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 :)
Saturday, July 18, 2009
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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