Monday, August 10, 2009
The Final days
4 weeks have passed, and still it feels like we arrived just yesterday. We are in the final stages of the program - making presentations for the state department and preparing for the National Night. The latter is supposed to be a presentation of our own country, and we will show it to all of the people we have met during our stay. These include other students, inhabitants of the old folks' home of Brookhaven and all our professors, to mention a few. Right now we are going to evaluate the program, which simply has been great!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
1 week, 4 essays
This has definitely been one of the more stressful weeks, as we have had a lot of writing to do, new classes and new impressions to digest every day of the week. We visited the Boston State House and walked the Freedom Trail, which is an historical tour of Boston, among other things. The group is getting along great and this friday we had a national cooking pot night, with everyone preparing their own national dish. As true Norwegians, Olav, Sara and myself prepared smoked salmon (imported from norway..!) with bread and scrambled eggs. The night was a great success and was followed by a trip to the amusement park Six Flags the day after. In addition to great rollercoasters, we got to run around in a water park, where everyone had great fun. Now we have only two weeks left, time is passing by so fast!
Knut
Knut
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
In the heights! <3
On Sunday, we went to a broadway show in New York: In the heights! <3
In the heights is a story that explores days in the characters' lives in the New York City Dominican-American neighborhood of Washington Heights. The story features and focuses on Hip-hop, salsa, merengue and soul music. It was nominated for 13 Tony Awards and won a Tony Award for "Best musical".
The show has a lot of comedy, drama and even romance!
The show has a lot of comedy, drama and even romance!
I recommend this show to everybody who wants to see a REAL broadway show :)
Our weekend trip to New York
Saturday morning we all woke up very early to Fatime (Our friend from Sweden) going in to all of the dorms and singing the New York song: "Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today. I want to be a part of it, New Yoooork, NEW YORK!". Yes, people, we were going to New York!
It was very funny, and she got us all in the mood, even though it was very early!
After a 4 hour long bus drive, we arrived at "The hotel in Times Square", which was the name of the hotel we would be staying in. After getting settled in, we went around in Times Square and that was a lot of fun! New York is completely amazing!
As well as walking around in Times Square, we also went to see the Empire State building, we walked around in Central Park (some of us) and we also took a ferry around New York. In the ferry, we got to among a lot of things The Statue of Liberty. :) But now we are only talking about Saturday. Because guess what we did on Sunday? We went to see a Broadway show: In the heights :)
We had a great weekend in New York, and it is impossible to describe how amazing the city is!
It was very funny, and she got us all in the mood, even though it was very early!
After a 4 hour long bus drive, we arrived at "The hotel in Times Square", which was the name of the hotel we would be staying in. After getting settled in, we went around in Times Square and that was a lot of fun! New York is completely amazing!
As well as walking around in Times Square, we also went to see the Empire State building, we walked around in Central Park (some of us) and we also took a ferry around New York. In the ferry, we got to among a lot of things The Statue of Liberty. :) But now we are only talking about Saturday. Because guess what we did on Sunday? We went to see a Broadway show: In the heights :)
We had a great weekend in New York, and it is impossible to describe how amazing the city is!
Politics and work! =)
Hi, guys! How are you?
We are sorry for the late update, we have had a lot to do.. Perhaps I should tell you about what we have done since the last time we updated?
We are sorry for the late update, we have had a lot to do.. Perhaps I should tell you about what we have done since the last time we updated?
Well, on Wednesday we had a class called "The U.S Constitution and the Supreme Court". We actually got to learn a lot about what the similarities and differences are between the U.S system and our countries' systems. As a part of the class, we went to visit the State Supreme Judicial Court.
On Thursday, we had the "American Politics" class. This was also an exiting class, since we went to visit the Massachusetts State House. And guess who we saw there? The governor!! :D Unfortunately, we did not get to talk to him, because he was in a rush. But we met a State representative who was more than happy to show us around :)
On Friday, we went to visit an old people's home, where we had our community service. We participated in a meeting where many of them read stories they had written; Stories both about things they had experienced, etc.. And since we all come from many different countries, we also sang songs for them or read stories/poems from our countries. They seemed to be having a lot of fun :) We also participated in a "dancing lesson" with them, where we had a dance instructor that taught us how to dance different folk dances :) That was so much fun
These are pictures from the State Supreme Juidicial Court:
These are pictures from the State Supreme Juidicial Court:
These are pictures from the Massachusetts State house.
These are pictures from us and our friends from The Netherlands performing in the old people's home:
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
From Sunday til Tuesday!
We have now finished our first week here in the States, and have just entered our second week.
Yesterday (Monday) and today we have had classes about leadership. We have done a lot of things and we have learned a lot as well :)
On Sunday we went to Cape Cod. The Cape Cod is a very nice beach not too far away from campus. The weather was extremely nice (as always) and we had a lot of fun just playing around at the beach. After we had spent some hours at the beach, we went to a street called the "main street" which was not far away from the beach. We walked through some of the stores they had there and after we had lunch, we went to see a real baseball game! :D
The funny part is that the "host dude" actually announced us on the speaker, and told everybody to welcome us, something that was incredibly fun =D
The baseball game was very exiting and we all acted like we were some REAL baseball fans!
Yesterday we started with the leadership class, and after having our regular seminars (with many interesting facts), we had a seminar at the evening which was very special!
A former veteran who had been and experienced the Vietnam war came to visit us and talk about his experiences in the war and how things are working out for him now.
I have to say - The seminar was so deep and strong, that no one barely talked to eachother when we walked out of the room after the seminar.
You could truly tell that this man had gone through a lot of things, things that are so difficult to imagine!
Today, we had a panel discussion with female community leaders :) They seemed to heve a lot of experience in different types of arenas.. We all asked them a lot of questions that they were more than willing to answer!
Later on in the evening we went to eat dinner at Megan's (one of the mentor) house.. It was very nice to meet her extremely kind family :) We had a very funny evening there; we ate a lot of good food, sang in all kinds of languages, danced and had fun :D
Tomorrow, we are going to a courthouse to witness a real case, something that I bet will be very memorable :)
Yesterday (Monday) and today we have had classes about leadership. We have done a lot of things and we have learned a lot as well :)
On Sunday we went to Cape Cod. The Cape Cod is a very nice beach not too far away from campus. The weather was extremely nice (as always) and we had a lot of fun just playing around at the beach. After we had spent some hours at the beach, we went to a street called the "main street" which was not far away from the beach. We walked through some of the stores they had there and after we had lunch, we went to see a real baseball game! :D
The funny part is that the "host dude" actually announced us on the speaker, and told everybody to welcome us, something that was incredibly fun =D
The baseball game was very exiting and we all acted like we were some REAL baseball fans!
Yesterday we started with the leadership class, and after having our regular seminars (with many interesting facts), we had a seminar at the evening which was very special!
A former veteran who had been and experienced the Vietnam war came to visit us and talk about his experiences in the war and how things are working out for him now.
I have to say - The seminar was so deep and strong, that no one barely talked to eachother when we walked out of the room after the seminar.
You could truly tell that this man had gone through a lot of things, things that are so difficult to imagine!
Today, we had a panel discussion with female community leaders :) They seemed to heve a lot of experience in different types of arenas.. We all asked them a lot of questions that they were more than willing to answer!
Later on in the evening we went to eat dinner at Megan's (one of the mentor) house.. It was very nice to meet her extremely kind family :) We had a very funny evening there; we ate a lot of good food, sang in all kinds of languages, danced and had fun :D
Tomorrow, we are going to a courthouse to witness a real case, something that I bet will be very memorable :)
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Tour Plimoth Plantation!
Today was a very hectic (but funny) day for us. After leaving around 11 o'clock and getting stuck in traffic for so long, we finally got to the place we wanted to be: The Plymouth Plantation!
The Plymouth Plantation was an english colonial venture in North America from 1620 - 1691. Today, it is a place for visitors to come and see the history of the plantation.
Trust me, the history was very interesting! We got to meet people who were actually from the people who were held as slaves at the plantations. We got to learn a lot about their culture, and talk to them about how things were/are. The most funny thing is that the people who talked to us were not "role players". They were real people whose families had really gone through many things, and they knew a lot of history!
They were very nice and charming people. Sara thought they were so charming that she even got married to one of the locals :D By taking a picture of him, she officially married him!
After spending some time at the plantation, we took a walk by a beautiful beach, before we ate dinner at a very typical american restaurants.
I will be putting out pictures very soon, when I get some time to upload pictures :)
The Plymouth Plantation was an english colonial venture in North America from 1620 - 1691. Today, it is a place for visitors to come and see the history of the plantation.
Trust me, the history was very interesting! We got to meet people who were actually from the people who were held as slaves at the plantations. We got to learn a lot about their culture, and talk to them about how things were/are. The most funny thing is that the people who talked to us were not "role players". They were real people whose families had really gone through many things, and they knew a lot of history!
They were very nice and charming people. Sara thought they were so charming that she even got married to one of the locals :D By taking a picture of him, she officially married him!
After spending some time at the plantation, we took a walk by a beautiful beach, before we ate dinner at a very typical american restaurants.
I will be putting out pictures very soon, when I get some time to upload pictures :)
How are you, everybody?
These last couple of days have been pretty hectic for us, with a lot of running back and forth.
We have a very tight schedule, but even though we have a lot of work, we also have a lot of fun at the same time!
We have had some pretty fun classes so far: "The american classroom", "Consumer Culture in America" and "A nation of immigrants". There is something very unique about our classes.
Because we have a different class almost every day (Monday - Friday). We also put in a lot of practical activities related to those classes in the schedule, something that makes the "school" part even more interesting :)
At Wednesday and Thursday we went to visit some immigrant enclaves; some in Waltham and some in a city called Lowell. In Waltham, we went to a street called Moody Street. This street has been affected by immigration in many ways.. The street was very beautiful!
In Lowell, we went to museums and got to learn a lot about the immigration history!
On Friday we had community service, which was a very exciting experience for all of us. We worked as volunteers for something called the Food Bank (an organization that provides food for people in need). We all got to work at different food stations, and decide on which kinds of food that were "usable". We were pretty shocked to later find out that the volunteer work we did had fed 6500 people :)
As well as all of the working, we are having so much fun. We have all experienced culture shocks, good times, and very funny moments :P When we have free time, we usually spend time with everybody as a group.. We have actually been taught a lot about baseball, and some days ago, we played a "real" game of baseball :D
These last couple of days have been pretty hectic for us, with a lot of running back and forth.
We have a very tight schedule, but even though we have a lot of work, we also have a lot of fun at the same time!
We have had some pretty fun classes so far: "The american classroom", "Consumer Culture in America" and "A nation of immigrants". There is something very unique about our classes.
Because we have a different class almost every day (Monday - Friday). We also put in a lot of practical activities related to those classes in the schedule, something that makes the "school" part even more interesting :)
At Wednesday and Thursday we went to visit some immigrant enclaves; some in Waltham and some in a city called Lowell. In Waltham, we went to a street called Moody Street. This street has been affected by immigration in many ways.. The street was very beautiful!
In Lowell, we went to museums and got to learn a lot about the immigration history!
On Friday we had community service, which was a very exciting experience for all of us. We worked as volunteers for something called the Food Bank (an organization that provides food for people in need). We all got to work at different food stations, and decide on which kinds of food that were "usable". We were pretty shocked to later find out that the volunteer work we did had fed 6500 people :)
As well as all of the working, we are having so much fun. We have all experienced culture shocks, good times, and very funny moments :P When we have free time, we usually spend time with everybody as a group.. We have actually been taught a lot about baseball, and some days ago, we played a "real" game of baseball :D
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Our first day in Boston!
Hello everybody!
Since we have gotten over the jet-lag (kind of) then we thought we should blog about our experiences. Perhaps we should introduce ourselves first?
We are 3 students from Norway (Sara, Knut and Olav) who got selected to participate in a program called "The fulbright summer institute for outstanding european students" :)
Together with fellow participants from Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, UK and France, we are spending five weeks in the USA to learn about leadership and culture.
There was a total of six people who got to travel from Norway, but we were parted in two. While the three others from Norway (Dipali, Mats and Rosilin) are spending their time at Drexel University in Philadelphia, our institute is located at Bentley university right outside of Boston.
July the 12 was the day of arrival. Olav took a flight from Bergen and arrived very early in Boston, but Sara and Knut were actually two of the latest people to arrive. Once they had arrived, they were greeted by one of the four student mentors, Owen, who drove them to Bentley university in his car. He gave them a very good first impression of America, even though they were very tired and were barely listening to a word he was saying!
All of us used the first couple of days to get rid of the jet-lag, but we also did a lot of other stuff as well. The first day at Bentley was very special, because this was a "getting to know eachother day". As well as getting to know eachother, we also got to know Bentley university, and it is a very nice, typical American university! Later on we were all invited for a very fancy welcoming dinner, which was very nice. Oh, by the way, Shaheen (One of Sara's roomates) had a birthday that day, so everybody sang to her in their language, which was very nice =)
Since we know had gotten to know eachother a little better, it was time for us to get to know Boston! =D We went down town and took something called "the duck tour", which was a city tour in a very weird bus! The reason we call it a "weird bus" is because the bus actually turned into a boat after a while, so we got to see Boston both on land and in water! That was a very funny experience with a very funny guide =P
This post is being written as a sort of introduction to what we have done so far. We are all very happy with everybody, and after only 3 days in the States, the group has gotten VERY close! =D Of course, we will be posting a lot more, and we will try to get up some pictures as well ;) Tomorrow we are going to CHINATOWN! That will definately be a funny experience..
So long guys! Greetings from "the outstanding ones" [ ;) ] in Boston!
Since we have gotten over the jet-lag (kind of) then we thought we should blog about our experiences. Perhaps we should introduce ourselves first?
We are 3 students from Norway (Sara, Knut and Olav) who got selected to participate in a program called "The fulbright summer institute for outstanding european students" :)
Together with fellow participants from Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, UK and France, we are spending five weeks in the USA to learn about leadership and culture.
There was a total of six people who got to travel from Norway, but we were parted in two. While the three others from Norway (Dipali, Mats and Rosilin) are spending their time at Drexel University in Philadelphia, our institute is located at Bentley university right outside of Boston.
July the 12 was the day of arrival. Olav took a flight from Bergen and arrived very early in Boston, but Sara and Knut were actually two of the latest people to arrive. Once they had arrived, they were greeted by one of the four student mentors, Owen, who drove them to Bentley university in his car. He gave them a very good first impression of America, even though they were very tired and were barely listening to a word he was saying!
All of us used the first couple of days to get rid of the jet-lag, but we also did a lot of other stuff as well. The first day at Bentley was very special, because this was a "getting to know eachother day". As well as getting to know eachother, we also got to know Bentley university, and it is a very nice, typical American university! Later on we were all invited for a very fancy welcoming dinner, which was very nice. Oh, by the way, Shaheen (One of Sara's roomates) had a birthday that day, so everybody sang to her in their language, which was very nice =)
Since we know had gotten to know eachother a little better, it was time for us to get to know Boston! =D We went down town and took something called "the duck tour", which was a city tour in a very weird bus! The reason we call it a "weird bus" is because the bus actually turned into a boat after a while, so we got to see Boston both on land and in water! That was a very funny experience with a very funny guide =P
This post is being written as a sort of introduction to what we have done so far. We are all very happy with everybody, and after only 3 days in the States, the group has gotten VERY close! =D Of course, we will be posting a lot more, and we will try to get up some pictures as well ;) Tomorrow we are going to CHINATOWN! That will definately be a funny experience..
So long guys! Greetings from "the outstanding ones" [ ;) ] in Boston!
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