I went to Boston and Washington D.C. on an East Coast Trip. It was for six days from April 7th to April 12th. The first day was spent traveling, once landing in Minneapolis, and I stayed in Boston for three days. On the fourth day I went to Washington D.C. on an Amtrak train which took eight hours and I stayed there for two days. I felt this trip was short and wonderfully busy. The reason is that I made many discoveries from it. I found seeing is believing, and that it is good to learn about the place I will be visiting in advance, and that the world is bigger than I thought.
First discovery involves seeing and seeing is believing. For example, something smelled bad when I went through the row of cherry blossom trees in Washington D.C. I guess it was the smell of fertilizer which was made from excretions of animals. It was really annoying, but then I thought it was part of culture in the district. Also, the atmosphere in Boston was much better than I thought. I had typical images of large cities in America, but in fact, there were no weird people and the streets were clean in Boston at that time. The stereotype was broken in my mind. Therefore, by having these experiences, I found that there were many things that I never knew until I went to the places.
Second, this trip helped me to better understand the importance of learning about something in advance. There are two reasons why I came up with this. First of all, it was a great experience for me. Studying about the place we would visit made me energetic to do it. Second reason is that by actually visiting I learned a lot about American history and it was simply fun. I was excited to discover many things which I saw in the presentation and the tour book in class. Also, I had a sense of fulfillment by having a deeper understanding of the United States. Accordingly, I found that learning about the history of America will stay with me even after I return to Japan.
Third, I realized again the world is larger than I thought. There were various differences between the three places even though they are all contained in the United States. For example the buildings in Spokane are not so tall, however in Boston, they are tall and modern among the historical red bricks buildings standing. Also, unlike the buildings in Spokane and Boston, there is a special rule in Washington D.C., the buildings must be lower than the Washington Monument is. Considering all of the countries, I wonder about the many differences all the countries have such as the weather, foods, and animals. In conclusion, my last discovery is that it is endless to look at all of the differences of each country.
To sum up, I had an amazing, precious opportunity to learn about three important things on this East Coast Trip. There are some things we can’t understand unless we experience them ourselves. Also, we should learn first about where we will be going to be better prepared to know where we should visit. Furthermore, this trip emphasized that the world is quite large. With these things, this East Coast Trip was marvelous, productive and satisfying.
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