My New Life, My Hard Time

Imagine that you are a freshman in a new place. Do you think your life will be easy or difficult? For me, it is not easy. I came here four months ago. It was my first time leaving China.Although I am bombarded with the beautiful scenery here everyday, I feel confused as I try to adapt to the new environment. Living my new life in this city, I have had a hard time adapting my eating, shopping and living habits.

First of all, eating habits in this county are different from China. Many American live at a fast space and eat fast food. There are a lot of fast food stores all around such as Subway, Wendy’s and Burger King, which sell hot and cold sandwiches and other items. I ate this oily and greasy food in school for a few days. And I felt like vomiting. I usually buy refrigerated meat from a local supermarket, for it would take me one hour drive to the farm to get fresh meat. I miss my Chinese farm near my house which raises d chickens and harvested vegetables. I miss my mother’s vegetable soup and steam fish without fat. I miss the Chinese restaurant serves porridge with sliced thin pork or preserved duck egg in the morning. Most American food I eat now is more calorie and fat. If I pay attentions to what i eat, I can picture my future, what an absolutely fat girl i will be!

Not only eating, but also going shopping here confuse me. As a new immigrant, I can’t keep myself from comparing US goods to Chinese. I know people here earn more money, but I can’t control my mind sometime. For instance, an eraser is 1.5 dollar here, and in my mind it is 10.5RMB with which you can buy ten pieces in China. Furthermore, you must pay an additional tax for the goods. I had never seen the tax amount in my Chinese receipt. And some customer service is also different here. When I buy jeans in China, the sales person will adjust the trouser leg to suit me. However, all I can do here is turning the cuffs up again and again. Americans are usually talker than the Asians. Moreover, I hate the clothes here because of the simple design. In my eye, all clothes seem to be the same. The people here like sportswear, and I like Chinese delicate handmade clothes. Shopping is one of most interesting parts of life for some woman, and for me, it is hard to find a real good buy. When I do need something, I ask my best friend in China to ship it to me.

Finally, I must be independent, which I was not used to being in China, and this causes me many troubles. I am my parents’ only child. In china, I didn’t have any trouble under my parents’ good care .And now; no one cooks breakfast or wakes me up. I was late for school at the beginning. Most of my classmates go school on weekdays and work on weekends, and so do I. I feel too tired to do the homework at night after working, cooking and cleaning .Usually on my way home; I miss my parents who prepared the hot chicken soup waiting for me to come back. Although it is not an easy time for me to be independent, I know it is good for me. When a lion grows up, she needs to find her own kingdom.

As a new immigrant, I am not accustomed to eating, shopping and living in the American way. However, I love Chicago. I have a dream here for my new life. I don’t feel lonely because there are so many people who are in the same situation as me. Chicago is a mixed city with thousands of people arriving from different countries everyday. I do believe that after the period of adjustment, I will fall in love with the new environment. Maybe after several years, I will tell you a different story about how I love the life here.