Yours,

Li Hua

8 . For more than 20 years I have been traveling the world, preferring often to spend a year or two in different countries _______ to just visit as a tourist. It has become a big part of my identity as an adult and shaped _______ I see the world and myself.

My first _______ of this amazing life was when I was 19 years old. I was _______ among a small group of   college classmates to spend a   year abroad. This was long before people could   travel the world _______ through     social media like Facebook, Instagram and Weibo. In order to see a place, you   had to   go there and _______ it   firsthand.

Living abroad can be exciting. I thought it would be _______ because I spoke the language, but I enjoyed the little differences between the British and American culture and language. For   instance, instead of _______ the       British called it “rubbish”; instead of favor they spelled it “favour”.

But there were also _______ that year too. One of my classes was called “Europe Since 1870”. In the U.S., I   would have expected an introductory history class, but in England, I was _______ o have already known the       history; now was the time to analyze it. That _______ I not only had to learn the history as I went along, but also I had to try to write a paper explaining why certain events happened as they did. I know now that I was thrown into the deep _______, in a completely different and far more challenging environment, and it was natural that I wouldn’t understand everything easily. Despite this, I don’t _______ anything about my time in London. Even _______ painful experiences, we learn to grow.

_______ the difficult times made me sad and homesick. But luckily that was not as important as the amazing experience I had getting to know people from all over the world. I met dozens of interesting people from places like France, Greece and Germany in Europe, to Rwanda. Palestine and Australia. Learning how to make friends with people from different cultures and backgrounds was really fun, and these new friends helped put a(n) _______ to     the countries they represented (代表).

As I finished the _______ year, I was torn inside about leaving London after such a life-changing experience.

I learned so much about myself as a young woman and a(n) _______. When I _______ to my college for my          final year, friends and professors saw a(n) _______ me. I had more maturity and self-awareness that I hadn’t had     before. It was just the beginning of a future of world travel and a love of different people and cultures.