When it rains

What do you usually do when it rains? I’ve had two inadvertent showers today and then I listened to this great song by Paramore. And it inspired me to write a short blog post.

I loved rain… Before I came to Finland. The weather didn’t welcome me very well. And what’s more, the same weather has already been for nearly two moths here. Well, there have also been very nice sunny days, but only few of them.

But anyway… I really loved rain before. I loved to watch raindrops on the window during their competition “Who will get down first?”, I loved to walk in the rain without an umbrella. I felt so proud when the rain curled my hair in beautiful ringlets. But I don’t anymore.

But there are many other things I can do when it rains. For example I can learn for the exam.

I’ll remember this place all my life

I thought about this topic and what to write about and suddenly I got an idea. Then I realized that I have already written about this place and I also realized how important it is for me.

I have chosen my grandmother’s house, because I’m sure I will remember this place all my life. So far, I have moved 3 times (4 times including my stay in Finland), so I have had many places which were or are homes for me. I can’t remember many things about all of them, because it’s been several years since my last moving.

But in my grandmother’s house I spent almost all my holidays when I was small and I still like going there when I can. My grandmother lives in a big house with a big garden. It’s situated in a small village, but this village is near quite a big city.

Every single year, every single season is just great there. Every spring, I, my mother and my brother help my grandmother with the gardening. There are many flowers in the garden, including many roses and peonies. They are so beautiful, colourful and smell just amazing. We do the fruit and vegetable picking every summer. My grandmother has her own potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, plums and many types of berries. They are all delicious. When is nice weather with warm evenings, we grill some meat and potatoes in the garden. I love these evenings.

In the autumn we usually pick apples. My grandmother has many apple trees of many types, the apples are green, yellow or red and all of them are very tasty. In the winter, my grandmother feeds birds with suet and seeds. There are many birds, because there is a small forest next to the house.

When I was small, I also played with my brother, my cousins or my friend there. My brother taught me how to ride a bike there and my parents taught me how to swim in a swimming pool near there. We tried to “cook” with my cousins there and it was great fun. I know I will remember this place all my life because of many great experiences.

My English learning history

I remember that my first English words were cat and dog and I really liked this language, but I don’t know where I heard it, because I was very small. Then I was attending kindergarten and I started to learn English there. I remember almost nothing from that time.

I had no English for the first two years at school, so I attended a language course after my lessons. We learned new English vocabulary, the basics of the grammar, played some games etc. I changed the school in third grade and there it all started again from the beginning. But that school was quite good, so I learned many things there. Teachers were good, they spoke English very well and they also taught me to take learning seriously when I sometimes got poor mark for an exam.

I went there for three years and then I changed school again. It was horrible. We had to start with English from the beginning again because one girl couldn’t speak English at all. I stayed there for four years and I don’t think that I learned very much about English there. I think I even forgot many things.

But I found some new friends abroad on the Internet. I’m still writing with some people from the USA, Britain, Brazil, Germany and other countries. In English, of course. I think that could improve my English skills. I also listen to music in English and watch some movies and serials in English with subtitles. It’s not so usual in my country, most of the movies on TV are dubbed. But in the cinema or when you watch DVDs, you can watch it in original version with subtitles.

I went to Scotland some time ago and I attended a school there for one week. It was a really great experience and I think it improved my speaking skills.

I attended a high school for two years and I will continue when I return to the Czech Republic. English lessons were nothing special there. Now I’m here in Finland and English is the language I use most often. It’s a great feeling that people can understand me even if I don’t speak Finnish. I hope I will learn Finnish, at least a little bit. But why couldn’t I learn something new about English here, too? I hope for both.