My trip to Rome, Italy

I had always wanted to go to Rome and see all of the historical places that I had read and seen movies of, so when our parents told us that they had booked a three-day trip to Italy, I was really excited! It was the summer of 2012 and I was ready to go! It was a three hour flight to Rome and from there, an hour-long bus ride to Rome city center.

Rome was everything I had always imagined. Everywhere was beautiful, old and interesting. The first day was all about finding our hotel and checking in, but in the evening, we had a little of time and we made our way to the metro station to went to the historical center of Rome: Colosseo. Colosseo is where the Colosseum and Forum Romanum (the old city center of Rome) is located, but everywhere was closed already.  

The second day we took a tourist hop on, hop off bus and went through Rome’s most popular historical places like the Vatican city, Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona. The city itself was amazing because of its old and antique vibe and the atmosphere was modern and historical at the same time, but I was the most impressed of the Colosseum and Forum Romanum. They have managed to keep them in such a good condition!  You could easily imagine Italian people from the past going around the city center or gladiators fighting at the Colosseum. It was like there was a united theme for the whole city. All of the buildings were really detailed and they carried out a same color scale.

                                         Piazza Navona

                                        

                                         Colosseum
On the third day, we didn’t have time to do much, but we went to the old city center to shop and see the places for the last time.Our plane back to Helsinki departed at six in the evening, and we had to be at the airport at least two hours early.
The thing about Italy is its old places and strong culture that make it a very interesting travelling spot. The food is also very famous and I can assure you, It is good! Pizzas, pastas and the ice cream (or as they would call it, gelato) were all better than anywhere I have been. My favourite food was probably the Italian basic pasta, pasta bolognese.The way the italians just cook everything simply,is probably why it is that good.

Even though I only got to be there just for three days, Rome managed to steal my heart and I know that I will go back someday.

..and this is where I come from

Hello! My name is Saara-Elina, I’m fifteen years old ( I turn 16 in a week) and I come from Kaarina, a small town where I have been living whole my life. I go to Kaarina’s lukio’s music and drama class and I really like it. As my hobby, I play violin and in my free time I love to hang out with my friends, go to movies, read, shop, bake or sing. I consider myself Finnish since I’ve born and lived here all my life, but my parents are Iranian and that’s why I can speak Farsi and Azerice in addition to Finnish.

This post is me telling you about where I come from, and I come from Kaarina, Finland, so I’m going to tell you how I feel about living here. Like I already mentioned, Kaarina is a town in Finland and with population of 30 000, so it’s quite small. I have plans to move to a bigger city in future, but as for now, I like living in Kaarina. It’s nice to live in a small town because it’s peaceful, safe and clean, we never have traffic and you can go everywhere by foot or bike. Although I like living here, I think I couldn’t do It if Turku (one of the biggest cities in Finland) wasn’t nearby. Also It’s a good thing to have a bigger city near  because here in Kaarina we don’t have any malls, good restaurants or movie theatres and every once in a while, it feels good to be in a place with more people.

Every now and then I hear people complaining about living in Finland. I complain about it myself too, but whenever I think about home, I think of Finland. Of course it’s sometimes challenging to live here because of the dark winters, or cold weather, but it has lot of greatness too. for example. beautiful nature, bright summer nights or great chocolate. and the living conditions are good too.
So basically, I think it's nice to live here in Finland, but I see myself maybe moving out in future.

                             This is a picture of Kaarina I took while my evening walk at summer.

MY HISTORY OF LEARNING ENGLISH

At the very beginning

English has always been an easy language for me. From the beginning, I have always been very motivated to learn it. When I was little, Ï was lucky to have the chance to go to America and visit my relatives who live there. I remember thinking that their language sounded nice and that I wanted to learn it. As a kid I loved the cartoons that were on Cartoon Networks, the cartoons were not translated, so that was also a motivation. Later English become important because I wanted to learn to understand the lyrics in the music that I listened and I also prefer to read some books in their original language, because I think that the original writing is better.

I learned the base to my English skills in primary school.  I started to learn English when I was in the third grade, and even before that, I already understood some words. As I was in primary school, I began to read some novels that were easy to read, and even if I didn’t understand all of the words, I was able to keep up with the storyline. Reading books in English changed things, as my vocabulary was getting wider, and I actually could understand what I was reading.

Junior High

When I got to the junior high school, I had to work harder to get good grades in English because it got harder and harder all the time, especially writing. Luckily during the junior high school my teacher changed. My new teacher was much more better, and her way to teach was much more interesting and that is how my motivation to learn English came back.

At some point I started to watch some television shows and movies without subtitles, and that really helped my English to develop. If I didn’t understand some word, I would pause the show and look for the meaning of the word in a dictionary, like I did with books.

Nowadays and future

Nowadays English has become a part of my everyday life. I write, speak, listen it and hear it almost every day. When I’m watching vlogs  or tv-shows, when I’m listening to some music,  when I’m talking to my foreign friends, when I’m reading books or blogs. It has made so many things easier, for example travelling.

In the future I may want to become a English teacher,  and I may want to move to a different country, so English will be a big part of my future also.