First Experience in USA

Good Afternoon,

I have decided to tell my experience from the beginning.

When I was 11 years old, my father put me in an English course, outside school, in order to help me because of the tremendous hard time I was facing. I could not understand much from that language and could not see the real importance of doing such thing. As time passed by, I mean more than just a couple of months, and as I saw that I could use what I was learning in my school classes, English sort of became part of my life. It demanded more from me than any other subject or major. By the end of 8 grade, I could see real signs of improvements. The following years, high school, I took some English tests and people and friends started to recognized me as person who knew the language. That feeling was amazing. I started enjoying that and decided to study to be really in contact with American Culture. However, I also liked to write and to read, so I combined the desire for English to the study of my mother language, Portuguese. After graduation, in 2007, I decided to take a step forward in my life and look for some English course in United States. The most frightening thing was to be by myself, which I had not done yet, also, to be far away from my family and boyfriend, for a considerable period of time. Indeed, I started looking for places to study and with my family support and the orientation of someone from my English course, I applied in an English Course. The city chosen was San Diego, California. It was an outstanding city, huge in every aspect. As the time to leave my country was coming, I really felt insecure and I almost gave up. Despite all the fear and regret, I travelled for the first time by myself. I had to start practing at the airport, which I taught would be the hardest thing; changing bags, talking to people, taking a cab. I did not imagine myself doing that, but I did. When I arrived at the hotel, San Diego's downtown, I felt like an animal in a traffic. It was so busy and crowed. Stores in everywhere. People in everywhere in addition to the fact that I was not that confident with my English fluency. It was going to take a while for me to remember all I had learned. Because one thing is to learn another language in your country, and another big different is to put in practice the knowledge in the real country which it belongs. My first week was terrible.I taught I was not prepared to leave home. After a while, and after talking to my parents and boyfriend, I started getting used to that place. I met some Brazilians, which helped me to adjust to the new reality. By the end of the month, I started looking for a college. I decided that if I could stay for that period, I could stay longer; another college was really going to change my curriculum and life. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time. My course was going to end and along with the money spent and the money I was going to pay for a college, would be out of the planned. I decided to return to Brazil, and start looking for a college that really could fit into my budget...

I will continue later...

Tamara Freitas