Englsih10
Miku Nishiyama
It was four years ago, I went to New York to see my friends and participate in the musical theater summer camp for local kids at the college by myself. I had travelled with my family or friends many times but, it was first time to travel without anybody, overall go to New York. I had to transfer three times and it took me 24h to get there, because they live a bit far from the city. By the time I got to the airport in New York, I had been already seen many new things and experienced, I felt it was a new world for me.
On the first day, I was extremely nervous, because I did not expect what we were doing in this camp and I didn’t speak English well. It was the first time that I was in a place by myself where I could not understand what anyone was saying. We were taken to the theater and the class had begun. I was sitting on the stage by myself and trying to understand what they were saying. I still could not believe I was there at that time. I managed to make it through the morning. During the free time at lunch I was by myself, and my classmates asked me to eat together with them. I felt very comforted by their kindness, because people are usually not that friendly to new people or people who are from another country in Japan.
On the weekend which was our break, I was spending time with my friend’s family. I went out to downtown New York with them. I was impressed by the skyline of New York, traffic and everything. I am familiar with urban life style in Japan, however it was totally different. Smells of the cities were different, in New York the air was crisp and in Japan it is muggy. Furthermore, when I got food and drink, I was surprised. Drinks are ridiculously huge. In japan, drinks are not necessarily sweet whereas, in America almost every drink was sugary. It was the worst for me because I usually don’t drink soft drinks. Foods were delicious. And I also watched the play in Radio City. In the city, the buildings were glaring all night and many people were out during nights, and they relish being outside at night and hanging out with their friends. And in the morning, people were in rush to go to the work and the traffic was terrible. I could see why people call it the city never sleep.
During the last week, I was more relaxed and we got to prepare for the play of the last day. It was the first time that I learned about acting and singing. Each person had to sing and say scripts in front of everyone over and over. I kept feeling embarrassed doing that during the first two weeks, but I became more confident as I got used to it. I didn’t have to care about my English at all because my teachers and friends understood about it and helped me a lot. I remember that I liked dancing practices. I felt dancing could connect people without speaking.
On the last day, my classmates became my family and we were 100% prepared for the families who were coming to watch the show. The day before the show I was full of anxious feeling about forgetting my lines and lyrics. Thus I practiced many times because I do not like to be put to shame in public. I was not interested in acting and singing at all. However, those three weeks actually delighted me a lot. Everything was new to me and learned tans of things from the city, classmates, teachers and foods. This place was incomparable to as I was expecting and this summer has made my life changed. If I did not spend this summer vacation, I might not have been here right now. It was an unexpected summer and I did not have specific reasons to visit New York which is an amazing city. However, I felt countless things by my eyes, hands and body and found the new choices of my life.
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