Park.kyeongmin/ First essay assignment

 

Winter break intermediate English writing (2)

Park. Kyeongmin

Having finished military duty in 2010, I was very excited and confident enough to see a bit more of the world by myself, so I went to Australia. But it was not easy at all with limited cash and English skills. During the first two weeks in Sydney, it was great. Everything was new to me, and I took hundreds of photos, visited every single corner of the city once I heard it was famous, and be friended with diverse people from all over the world. Although it struck me as a culture shock to share a room with girls at a backpacker, but even that was a quite experience at the beginning.

And then, magically, Sydney, one of the world's most famous cities turned to be just another city, and my life became boring. I was also tired of Subway sandwiches, McDonald's hamburgers, and the fact that I was still a tourist. What I wanted was a real Australian life. I looked for a way to share life with natives and found a memo on the Sydney tourist center webpage that Mr. Thompson, a management consultant who was at that time looking for someone to help him with his building project in Bundaberg which was in a kind of rural areas.

For next eight solid months, I lived under the same roof, enjoyed a lot of interesting stories of the Thompsons, and most of all I did such a wonderful job in building a new Queenslander-style house in which they have been living so far.

One day, I had to take care of the house on my own, because one of their friends was ill in New Zealand. Within a radius of a mile, there was no one but me, a cat named Bing, and four chickens were left behind for ten days. I was a complete free man and it was the most extraordinary time that I have ever had in my life. I would sit in a long comfortable chair watching Bing chasing birds and the chickens with a glass of beer always in one hand. At night, when I turned all the lights off in the house, I could see thousands of stars and even the Milky Way. It was spectacular view.

However, that moment didn't last long. I noticed that Bing behaved in a strange way. He was extremely cautious, crawling on the floor, looking in every direction as if being afraid of something. But I didn't give him much attention, because I thought that he was playing. Next day, it was about noon, I was having brunch watching TV at the same time, and Bing was also enjoying his cat food on the floor beside me. Then suddenly, Bing jumped right up through the air, made a weird scream, and dashed to the back door at a speed of light. I was totally surprised with my mouth half open. I was just about to say something to him, then, I saw.

"Holy shit!!", I gave a cry.

It was a dark, enormous, and horrifying creature that I never encounter that close. I climbed up the kitchen table and looked down a python slithering in from the front door. As soon as I saw it, I just knew that it could kill a man. My heart was beating so hard that I could hear it. I grabbed an iron bar which I had been using as a barbell, tried to chase it away to the front door again. It was unbelievably heavy to move, I could feel that from the tip of the iron bar. Luckily, I got the python out of the house. I thought it was over. Through the glass of the front door, I saw it sitting on the stair case. I took photos and even short videos as a proof of my triumph. To my stupidity, a thought struck me that if the giant snake freely hanged around the house, I couldn't go out! I didn't want that situation, which means either of one could live unless the other died.

I ran like a wind through the back door and went to a shed where all the tools were stored. I chose a shovel and got close to the front door again from the outside. The snake was not there. A Qeenslander-style house was about a meter high above the ground, because of possible floods or humidity. I searched thoroughly under the house. The free-ranged chickens helped me and I didn't know they were brave or just stupid. Anyway, after a while I found the monster and it seemed that it was heading back to bush. In an open place, I could its whole body. It was approximately 4 meters long, and I was not sure, but it looked like the python had already eaten something because its abdomen was swollen.

This was the moment that I still don't understand. Certainly, I could let it go, but somehow I killed it. I chopped it several times with the shovel, and it was a hard job for its skin was really tough. I thought that I could easily cut it into half. Then suddenly, a strange feeling came into, and I could describe it as nothing but guilt. The snake was not an ant or any kind of small insects. It was a being. And it was first time for me to take a life. I don't know how this affected me after all, but whenever I close my eyes, this scene becomes so vivid as if my whole body remembers it.