Tuesday, March 29, 2016

CHICAGO 2016 Patrícia F. (1 BTX B)

CHICAGO


Two weeks ago one of my biggest dreams came true. I went to the USA, the place that I've always been dreaming of.
At first I was so nervous to meet my exchange partner and the other guys, but after all, that has not been a problem.

It was a 9 hour-flight, but we had our own little screens so we could see whatever we wanted to, and somehow that entertained us a lot, because we saw a lot of films and the plane was so big that we went to see our friends that were sitting in the other side.


If I had to explain all the things that I've done these two weeks, I would never end, so I want to highlight the most important and unforgettable things that I've enjoyed the most.

My partner was so close to 4 girls of the exchange that as soon as I was introduced we all became very good friends and I've had such amazing moments with them that I'll never forget. We had parties in the basement of  "my house", we made cookies, we went to the mall, we had lunch all together...

So if I had to choose some of the moments that I enjoyed the most, these would be the 7th and the 12th of March. The first one because we went to see the Chicago Bulls game and we carried a Catalan flag with us, so when Pau Gasol was playing, a man with a camera recorded Joan and me and we appeared on the main screen of the stadium. And then, I also enjoyed the 12th because it was the St. Patrick's Day celebration, and dying the river green is a tradition. That's why we all went downtown very early to see how they dyed the river. There were a lot of people there, but it was amazing. When the river was already green, there was a huge parade, where people gave us a lot of things related to this celebration.

I also liked the Sears tower (or Willis tower), which is the tallest tower in Chicago. It's 103 floors high and the last one has like a little deck where we could feel like if we were flying, because the floor and the walls were glass and we could see the entire city. At first it was a little scary, but then I really enjoyed it and I took a lot of photos. 

On Tuesday the 8th, we did a little tour of the school and the Spanish teacher Suzan, showed to us all the school, including the pools and the gym. I was freaking out because it was enormous. They had 3 floors and each part was about one subject, so they had the art hall, the music hall, the robotics hall... It was so different than our school, and I also noticed that when I went to some classes with my partner and all the kids were eating and drinking in class.
At midday, we went to see a play that some students made in the theatre of the school, and I really liked it, because it was like in the films, with all the material and decorations like in movies. It was very well prepared and all of the students did it so good.

 And finally, the last thing that I also really loved was the last night there, when the parents of one of the girls took us to Lake Michigan, downtown, at midnight. It was so beautiful and amazing because we could see the buildings and all was lighting.

I have also enjoyed a lot with the teachers that travelled with us, especially with Conxita, because she's so nice and we took a lot of photos of her making jokes, and she helped us a lot when we didn't know how to say something. She took a lot of care of us. If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have done this exchange, so I'm completely grateful.
I wrote this essay on the plane last Tuesday, but some things have happened so I'm going to explain them.

Firstly, when we got off the plane in Paris, we only had 1 hour to go from one building to another, and we had to run very fast. We were almost late, because some of us didn't go out the train and we had to go alone to another station and then come back alone. When we were all together again, we had to run because we needed to buy our boarding passes, and although we arrived at 9:59 and the plain was almost closed and ready, they let us go inside.

And another thing that happened was that when we were in Barcelona waiting for our suitcases, some guy told us that our things were lost in Paris, so we had to give him our addresses and emails to contact us. At first we were a little angry but then we started laughing because a lot of bad things had happened to us that day. So we went home, and 10h later, another man brought us our suitcases.

All in all, I want to say that I knew Chicago was a beautiful city, but I didn't know that I was going to fall in love with it like I did. I've made a lot of new friends and some of them will never be forgotten, because we have had amazing moments by singing, dancing or making cookies!
 


It's been an amazing experience and I can't wait to see the Americans again and show them our city. I don't regret anything at all, I'm really happy about this exchange. Although the food and other stuff were different than in Spain, everything has been perfect, and I will never forget this.




Patricia Fernandez 

1r Batx "B"

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