Eva (Uzbekistan, Age 16): English 021

Eva

16 y/o

From Tashkent, Uzb.

"Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot."

(Charlie Chaplin)

I came from Tashkent which is the capital and the largest city of Uzbekistan. I was born, grow up there. There are 12 provinces and 1 capital city in Uzbekistan. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, it declared independence as the Republic of Uzbekistan on 31 August 1991. Since 1991 Uzbekistan, especially Tashkent became modern city by the year. The government restored and built many beautiful, historical places, monuments, museums, theatres and cinemas, parks, high buildings, banks, hotels, restaurants, schools, colleges, universities, libraries, agencies, railway and subway stations in Tashkent. The Red Square, the Independence Square, the Amir Temur Square, TV Tower  are the most part of history of Uzbekistan  where every tourist who came to Tashkent goes there to learn the history. You can see many memorial monuments in Tashkent. There are many visitable and historical places in Tashkent. The export and import were developed. The weather in Tashkent is wonderful, every season comes in it’s time. The winter is cold but not as much in New York. The spring comes with sunny, warm days, blooming trees, cool wind, rainy weather. And we celebrate one of the big, long  holiday Navroz in the spring . During the holiday we made our special food, we held our national traditions. The summer days are hot there, but it’s fun. Because in summer it’s 3 month vacation for students, most families go to mountains, go to visit different countries, and we spend our much time with fun. Last day of summer and 1st day of autumn we celebrate Uzbekistan’s Independence Day. It’s one of the big holiday in Uzbekistan. Also, from the 2nd day of autumn the school, college, and universities start. Most of the days of autumn are warm, but some days are rainy, too.  

The houses in Tashkent are different from New York houses. My home in Tashkent is located in one of the popular district. We were 6 people (my grandparents, my mom, me, my brother and sister) in my family. Also, I have 2 aunts, who have their own family and little children. We met with them a lot, we went to different places, we had fun. I had a lot of friends there. I studied in the most popular, famous, special and single school in Tashkent. With the old name my school called Gymnasium. But from the 2008 my school’s name changed to XTVTFFIDUM. Of course it’s hard to say, also, if someone asked your school, you had to tell old name, because  most people in Tashkent  know my school with the name Gymnasium. And it was proud to me to study in that school, because my school was specialized to philological subjects, literature, and world languages. From school we went to different historical places, to the theaters and cinemas. That days were fun with my classmates. After school with my friends we went to the biggest library named by A.Navoiy in Tashkent. In the library you can read any book you want, you can find any information you want, any book from any subject in different languages, also you can do your homeworks using the computers. Also, we went to natural places to draw pictures, we went to play games like bowling, pool, we went to dancing classes. These times I had fun with my friends.

One day, when I came after school, my mom meet me and said " We'll leave to U.S." That moment I started thinking: "OMG... I never left my home country. I never thought about leaving Tashkent for a long time. Here all my family members, friends...I'll miss them. How I'll live there without people who were close to me.” The tears came out from my eyes, I cried a little bit. The next day I got a ticket to plane, the flying date was May 25th, 2013, which the plane flies after 1 week. I had few days to live in Tashkent. We started collecting our clothes, necessary stuffs, baggages. During the 1 week I try to be happy, I try to don’t show my sadness. I didn’t understand in what mood I should be. I told my friends that I was leaving to U.S. They were sad, but they tried to make me happy. 1 day before flying my grandparents, aunt, aunts and their families came to our house.  We did dinner together, we talked whole the night. The next flying day they went to the airport with us, I couldn’t stop me from crying. It seemed that I’m going to the death and I’ll never see them. Hah… But now I’m thinking  why I cried. When we came to the Tashkent International Airport, we said bye to our family. At midnight the plane flew. After 6 hours it stopped at Riga Airport for 2 hours. Everyone got a break. During the 2 hours we did shopping at DutyFree. I took a lot of pictures there. Then the plane continued by it's way to America.

In May 26th, 2013 the Uzbekistan Airways Plane arrived at JFK Airport. There my mom's aunt with her husband met us. My aunt's husband took our luggages and put in his car. Then we sit my aunt's car and she drove us to her house. By the way America seemed me different, like very simple. There were just cars in the way. I asked to myself, "Where is nature? Where are trees, grasses, flowers?" The way was very long, we were tired after flight, I wanted to sleep. Finally we came to the house, I was sleeping. When they woke up me, I thought it was dream (coming to America).

We lived 1 week in my aunt's house. During the week we went to Manhattan, to the different, famous  places, we did shopping, anyway we had fun. Then my aunt found an apartment for us, and we went together to see the apartment. We liked and moved there. Our building located near the ocean and Verrazano bridge. Every night we went to walk there. Also, there were big shopping stores. And we went to the beach many times. The water was very salty. There we played volleyball in water . From the sun we got tan. It was fun.

In August my mom found a school for us, but my sister's school was different from ours. My mom registered me and my brother to the high school, and she registered my sister to the elementary school. Here the schools different from my country. In Tashkent we go to the same school from the 1st grade until 9th grade. Then we graduate the school and go to the college for 3 years. Then if you want you can go to the university. But here, there are 3 types of school (elementary school, middle school, high school) until 12th grade, then college, then university. It seemed to me that it takes many years for studying, then you will be old, so after that you can start working. Lol... First day of school was difficult to me, because I didn't know no-one there, there were different people, the lessons seemed to me difficult. The next day I found friends from Tashkent, day by day we learned each other, we became best friends. We went to different places together, I had fun with them. But in the same time I missed my Tashkent... Now I'm one of the good student of IHSL. And I'm writing this memoir essay from my English class. By writing this essay I learned that where people were not, they have to live without forgetting their home country, their culture, and people who were close to them.