On Friday of Last Week (April 30, 2010)

By Jihyun Lee

On Friday of last week, I went to PriceSmart with Mami who is Japanese taking the subjects of Group1 with me. She wanted to buy some chocolates and said she will help me. I was so happy to hear that because I had to buy lots of food, so I needed some hands.

We got off the bus at the bus stop nearby the mart. Everything went well until standing in front of a register that scans the bar-code of the products. There were a pack of onions, a pack of apples and some food in my cart. The register scanned a bar-code of a pack of onions and required me to enter the quantity of these. I counted onions in a pack and push the number 8. After that I counted apples in a pack and push the number 13. Then, it showed me the total, around 134 dollars. I felt that it was a bit too expensive, but I paid for these.

Mami and I moved to a bus stop, and I checked my receipt while waiting for the bus. At that time, I knew that something is wrong. The pack of onions’ price was $22.33 and the pack of apples’ price was $64.61. I grasped two packs and started to run to the mart for getting money back.

Fort St. John is a small town where it is very quiet and never busy. When I ran with the packs through the middle of the street, people saw me like a marvel. Because a little Asian girl ran crazily, this sight might not be ordinary to them. At last, I arrived at the customer counter and explained to a staff what had happened to me. Then suddenly the staff started to laugh. “I have never seen a Chinese like you,” she said. I was really ashamed. “I am not Chinese, I am Korean,” I whispered.

After the refund, I had to run again because Mami was waiting for me at the bus stop for a long time. I couldn’t make her wait any longer. When I almost arrived there, Mami was eating a chocolate next to the bus stop signboard. I was going to go across the road, but unfortunately, two cars were getting nearer, and I waited for them to pass. The first car passed fast, but the second car did not. I felt annoyed and glared the driver of the second car. It was Michael, my teacher. He was smiling and waving his hand to me like a child.

Difficult Things about Living in a Foreign Country

By Mami Yoshida

It is difficult to live in a foreign country.

First, using a different currency can be confusing if you come to this country for the first time. You should remember about how much this coin is. When you buy something, you can only pay with bills, but your wallet has many coins right now.

Second, you must get used to unfamiliar customs. If the country’s custom is to take off shoes when you enter a house, you need to keep this custom to live there.

In addition, you may feel homesick because of different customs. You may want to eat your country’s food or meet your family and friends. It is possible to meet your family and friends, but you can’t meet them every day.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you must speak a new language to communicate with foreign country people. The language may have different grammar or pronunciation, so you should study a lot of things. You may learn it soon or take a long time. It depends on how you study it.

Living in a foreign country brings a lot of hard things.