New York the City of Dreams

When I first arrived at JFK international airport and saw the Manhattan skyline in the far distance, I thought I was dreaming it was so unreal. I had wanted to go to New York for so long that it didn’t feel real at first that I was actually there. I still remember the feeling I had when I got out of the cab in Times Square, it was magical, the lights were bright, the number of people was unbelievable compared to Finland and the smell… it was something I had never smelled before, it was the smell of New York. It was possibly a mix of all the different types of food served in the restaurants that were placed right next to each other and coffee, coffee that nearly everyone who passed by was carrying. 

This picture was taken from Central Park

On the first day I still didn’t completely believe that I was in New York, so I went to the window in our little apartment and saw all the screens of Times Square and it made it all a little bit more real. The screens were big, some even giant at least compared to the one little screen we have in the center of Turku.

This one is from Times Square at night

As I mentioned our apartment was located close to Times Square above a small deli where we got our breakfast every morning. The deli had a wide range of different kinds of fresh baked goods, croissants, paninis, fresh fruit and yoghurt cups. Anything you could imagine, and it tasted extremely good. I don’t know if it was just the fact that I was in New York that made it taste so good, but there’s nothing better than taking your morning latte and panini to Times Square and enjoying your breakfast while looking at all the people who are walking by.
I went shopping nearly every day and ran out of my money quite quickly because there are so many shops that Finland doesn’t have so you just can’t miss the opportunity to shop at all the wonderful stores. Even though I loved the shops out there, it was very strange shopping there because everything was very different. For example the dressing rooms, in Finland you just walk right in to the first free fitting room you find, in New York the shop assistants came and opened the room for you because they were all locked. You could also reserve a fitting room and the employees would take the things you were trying on into the room so you wouldn’t have to carry so much. Overall I think that America just has better customer service and we Finns just aren’t used to such luxury. Another thing that was strange was that there were two security guards in front of every shop, it created a very intimidating vibe when you went shopping.

I really liked Times Square because there was this indescribable atmosphere. I think that all the wonderful energy and excitement that all the tourists have makes the atmosphere exactly that, energetic and excited. I liked the fact that all the screens made it look like day in the middle of the night. I had never seen so many lights, it was beautiful.
Another place I liked was Central Park, we spent a whole day walking through it and it was a lot bigger than I could have ever imagined. It was weird walking into the park because it was filled with green grass, trees, small ponds and sunshine, completely opposite to the rest of New York. But it was very beautiful like a little oasis in the middle of the concrete jungle.

Central Park

My Story

 My Story

 This is going to tell you a bit of my life. I’ve lived my whole life in Turku, Finland and moved only once, but not very far from my old house.

 I was in the same school for nine years and had a lot of friends from kindergarten in the same school as well. So it was quite sad when I started high school and all of my friends went to different schools.

I’ve lived in my current home for about nine years now and I cannot believe how fast time has gone by!        I still feel like we just moved here a couple years ago.

 The house I lived in before this one was a row house and there were three other girls, who also lived in the row house, born the same year as me. We all became great friends and all of the kids from that yard including us four girls and all of our brothers and sisters played together. I’m still friends with these three girls and hopefully will be for the rest of our lives.

At first it was strange being in a new school where I didn’t know more than a few people, but after a couple of weeks it had all changed and I had met lots of new people and made new friends.

It’s a lot harder for me to go to school now because it’s so far away compared to my old school, where I could walk in under 10 minutes. Now I usually get a ride to school from my parents or go by bus. Our classes are now 75 minutes instead of 45 what we’ve had for the last nine years, so it was quite confusing at first but I got used to it.

My new school is very nice and a little more interesting than my old one.

Learning English

                                      The Beginning

When I was little I watched cartoons in English and listened to music.        

 I don’t really have any memory of how I started learning English, but ever since we started English in school I remember it always being easy to understand and I got good grades for every test. And we had a fun English book in primary school where they visited Ice Cream Island and a penguin named Mr. Cool.

                                                              School

 We had English the first time in the third grade and it was exciting and new.           

  I only remember English always being fun and easy to learn. A point where I realized that I actually knew English was when I was still in primary school. I was watching an English TV show and I noticed that I hadn’t looked at the subtitles for a long time. It was a funny feeling and I was happy to realize that I didn’t need any subtitles to watch a show.

                                                            New York

Last year when I was in New York I got to speak a lot more English that I probably ever had in my life. I went shopping on my own in Times Square every day so I couldn’t just be quiet and let my parents talk, but had to do it myself. It was interesting how many different types of English accents you heard walking down only one street, so it gave me more confidence to speak up even if it wasn’t perfect.

We also went to see a movie there and only halfway through the movie I noticed that there were no subtitles.

                                                      

                                                              

                                                               English now

I still find English easy to learn and I am excited to learn new things and improve my English skills. I would like to move to England when I’m older, because the accent is beautiful and Finland is too boring for me!