Hi everyone.
I hope you are having a warm winter in Sendai.
In these days, the cold persists in Boston. The media reported that Boston's winter this year is breaking records. I got the mail warning pipe-freezing several times because of the cold weather. It is the first time for me to experience a warning of "potential life-threatening wind chills" and "blizzard". However, many buildings are connected with each other through the basement tunnel in MIT. Therefore there is no critical difficulty to get to my lab, fortunately, even though I have to put up with the bitter cold on my commute.
At the beginning of February, spring semester began. It corresponds to the second semester from October to March in Japan, since in the USA, academic year begins in September. As many of new classes began, I had an opportunity to participate in a lecture with my colleague from my lab group. It was an impressive experience because the atmosphere in the lecture was quite different from what I had felt at Tohoku University. It looks like the students do not hesitate to ask questions at all whenever they think they have to, and also the professor encourages to do that. The professor and students are rather close. In Japan, it is still preferred to discuss the matter after the class rather than during the class even though the professor encourages to ask questions anytime in the class. This open atmosphere must be what makes MIT one of the most advanced universities in the world.
I think that the final exams and the presentations for graduation take place in February. Good luck to every student who has the exams or presentation, and enjoy the spring break!