When I was 17 years old, I left my comfortable home in a wealthy Midwestern suburb to live as a foreign exchange student in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in a foreign country. I 21 in an apartment with no elevators, no dishwashers and one washer for 300 22 tile(瓷磚)floors were always 23 and the rainy winter days there seemed endless. I 24 to wash my clothes by hand in the bathtub and 25 water was so costly, I trained myself to 26 my waist-length hair in less than five minutes.
At that time there were no cell phones and the Internet didn’t exist. So for six months I had no 27 at all with my family or friends in the US. I had no relatives there so I 28 to face the fact that my 29 to adapt and create a life for 30 , was one hundred percent up to me. At age seventeen my need for friends was 31 and not knowing a soul was, needless to say, a bit stressful.
To 32 to my stress, I didn’t speak the 33 and had no familiarity with the monetary(貨*的)system or the transportation system. One more 34 that created stress was my 35 family. Of all the families in the city I lived, I was 36 with the ones who spoke the least(or worst) English.
Living abroad and developing 37 in a foreign language required persistence and determination. I made many mistakes 38 the way. Now I’ve transformed(轉變) my 39 memories into my medals of honor(榮譽勛章). They’re the treasured stories that offer wisdom, provide me with insights into friends and family and provide me with the 40 that I can surpass future challenges.
國文屋
