Essay Contest Writer Veronica Heredia: Adapting to a New Culture

We celebrated Adult Ed Week 2015 in many ways.  Many ESL students wrote essays for an essay contest.  The topic of the contest was "I am an Adult School Student and This is My Story."  The essays were wonderful.

Here, with author Veronica's permission, is one of them:

My name is Veronica Heredia.  I'm from Argentina.  When I came to USA I wanted to learn English, because I knew I had to adapt to the culture.

The cold weather was below freezing when I arrived at Washington D.C. in January.
For the first time I saw big piles of snow.

I think it was the next day, when the family decided to go out to have fun on the piles of snow for the first time.  We were excited about being in the United States.  Meanwhile we were having a good time.  Even though our feet and hands got frostbite, because we were not wearing the proper shoes and gloves we had fun together.  When we got back home we put our feet in warm water. 

Anyway I had a wonderful time with that family.  I feel gratitude toward them and I'm so grateful to the USA Host family too, for their help and the opportunity that they gave me.  If somebody asked me, which country I like living in, I would say the United States the America, because I have adapted to this country.


Now that I'm retired I have more time to come to school often.  My goal is to write and understand English well.  I'm so grateful to the San Mateo Adult School.

Thank you, Veronica, for sharing your story!