【D1】

Studying abroad is wonderful if you have the opportunity. I was fortunate to have that opportunity three times. I studied in France, Canada and the former Soviet Union, in what is now Russia.
    I studied in France while 1 was completing my bachelor’ s degree. I studied French language and literature which I was in love with at the time. It was so special to be in the land of Moliere and Voltaire, Rostand, Sartre. I spent about a year in France and during that time. I lived with a French family which gave me lots of opportunity to speak French as well as to eat wonderful French food. I was in a small country town, not Paris, so I was able to enjoy the beautiful countryside: big rivers, forests and in the distance, mountains. I’ve received the diploma for my efforts well in French.
    Then after I have completed my bachelor’ s degree in Californian, I went to Canada to do a master’s degree in comparative literature. 1 spent a year and a half in Canada, from autumn through two winters to the second spring. I was living in an apartment with a friend who was taking the same program with me. So that was very convenient. I really enjoy the work in Canada because the classes were very small. However, I was not allowed to have a job, which made it very hard to make ends meet.
    After I finished the master’ s degree in Canada, I had the opportunity to go to the former Soviet Union for three months. There I lived in a student hostel with other foreign and Soviet students and I studied Russian language and culture. I found that extremely interesting, though it was a very hard language to learn especially the grammar and pronunciation. I spent three months in the Soviet Union, and received the certificate at the end of this time which I still have on my wall at home written in beautiful Russian script, the people there were extremely friendly and the theater was just glorious.
    For me, going abroad to study was not just a serious effort: I had a lot of fun, too.