My experience in New York by Antonio Liu

Hello!

At Time Square with Mickey and Minnie=)

My name is Antonio Liu. I am a 21-year-old student from Brazil. Currently, I am studying Business Administration at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. I started to study English when I was seven years old in English courses. However, the main reason why my English has improved day by day, was because of my big hunger for learning English. Besides the fact that I really love everything related to US culture, like the TV shows, musics and films. Therefore, English was always included in my leisure time.

I always wanted to interact with  native American speakers, like a real experience. That's why I decided to take a trip by myself, to sharpen my English even more and live like an American citizen. The easiest part was to choose the city that I was going to stay, the Big Apple!

During my experience in New York I could list the 5 things that I loved about this city:

• Time Square: While I was wandering through the streets, I was mesmerized by the tall buildings and the lights; it seemed like in a dream. Now I understand, why New York is called the city that never sleeps. Moreover the musicals in Time Square are by far the best ones, fascinating like an unforgettable experience.
• Central Park: October was autumn, so I got to see golden trees, which make the place even more beautiful. I thought I was in the set of a film because the park is so beautiful and peaceful that I was willing to stay there forever. 
• The Museums: Only in New York, we can find a lot of great museums. During my stay here, I have only been to two of them, The Museum of Modern Art and The Museum of Natural History. The first one is dedicated entirely to contemporary art, I realized that is host to an impressive collection of moden artistic efforts, in a variety of media including paintings, sculpture, design and even films. The second one, from what I saw, I think it was more like an exhibition museum, In addition to that, it is a really big museum, with rare and old things that have been kept for a long time.
• The food delivery is 24/7: Definetly this is one of the aspects that make me want to stay longer. The food here is really cheap, when it comes to fast food, so there is always a way to find a restaurant near you, and order some pizza, or burger with fries after midnight, where in my country, I can`t do that at all!



In New York Language Center Thanksgiving

• New York Language Center: I am loving my experience until now in this school. To start with the system that they have, which I think is really fair, you take a writing text, and then you get to speak with a person that can evaluate your English skills. So when I took the test, they put me in an academic English class, which was what I wanted since the beginning. So I decided to take the business class, which I found really interesting because my business class teacher was really interactive. After my classes of business was over, I felt that my vocabulary really improved in business english. Besides, the activities of the school are really exciting because you get to interact with other students who are from other countries, so you get more knowledge about other cultures. All the activities in the school are really cultural, which helped me a lot to understand American culture. From these events, I have eaten pancakes, visited museums, visited the Empire State Building, and even basketball games! That is the reason why I think it is one of the best English courses because they offer everything that is necessary to learn and with adequate support.

         Now I am gonna list 5 things that I thought was the most challenging in New York:

In the best pizzeria of New York: Lombardi`s

• A place to stay: Since after I moved out from my last apartment in New York, I realized that I had to find a place on my own. I had never done that before, so I started to go on websites, to search for an apartment and ask my classmates, if they needed a roommate. It was definitely the most difficult thing I have ever done because it was hard to find an adequate price for an apartment in Manhattan. But don`t need to worry, I have already found a good place=).
• Subway: Since I live in Brazil, we just have one line there. I have to share this funny experience with you, I wanted to get to E.110th Street, and when I took the train, I ended up in the Cathedral Parkway, for me it was 110th Street, as I was walking I realized that it took one hour to get to my apartment, that is when it got to my head that the Cathedral Parkway was west of my destination. So it was when I started to learn how to read maps and try not to make the same mistake again.
• Weather: I still remember when I got off the plane, and there was cold weather. I was thinking to myself that I was not going to get used to the cold in New York. Until now, I still didn`t get used to the cold here; even when I am wearing a lot of sweaters, I freeze sometimes. So I think maybe it is because I am from a tropical country, but the weather is certainly challenging here in New York, be prepared to buy big coats!
• Crowd: There are a lot of people in New York City, and unfortunately we have to deal with it, especially in the subway. The traffic of people here, you have to respect, if you are walking and suddenly see a bunch of people walking in your direction, get out of the way, because you might get in trouble. On Black Friday, I was trying to buy presents for my family, and it was like impossible, because when I saw the line, it was huge! So that is one of the bad things about one famous city, since it is great, it will be crowded; there is no way to avoid that.=(
• Food: Remember when I wrote about how cheap fast food is? Exactly, sometimes I wish I could go to a restaurant, but I find it really expensive here in New York. So one of the options is to buy pasta boxes and cook at home, and for those who like Chinese food, it is perfect because almost all the restaurants in Chinatown I find really cheap. Take my advice to save more money =).