Lost in Translation Essay

 

YiLun Lu (Louis)

Some Place to Relax

       Happiness is an essential part of people's life. Most people have some places that they like to go, where they can relax and get what they want, it can be a place they often to go or a place full of memories. For me, I am a student, and my happiness is very simple. I like to go out with my friends on weekends, go out to eat at night, and listen to music. In my hometown when I feel unhappy and depressed, I often went to my favorite places to relax and eat food like the snack street, sweet shop, and food stand. When I came to Chicago to study, I was not as happy as I used to be because I had lost some places where I can relax the Internet bar, snack food stand, and subway station.

       One of the parts of the relaxed that I miss the most is the internet bar. In my hometown Beijing, I often went to an internet bar two times a week. There I play computer games with my friends and eat delicious food. Through the game, I feel relaxed. When I play games, I can control the characters inside, and I can get a great sense of accomplishment. In Chicago, I have not seen any Internet bar except for Chinatown. In Chinatown, there is an internet bar, but in there I did not find the feeling I wanted because the service in there was not very good and the food was not good.I seldom see local people playing games there, and I think Americans like playing video games like PS4 in their home, not like playing computer games because I have some local friends and their discussions about games are mostly video games. In the United States, I found that I gradually lost the pleasure of discussing games with my friends in China, and I felt lonely when I was playing computer games by myself.

       Second of the part of the relaxed that I miss the most is the snack food stand. In China, when I have free time, I often go to the snack food stand to eat food. There I could eat some delicious snacks and some cold drinks. Snack food stands will provide some chairs and tables around it, and I will feel relaxed when I am full. In Chicago there are some food trucks, I have gone to a food truck, It had Mexican Food. I bought a sandwich from it, but I think the food is not good and the price is high, and the food truck has no fixed hours of business. I think in Chicago people are not in the habit of going to food stands, and they think of them as fast food or cheap food, so snack stands were not popular in the United States. For me, a food stand is a place where I can express my emotions, I can eat snacks and drink beer alone in the evening and think about my happy things, but when I got to the United States, I found that I had lost them.

       Third of the part of the relaxed that I miss the most is the subway station. I like listening to the music, especially when I take the subway, buses, or taxis, I often turn the music to the maximum and listen to the music while looking at the scenery outside the window. In China, subway stations are very big and clean. Although there are many people in there, I do not mind. In Chicago, the subway station is not clean and has a nasty smell. Sometimes I see people smoking cigarettes or doing drugs on the subway or in the subway station. I do not mind smoking, but I hate the smell of marijuana. The smell there affects my mood and how I am listening to music. To my surprise, there are amateur singers singing in the subway station. Sometimes I enjoy it and give them some tips. Since I came to the United States, I have lost a place where I can listen to music and enjoy the scenery.

       In conclusion, sometimes I miss Beijing because in Chicago I cannot relax as I did in China, but I have been trying to find a place to relax in Chicago. I was not able to go to the internet bar like my hometown every week, but I can play computer games in my home. I was not able to go to the food stand, but I can go to a famous restaurant with my friends. I was not relaxing by listening to music while taking the subway, but I can take Uber. Although I lost my favorite places to relax when I came to Chicago, I have tried to think about the situation in a different way that try to forget what I was lost in the United States and look for the good things in Chicago.