Freshman Seminar – Spring 2015, DTD

Everyday I count on the days that are left to go back to my country. When I think of going back, it means staying there forever, not just for vacation. But I know it, and everyone knows it. I can’t. The people who are staying, still fighting, like my parents, I admire them. The people who left, chasing after new dreams in another country, like me, I understand them. Leaving Venezuela is like getting divorced but still being in love. It’s been so hard to me to understand that I can’t go back now, that I have to get a higher education in another country, that I could only go back when things turn good. And that is all because the insecurity, shortage of daily products, and where there is no justice for people. I know that someday it will change, but for now… I gotta move on.

Hi, that’s me in the back. My last day as an ESL student. Ah it was a very stressful day because it was the last time to see each other and also me and Carolina (the cute latino girl with the hat) had to represent my class during the showcase. Hopefully, we did the best presentation of the ceremony and it was very fun. After that, I had to say good bye to my best friend of this class: Soejong (The pretty Korean girl standing in front of me), because she had to return to South Korea. That was not fun at all. This day is very important for me because it was the first significant day that I had since I arrived here in the United States and I miss them so much….

I am going to share this funny story of mine. I come from Albania. I was raised in the capital city of Albania, Tirana. A place where the climate is warm. It does not really snow. Actually i really never remember building a snowman. I finished high school with pretty good results and i thought to do something different with my life. I decided to move to NYC to finish my college. I came here at 01/08/2015. The first snow in NY happened the next day. I was pretty excited obviously, because it was something totally new to me. Snow was only something i had seen on movie theaters. I went outside, with a big childish smile on my face, and started playing with the snow. I got tons of pictures, i built a snowman, did a snow-angel, cleaned the snow from the sidewalk. It was fun. The next day the snow still kept falling. I still went out playing with the snow and having fun. This happened every day for the next week. Then i started realizing that snow was not that fun. Actually now i think that snow sucks. The date is 3/21/2015 and it is still snowing. Alright winter, that is enough. It is not fun anymore.

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I wrote a poem with letters of my first and last name.

Hello, I’m Monica Feng!

Sorry for posting this late, but I posted it on the wrong page. So here it’s my post.

So, I just created a slideshow to show you guys a little bit more about me.

http://slide.ly/view/5f467ce4e706c2559e5d0729a8a28589

I was born and raised in Venezuela, however, I’m a descendent of Chinese people. Being a Venezuelan born Chinese always surprises people. And the first thing they usually ask is: “Do you speak Spanish?” Yes, it is my native language.

(The first image shows the flag of my country and the background music is a song about my country called: Cancion Venezuela.)

When I was 9, my father send me to China to study Chinese and to explore the culture. I get to know a lot of friends from all over the world. Also, people like me, they were also from Venezuela. If you were to ask me the most valuable moment in my life, I would say the time I studied in China. I did not only learned Chinese, I also met REAL friends. I do still talk with them and some of them are also in Baruch College. Lucky me! Huh?

No later, I went back to Venezuela when I finished primary school in China. I was the able to speak Mandarin, Cantonese, English and, of course, Spanish. I felt so happy to be back in Venezuela. I love the people out there, I love being close to my family and most importantly I felt like being home. I continued to study in my country, but then I realized I needed something more. Something like getting to know more about the world outside. I wanted to study in North America. So, once again I left home and went all alone to Toronto, Canada. It was not easy at first, because it was extremely cold there. When I say extremely cold i don’t mean by minus 17 celsius degrees, it’s minus 40 celsius degrees! It’s crazy! My favorite thing I did in Canada is studying French, I really like learning different languages, because when I hear languages that I don’t know I would probably go crazy trying to analyze it.

I’ve always had that dream of studying in NYC. For me, it’s the city where dreams come true. Now, I’m here in NYC! I am going to study hard and chase after my dreams. I will focus on my goals and be the person I want to be in the future — a really successful businesswomen.

I might look serious, but in fact I am friendly, cheerful and outgoing. I love meeting friends from all over the world.