Kwun Lok, Yuen 

ESL 100

17 February 2019

Exploring Places

I am an explorer. When I was bored, I loved to walk or cycle around the city in Adelaide. If I had more time, I would take a bus and go to rural areas or somewhere that hardly someone would go and explore the areas. These kind of exploring helps me balance out my busy life, but only when certain conditions were met. Whenever I want to go out and explore or just for a walk, I have to have time to spare and good weather. Since I have moved to Australia from Hong Kong and to The United States from Australia, I have explored a lot of places all around the world. However, since I moved from Australia to The United States, I have less time to kill and unable to explore as much as I did in Australia. It is difficult for me to find free time and good weather at the same time in The United States as living as an American have a lot of work to do and the weather in The United States is often gloomy compared with Australia. Due to these reasons, I had less time to go and explore the place since I arrived in Chicago. I need to find a new hobby to replace my old one. 

            When I was in Adelaide, I used to explore the rural areas all the time to spend my spare time at least once a week. When I went to places like national parks in Alidade, I can relax and clear my mind with nature’s beautiful view. The Belair National Park is one of my favourite place to clear my head as I use to live close to it. Chicago, however, there are fewer national parks that I can go explore and the weather is often gloomy in the winter. Although there is snow in Chicago and it gives me a new experience, it gets too cold for me to explore places as much as I did in Australia. Furthermore, the park that near my place is really small and poorly maintained. On the other hand, in Adelaide, there are parks all over the places and they are maintained by the government.

            In addition, I explore cities all around the places like malls. During weekdays, after school, I would go to the city with my friends and walk around the places. We often go to places like plazas and malls to find something to eat. Th city in Adelaide does not have many buildings, and if there is a building, it only has about three to four floors. Unlike Chicago, the city is packed and full of tall buildings. The city in Chicago also larger than Adelaide. There are a lot of different malls and plazas to explore.

            The streets in the cities are also different. There were only a few shops in Adelaide’s city and most of them were local shops with local brands. In the other hand, in Chicago, there shops includes brand from locals to brand from overseas. There are a lot more choices make when shopping comparing to Adelaide. Furthermore, in Adelaide’s city area, the streets were often clean and quite. Which in Chicago’s city area hardly see places without rubbish or cigarette on the ground as well as always have cars making noises. I missies the peacefulness and tidiness in Adelaide.

            Since I left Adelaide and moved to Chicago, I am having a lot less time to go and explore different areas of the city.  I am not a explorer anymore. As I have less free time than I use to have and I could not spare much time to go to rural places to clear my mind like I use to do in Adelaide. Even though there are a few acceptable parks, the atmosphere is different than in Adelaide. At the end of the day, I realized that my life style have changed dramatically after I moved to Chicago. Although I only moved to Chicago for a few months, it is a good time for me to find a new hobby to clear my mind like going to the gym or read a book in a coffee shop.