It was still vivid memory at the time when I had first experienced a very impressive event in the country named as the land of the long white cloud and green hills, New Zealand (NZ). In the light of being placed as the runner-up of the essay competition organized by NZ study of Thailand, my life was in good heart because I was given a chance to take a short course in NZ. When I heard the wheels touching the runway with a screeching sound, from a distressed face, I could have a grin smile back on my face again – feeling happy.
My first observation was looking around that made me feel happy while a person and I were walking together to the parking area. It was very clean and systematic parking area. While we were on the road to my home-stay where I was going to live, I had asked and observed many things from both sides of the road that I had never seen in Thailand before. Everything was set systematically. In the meanwhile, everyone was abiding by the rule of traffic. I thought it was very rare chance of traffic accidence to happen. In addition, even the vehicle which I was on, the driver did not even turn air-conditioner on – besides saving energy, they (New Zealanders) could stay off from causing global warming.
Once getting to the home-stay, I had a good time there because the hosts were very nice to me. They gave me a warm welcome by greeting me in a polite and friendly way at the gate. Then, I was brought into the house and introduced how to utilize all house appliances. For everyday life, they had always invited me to have food together with them and always provided me the food that I could have. In the morning I was supplied with the serial food which I had never tried before. And for dinner they cooked a very good taste food for me, NZ traditional food in particular. Apart from that, either waking up in the morning or coming back from school they always kept asking me about my well-being or how was life going on. These were very fascinating to live in this family.
For everyday life, I had to study five days a week – Monday to Friday – 6 hours per day, 9 A.M to 3 P.M. In the morning, I must get myself ready before 8 o’clock in order to settle with weather; otherwise, I could be feeling colder, together with having breakfast. Interestingly, there were no any buses pass the way between my home-stay to school. So, I had to take a walk for school 4 kilometers a day. At first, I thought how could I walk such a long distance – it would be very tired for me. The first few days, my home-stay mother had dropped me at the corner near the school where I was studying, but after that I helped myself by setting out in the morning and come back in the afternoon by walking. I found that while on the way to school, I had learned many things both from people and from ambiance as aftermath. From people, when I met them they were always giving a big smile and greeting me with a sweet sound “hello! How are you?” – Even if they had not known me before. From surrounding, I walk through the park where I could see serene natural view – very green trees and a lot of beautiful small hills in the park. When I looked at the sky, there were a lot of white long clouds. And I could feel very cold because there was always a freezing wind blowing, coming from the south of NZ where there was a large scale of snow there.
Moreover, the atmosphere of study in class was very hilarious and useful. The lessons prepared by teachers were not too difficult to come across because many of them were conveyed by learning through Games. At the initiative, I could not adapt myself with the new method of learning because, sometimes, I was not widely awake due to freezing weather. Later on, I settled in. I learned how to think. I learned how memorize vocabulary. I learned how speak, write, listen and read English effectively and accurately. As a result, from this class I was certified by advance level of learning English – IELTS (International English language Testing System.
Since three weeks that I had been in NZ, I had learned many new things that influence my life. All those-mentioned has still painted a vivid picture and been a very memorable event in my life that I could some time in the future recall a smile on my face again.
Congratulations!
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