001.What are you passionate about?（2分スピーチ）

What are you passionate about?

Hello! My name is Alexandra. I am from Australia, but I now live in Albania. Part of the reason for my move to a foreign country is because my number one passion in life is traveling. I love exploring new cultures! I really feel it expands your way of thinking; challenges your mind, body and soul to circumstances that you could never experience in your home country. For this reason, my biggest passion in life is travel.
Now, you might ask, what sparked this interest for me? That is a question I have thought long and hard about, because growing up as a child I didn’t really have any experiences traveling. We did a few road trips here and there around Australia, but those were quite scarce, let me tell you! However, before having children my mother and father did travel a lot. We grew up with images of my father in front of the Eiffel Tower or my mother standing on a bridge in Venice, and also a world map on the wall. My sisters and I used to play many games exploring the world map so we were very aware of different countries from an early age, even if we hadn’t seen them.
My father highly regarded learning foreign languages. We learned Japanese in school and I continued that in high school. In the 10th grade, I was given the opportunity to go on a student exchange. I packed my bags and off I went to Wakayama! I went to school in Wakayama. I lived with a family in Wakayama. It was the most life-changing experience!