2006081024 Jonathan Yu
My Favorite Place I am not a Canadian. I am a Korean who lives in Korea my almost entire life. When it comes to my favorite place, there are a lot of good place to visit in Korea and I went there many times. However, my favorite place is in Canada. Last year I made up my mind to go to Canada not only to experience different cultures, but to study how to speak English well. Calgary in Canada is my favorite place because of some characteristic : A tourist attraction, friend, food.
Even though I went to Calgary through working holiday program visa to work and study English, many tourist attractions tempted me into enjoying them. The Calgary Stampede which is the biggest festival in Canada is an annual rodeo, exhibition and festival held every July in Calgary. As soon as I got to the festival, there were a lot of people from other countries. It looked like vehicles were bumper to bumper. Also, delicious hot dogs was tempting me to buy them, giving off attractive smell. In the middle of the festival were horrible rides and rodeo event in which cowboys show different skills, including riding wild horses, catching cattle with ropes and a thrilling race. When I went into Calgary’s downtown, I could easily find a big tower, the Calgary Tower. The Calgary tower is the tallest structure in Calgary. When I arrived at the top floor of the Calgary tower, bright sunshine welcomed me with smile and the tower gave me a scenic view of downtown through a wide window. Canada is known for a lot of snow in winter season. Calgary is next to Rocky Mountain. There was ski resort called Lake Louise at the breathtaking Rocky Mountain. Dazzling and beautiful snow reflected by sunlight tried to blind my eye and many skiers from all age groups were appealing their skill to me. However, if I had gone to three tourist attractions without friends, have I been impressive there?
In order to have fond memories at other country, making friends was also important while living or traveling. I was an ESL student at a language school for few months in Canada. While I was an ESL student, I made my Japanese friend,. He was very outgoing, always talking with me over shared lunch or a cup of beer. We were very close at that time. r. Also, each Korean and Canada representative student stood in front of audience and taught their language. My partner was my best Canadian friend, When I lived in home stay house, I was looking for Canadian church. One of my friends recommended some Canadian church and one day, two guys in black suit came to my home stay house. They were from the Mormon Church. That was a good chance to talk in English with native speaker. On Sunday, in Mormon Church, Many young Canadians in black suit welcomed to me. As time goes by, we are getting to be close. Sometime, I enjoyed going to popular restaurant in Calgary with my friend, and Friends I met in church.
Delicious food allowed me to choose Calgary as my favorite place. A juicy steak is really popular all over the world. For me, I could smell attractive fragrance of a steak on the street and chased that smell into the restaurant. Chefs were grilling a lot of delicious steak using fan and at one table, I could see a couple who were looking at each other eating delicious steaks. I also ordered a New York steak which will melt in my mouth and quickly conquered the steak using a knife and fork in a few. Servers were busy to take an order and serve grilled steaks. Canada is known for immigration country. I could easily see international restaurants. One Vietnam restaurant is next to my ESL school. Although the restaurant looked humble from appearance and tables and chairs are very old, a rice noodle swam in a bowl tempting me to eat all. There are also many beefs and sausages on top. For five months, I lived in home-stay house. My home stay mother always packed my lunch box in which there are sandwiches, a juice, some vegetables, snacks, chocolates, a yogurt and an apple or a banana. Whenever I opened my lunch box, I could feel my home-stay mother’s love. Every day I shared my lunch with classmates in class. Also she made me delicious food from mashed potatoes to beefs every evening. It seemed a buffet like a meal of foods that was displayed on a table. Enjoying foods made and grown locally allows tourists including me to have fond memories.
These are my some characteristics to choose Calgary as my favorite place. I am a Korean who has lived in Korea almost entire life. However, even though it was short time living in Calgary, Canada, the things that I felt in Canada was really impressive and changed my life a little bit. Maybe it will be hard for me to go to Calgary again, but these all awesome foods, gorgeous friends, and beautiful tourist attractions will remain in my heart for life as a present.