することに決まりました。
香港では香港大学での講義と商工会議所等での打ち合わせがあり、
北京では2大学を訪問することになっています。
また詳細が決まればここで報告します。
ベトナムは初めてなので、
何かアドバイスがあれば教えてください。

フォートスミスに帰ってきてほぼ5日。
アントネラと二人でいまだに時差ぼけで苦しんでいます。
時差ぼけを解消する良い方法を知っている方はいらっしゃいませんか？？

It is 5:14am. My condition was not good last night and I went to bed early. Since the investiture on November 14th, I do not feel good. The busy schedule must make me very tired. This morning I am supposed to go to the Martin Luther King Jr. Park in Fort Smith. (Every Southern City has the park named MLK Park.) Rotary Club, which I just joined, will plant some trees as the charity event. Indeed sometime in December I will be standing out side of Walgreen with the red bell for Salvation Army, and this is also for the Rotary Club.

長期の出張から帰ってきました。
さすがに昨日は疲れて倒れていましたが、
今日からバリバリ仕事再開です。
がんばります。
出張中の日記を掲載したいとも思っています。
お楽しみに！