Changed My Life

I experienced the biggest change in my life when I was 14 years of age, which I think was and still is important to me. I have really changed. The way I act, my attitude and even the language I use every day has changed. First, it seemed to be strange and unusual, but after a year or so, it became normal to me.

Before I came to Ireland, I lived in Lithuania. It is situated along the Baltic Sea. I have lived there my whole life and I had no idea that I would ever change my home country. I had many friends there; I was involved in loads of activities after school, such as basketball, swimming, embroidery, sewing etc. so nearly everybody knew me.

When I was told that I would have to leave a country I never thought about leaving my best friends may be forever. I didn't understand the meaning of leaving home.

Our journey was about three days long because we weren't in a rush. Travelling throughout the different countries opened my eyes to a wonderful and beautiful world that surrounds us. Different countries have different styles of architecture... there is also different people which brings different culture. Those simple things around me changed my outlook on life. I never understood certain things before I started to travel but I surely do now. Even though my journey wasn't that long I managed to find few friends from different countries who spoke different languages. That felt great even though I didn't know the other language but we managed to communicate with each other.

When I came to Ireland, my first impression was "wow!! There are no high apartment buildings like in Lithuania, and all the buildings on the main street are different colours!" Ireland is beautiful itself; a lot of drumlins, mountains and a lot of green.

By changing the country I also changed the languages. I've studied the English language for two years before I left Lithuania, 3-4 classes a week. When I was there I thought I knew the English language quite well, but when I came here everything seems to have changed. I still remember the first day in school when girls in my class started to ask me questions "can you tell me something about your country?" "Tell us more about yourself!" but I was so scared I couldn't understand a word it was aid to me. I was so embarrassed I couldn't say a word to the girls. I was sitting in the same