My trip to New Zealand

Hi ladies and gentlemen, my name is Ji won Lee -You can just call me Francisca- and I’m a freshman of Keimyung Adams College. I came to this blog to tell you some of my travelling stories that I have. Like I told you before, I’ve chosen my topic as ‘travelling’ because I love travelling and I’ve been to various countries with my family and by myself since I was young. So, today I will write about my stories that I experienced in New Zealand.

I’ve been to New Zealand with my family first. It was when I was 11, and I’ve been to Wellington, Christchurch, Rotorua, Queens Town and Auckland. Actually, I can’t remember the exact places I’ve been to because I was too young, but I have two places that moved me. First, it was the place surrounded by mountains and with beautiful scene of flowing water in front of me. It was the place -The Mount Cook, Wellington located in South Island- where the movie ‘Lord of the Rings’ has taken place. Under the mount. Cook, there was a lake called ‘Pukaki’ lake. Pukaki lake was colored emerald and it glittered brightly. No wonder why the movie directors chose New Zealand as the place to take scenes.

The second place was the Agrodome in Rotorua. Agrodome is the most famous sheep farm. I love animals, so I was really interested in sheep, cows, and alpacas. The reason I remember this place is because I’ve actually went up to the stage while the ‘Sheep Show’ that’s held by that farm. I had the chance to shave the sheep’s fur and milk the cow! I still can’t forget how big the cow’s eyes and tongue were and the sheep’s fur was so soft and white. Actually, it also smelled little. It was such a precious experience for me. So, today I’ve talked about my first experience in New Zealand. Next time, I will tell you more about my story of studying abroad.

Travel to Europe

When I was 15, I traveled Europe with my family. It was the France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and so on. I can not actually remember all the things what I saw but I still have the feeling of that atmosphere. 

France and Italy felt similar to me. There were many catholic churches in various colours, and I mean some churches were red bricked and some others were really enormous wearing gray brick clothing. What I felt about the catholic churches was that they were pretty much different from the Korean catholic churches and churches. Europe’s catholic churches were more enormous from the outside to inside. In the inside, there was a big organ that covered the whole part of the one wall. And its size was more than enormous that about millions of people can go in. It can be a little exaggerated, but as I went to really small catholic church that only about 300 people were going, I felt that the Europe’s catholic church was way more great.

I also saw (Musee du Louvre) Louvre museum and went in. It took about 2 hours of waiting time only to get in. I was actually pretty dissatisfied at first, but it was worth it when I was looking at Mona Lisa that was hanging in front of me. In Italy, I went to Colosseum and Leaning Tower of Pisa. Both were amazing but I think the Colosseum was more terrific. Size of the Colosseum was like a Olympic ground or the zoo.

The most impressive place was Switzerland and Austria. I was always interested in Switzerland as I always only wore Swatch, which is a watch made in Switzerland. And yet, Swiss was so beautiful like I thought of. It was covered by white snow, and I rode train to the top of the mountain which was freezing cold, but its scenery was more than beautiful. It was so white that I even thought that this country was so clean.

It was the first time that I knew that Austria is a different country from Australia. It was how much I was not interested in Austria. However, on arriving the center market of Austria, I forgot what I was going to say. It was too beautiful as the lights were glowing above me and the little accessories and dolls were laying beside looking at me saying ‘hi’. Maybe I felt this because the market was full of little accessories that were for the decoration of Christmas tree. So if I have one more chance, I will choose Austria in Europe. 

Trip to USA-Michigan

 When I was a middle school student, I had the chance to go to USA for free. I was chosen as one of the students to go to USA under the name of ‘Chungcheongnamdo government supporting middle school students to study without any limitation’. So, I flew to Michigan and stayed at Michigan State of University for 3 weeks with about 30 other students who were enthusiastic about studying English.

At first, I was really excited as I have never been to USA before. Most people have the access to things related to America such as USA drama, movies, and various medias. I was one of the most people and I was always so wondering how it would feel like when I directly watch American drama such as ‘Glee’ or ‘Spongebob’ in USA. And I felt that it is really interesting to do that. Not only watching TV, but I felt that many students in American love to do outdoor activities. Outdoor activities include from basketball, soccer, bike riding to rock climbing, fox riding, and also horse riding! I loved that Americans loved these activities as I was not really satisfied with strict, inside-growing plant like education, which is always studying, never doing artistic things such as P.E class and art class that helps students to think creatively. So, I have tried some things that I haven’t even tried in New Zealand. They were horse riding, swimming in the sea and shopping for an entire day.  Being one of the girls, I also loved shopping. So, shopping for an entire day -even though I’m not buying everything I see- was so fun and exciting.

 Not only the various activities awed me but also the foods were fantastic. First, the pizza was different from Korean pizza. It was about two or three times bigger than what I had been used to eat for about 14 years.  Also, what I found interesting is that American people eat a lot of bread. Actually, I didn’t have much idea of ‘Americans eating bread’, but I loved that fact as I like eating bread more than rice unlike usual Korean. I’m going to finish my 3 week staying in America story now, but I will continue next time.

My story in New Zealand2

 Today I’m going to talk about the stories experienced in New Zealand. This time, schools and homestay life will be introduced. I have first went to the homestaying house as soon as I arrived at the airport of New Zealand., It was completely different from structures of Korean apartments. It was two floored, painted red, small house which made me feel like I’m the Alice in Wonderland. On entering the gate, my homestay parents greeted me with big smile on their face which made me feel so comfortable even though it was my first visit to stranger’s house. The food was also completely different. While the Korean food contains rice and other vegetables/ meat that’s usually the side dishes, New Zealand’s table was consisting bread, jam, and cereal for breakfast. Barbecue and salads for lunch and dinner! I loved New Zealand food more than Korean food as I loved bread. Almost every I played sports such as baseball or basketball with my homestay boy-friends and went shopping with my friends which I enjoyed the most.

At school, actually I could not make a lot of friends as I was being too independent. I pretended that I was independent for just one reason. It was because I did not wanted other foreign students talk to me as I was not good at English, which I was just a coward. However, I felt that I needed friends and had to have some fun in school. So, I made up my mind and tried something new to lure students’ sights. It happened in ‘Freaky Day’, which was the day we had to wear something freaky. That day, I wore my underwear over my pants. It surprised many teachers and students and my fashion was loved by all. I felt good that I made people laugh. From that point, I could make many friends all of a sudden, and It made my school life easier and more fun. 

 

 

Interesting Job related to my blog theme!

Today, I’m going to talk about an interesting job related to my blogs’ theme and they are, ‘travelling guide’ and ‘talk show host’. As my blogs’ theme is about travelling, I’ve thought a lot about what to write on this page. Interesting Job related to travelling? First, I thought of travelling guide as it was one of the things that was written on my ‘want to do when I grow up’ list. And then I thought of talk show host as it is my current dream job. These two have the similarity, which is that to reach the goal, I have to know a lot about the culture, society and even the way to talk smart.
As I love talking and meeting people, my ‘want to do when I grow up’ list had a lot of jobs that needed communication skills. And one of them was travelling guide. Travelling a lot of countries and experiencing various things through meeting new culture and people, I thought that not only being a translator for Korean travelers, but also being a middle person between Korean culture and other country’s culture would be such a cool, great thing to do.
But, my current dream is to be a talk show host that’s just like ‘Oprah Winfrey’. This job may not seem like it is related to my blog’s theme, but I have learned what my strength is through travelling. Through travelling, meeting people is something you get to do even you want to avoid it. And I found out that I love talking with people and by those experiences, I had chances to strengthen my merits by being class CEO or school council president. Like this, I learned to find my dream through travelling many countries.

Teenage problems(in New Zealand): Teenage Pregnancy.

As I stayed in Auckland, New Zealand alone to study English, (I was going to write about this story as my another story- Other than my NZ travelling story with my family), I actually experienced watching teenage problems that I just heard from my friends,never having seen: teenage pregnancy problems.
It happened just around me. My homestay moms’ third younger sister ‘Shay’, who was only one year older than me, she went to same school with me and always helped me hang out with new friends when I first arrived New Zealand. Shay was kind enough to help me with my school stuffs, always. But, I was really shocked when I found out that she did drugs with her friends-which I thought it was smoking at first-, and this wasn’t all. I knew that she really loved her boyfriend, so they were always together. Even though I could understand some things like hugging and kissing, I was more than ‘shocked’ when she told me she is pregnant and she wants me to keep it secret. This secret couldn’t go long and she eventually made an unintended new family.
Like this, not only drug problems but also more serious, teenage pregnancy problems happen a lot in Western countries. Like I said, as I have lived in New Zealand about an year, I could find out the truth of these rumors. There are many problems that the teenage pregnancy brings out. Abortion, infant health problems, teenage suicides, lack of knowledge of bearing a child, divorce problems and so on. Also, the one study said that ‘a child born to teen moms is sicker, poorer, and less educated than those born to parents in 20’s.’ Also, the girls who have babies inside their body won’t be physically ready because bodies may not be mature enough or large enough to give birth without consequences. And it is said that only 1/3 finish high school, which means they lack enough education.
It is a big problem in New Zealand as this country ranks pretty high. On one study, it is showing that New Zealand ranked the fourth highest on the ‘teenage fertility rate’.It followed United States, England and Scotland. However, its’ teenage abortion rate ranked second, just after United States! This is how much severe the New Zealands’ pregnancy problem is.
So, I’ve talked about New Zealands’ teenage pregnancy problem until now, and I wanted to show you the problems they have even though I experienced many good things.

Blog Entry

My topic is about the things I experienced while travelling various countries. I have chosen ‘Travelling’ as my topic because I’ve been to many different countries with my family which made me feel a lot of things and made me grow up. Since I was young, I’ve been to not only developed countries, but also developing countries. From these experiences, I could find out what I am good at, who I am and who I want to be. Furthermore, I could find out the differences among countries and how our country should change to develop more like other big powerful countries. Thus because I have felt and learned a lot of things, I want to tell people about my precious life experiences that I gained from travelling.

In my blog, I want to talk about the countries that I’ve went to. All countries are different and they all show their own distinctive characteristics. Such as countries that are under-developed, developed, countries that are very clean, countries that have high percentage in happiness section even they aren’t rich countries, and so on.  Like this, I want to compare the countries that I’ve been in various aspects. The standard of comparing and dividing countries will also vary a lot. So, I thinks my blog will be very fun and satisfying as I’m telling my one and only story.

Thank you!