After spending so many years writing to pen pals all over the world, I made the decision, at the age of 21, to expand my horizons and take my very first trip abroad. I had always wanted to visit my pen pals and to live in another country for a short time and all of a sudden I was given that opportunity. In 1997, my pen pal Anna in Greece invited me to come spend some weeks at her home in Piraeus, the port city to Athens. I accepted, planned my flight, applied for my first passport and in a few months was on a plane to Athens, Greece. I didn't know what to expect at all, but was very excited. When arriving in the airport at first Anna and I didn't recognize one another. Apparently, in the photo I had sent her my hair was much different and I wasn't wearing glasses. Finally, when the whole airport emptied out, we realized that we were waiting for each other! This trip would be the first in a series of trips abroad that I would take to visit my pen pals. I only knew these friends through letters and photos which we had exchanged for many years or in some instances just a year or two. Since this first trip, I have also visited pen pals in Germany, Sweden, England, and Belgium. Many people think it is a crazy thing to go half way around the world to meet and live with someone that you have never met, but these experiences have been the best ones of my life. I have enjoyed every trip I have taken. You learn so much when you live in another culture for even just a short time. My trips usually lasted only two or three weeks. However, even in such a short time you start to pick up on the language and you find a way to communicate with others who do not speak English. The most difficult part of a journey like this is the cultural differences you will face, but if you are open and ready to accept the differences it can be a great learning experience. Through the long conversations I have had with my friends while living and touring with them I have learned so much about other peoples and cultures, about history, and about the similarities and differences between the American culture and other cultures around the world. It is one thing to see the world through a tourists eyes and another thing to live the culture like a native. My goal when traveling abroad is not to see every tourist destination, but to see the things in a country that are important to the people of that nation and to see the world through my friends eyes. I would encourage anyone who is given the opportunity, to travel abroad and find a way to be like a native rather than like a tourist. It is the best learning experience in the world.
Vocabulary:
1. expand: increase; spread out
2. horizons: outlook; what I can see and experience
3. abroad: to another country; overseas
4. opportunity: chance
5. recognize: to know; know who one is
6. apparently: it seems
7. exchanged: traded
8. instances: times; occasions
9. experiences: opportunities; chances
10. communicate: to talk
11. conversations: speech; things one talks about
12. native: someone who is from an area/country
Matching column
1. communicate a. someone who is from an area/country
2. exchanged b. times; occasions
3. horizons c. speech; things one talks about
4. expand. d. it seems
5. abroad e. chance
6. native f. spread out
7. instances g. to know;, know who one is
8. conversations h. traded
9. opportunity i. outlook; what I can see and experience
10. apparently j. to another country; overseas
11. recognize k. to talk
12. experiences l. increase; spread out
View from the Medieval Castle in South of Belgium
Grammar Point: When writing words in the past tense we often add the ending -ed. The -ed ending can be pronounced like "t," "id," or "d. For example, in the paragraph above, the word wanted ends in -ed. This -ed ending is pronounced like "id, " but the word "planned," is pronounced "d."
Activity: Please find all the words in the paragraph that end in -ed and make a list classifying them by the way the -ed ending is pronounced.
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