This is the last day of official activity of our trip. I’ll miss you East Coast, and all the times I've jay wal---wait I'm not supposed to talk about that. I’ll keep this one short because you're probably tired of reading my blogs and I'm running out of fuel to write quality material. Remember all the misfortunes of our first day in Boston? Well, we ended up going back to the Skywalk Observatory, and made a successful visit to the Boston Public Library. The only thing left was the Black Heritage Trail. We also gave a self-guided walking tour for this, but I was pretty proud of this one since I was able to utilize my US history knowledge (huzzah for Robert Shaw and the 54th battle regiment). Our Black Heritage Trail tour was quickly followed by a tour of the Freedom Trail. The thing about this tour is that our tour guide completely manifested herself into the character of a women during the Revolutionary War with a profuse hate for war hero Paul Revere. If you're interested in the reason for her hate, you can make a quick visit to Boston and go on the tour yourself.
Wouldn't be a trip to Boston without a trip to Harvard, or as the other nine will probably tell you, “Havahd”. We got lucky and found a tour the moment we stepped up from the station. In fact, it our luck was so unreal that our staff Judy made sure to research the tour group to make sure the tour wasn't a credit card scam. Harvard is the most known school in the world for a reason, and the tour made it quite clear why that is. Our last stop of the entire trip was Quincy Market, essentially a pier marketplace with expensive seafood and near-suicidal street performers. So basically, every other pier. I couldn't help but think of San Francisco’s Pier 39, not so much because of the resemblance, but because I really wanted to go home. Too bad we have three days of camping right afterwards. -David Yi
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Today was a bit sunny. I prefer dark and dreary days, so it was uncomfortable.
Everything in the morning was really tiring in my opinion. It was just a lot of walking. Don’t remember much, but after having some Pho in Chinatown. I was up and ready to go. We had an amazing tour of the Freedom Trail and we ended up at Quincy Market where we got some Lobster Rolls which Boston is famous for. It was probably the place I went to, but it wasn’t good sadly. We went to Little Italy which was close by to get some cannoli which I also don’t like. It was too sweat. It was at the point of throwing up. Even though I was dying eating cannoli, we had a nice night view of the city from the park we were at. It really shows me that my favorite city on the trip will be Boston for sure. -David Trang The second to last day of this trip. First thing on our agenda today was visit one of the most well-known universities -- Harvard, or actually it is Hahvahd, according to what we learned from the tour. Now I know that the Bostonian accent takes out every word that has a “r” and replaces it with a “h.” I enjoyed walking around the campus. The architectures seem classical, and their images left a mark in my mind. Through the campus tour, we learned more about the history behind Harvard and also the size of its campus library. From what I recall, I believe that the length of the whole library takes about two marathons to walk through the whole entire area (or something like that). We went to visit the bookstore after the tour before we continue our agenda of the day. Next stop was to the Black Heritage Trail, the place where we have made several attempts in the previous days but never actually got to it. Now today's the last chance, or well, one of the two last chances. We arrived at the trail and did a self-guided tour, with two people from our group trying their best to improvise and give us a tour through the trail on the spot (good job guys by the way). First thing I noticed in this area, it is a very quiet neighborhood, as we haven't encountered much people throughout the trail. Its houses and buildings are also very pretty as this also may mean that they are certainly not cheap housing. Through walking this trail, it gave me quite a bit feeling of home (and by that I meant the city San Francisco). The hills in this area weren't actually that intense, and definitely not as intense as the ones in SF. However, after about eight days of continuous walking, long-term exposure to the heat, lack of sleep, and also with the clock ticking in past lunch time when we needed food, it took us quite some time to not just walk the hills actually but we were somewhat dragging along the whole trail. Another feature that reminded me of SF was the alleys that we passed through. We have come to encounter a few alleys along our way, and also the feel that even the streets were alleys, mainly due to the fact that there weren't cars passing through. Much of the information from this tour can be related back to what I have learned from history class, including topics such as slavery and racial segregation. We ended our tour after the last stop at a chapel, where we learned more about racism back then in this place.
Now as we were starving for food, we made our way back to Chinatown to get Pho for lunch. Perhaps this was the latest lunch we ever had -- 3 something P.M. In this case, I would actually call it an afternoon tea instead of lunch. After “lunch,” we headed to the Freedom Trail for a tour. We had a very huge group for this tour and overall I thought that the tour guide did a wonderful job in not just crowd control but also in the way she delivered the information. She had a costume as a female who lived in the suburb areas in the 1700s. Throughout this tour, I've retrieved some of my memory of what I learned in history classes again, although I believe those who took AP United States history were more excited during this tour. Some of the historical events that came back to my mind from this tour were the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party, as well as some of significant figures in history during this time period. We have also learned where some events took place on the street, and what I remember the most from this tour was the clapping and singing we did together at one of the corners of the street, when the tour guide wanted us to feel on the site the protest that took place back then. Overall, it was a nice experience as the tour guide led us through the historical time periods walking through the Freedom Trail. I would say that this tour definitely kept me awake and attentive throughout the whole two hours, as the tour guide used a tone that was engaging and interactive. For sure this is one of the tours that I recommend if you were to ever visit Boston. Our next stop was the Quincy Market, which was right next to where we ended our tour. We went to check out the street performance, and it was entertaining and interesting to watch. Then we walked about the food market indoors with huge waves of people. This market seems to be a tourist attraction as I see many tourist groups traveling about. After some exploration, I decided to try one of the lobster rolls. Although we ate lunch today at around 3 in the afternoon, most of us still managed to finish our dinner at the place before heading on for dessert. The last stop for today -- Mike’s Pastry for cannoli. We walked into Little Italy and saw that this is quite a small neighborhood with many cars stuck in traffic. We found the pastry place and already from one street away we can see the line of people waiting at the storefront to get in. We realized that it actually didn’t took too long while we were lining up. As we made our way into the store, I was somewhat shocked that there was not any lineup system, which made the store seem quite chaotic (basically imagine a very huge wave of people just flooding all over the store). We made our way to the front to buy our cannoli, and then pushed our way through out the door. We exited the pastry place and found a park nearby where we enjoyed our dessert while sitting on the steps near the small waterfront view. On our way back to the metro station to go back to our hotel, we walked along the Boston Harbor and enjoyed the Boston city in a beautiful night view! -Shirley Tsang Today was a very inspiring day for me. We first went to Harvard and a student from Harvard was giving us a tour. She taught us about the fun and weird history and traditions that they have and it was all very fascinated. One thing I remember most was probably that one of their dining halls was similar to Hogwarts’s dining hall. That made me instantly jealous. There were also a story about a mother who built a memorial for her son, a Harvard student, who died in the Titanic. The campus was truly so beautiful and I’m ready to visit there again.
One super memorable event I had in Boston was probably the Freedom Trail Tour led by a woman dressed in colonial times. Her tour guide skills really got to me and I inspired to be a tour guide like her. She had a loud and clear voice and how she told the stories that I once were so bored of listening in class became all interesting to me again. Since it was a huge tour group, I literally ran almost at every location just to be closer to her and to listen better. Usually, my attention span don’t last very long but I managed to listen to her for two hours without me ever feeling tired or bored. -Angela Iao Harvard University is or first stop. We were not expected for a tour but I am glad we went. It is interesting. The tour guide is a Harvard student, she told us about the library, the cursed gate and the lucky Statue whose face does not match the actual person because there is no record of how the person looks like. I also learn about how Harvard student will run naked at night before final and scream then they will take the final the next day. It is their tradition which is quite interesting. After we went on to our self-guided Black Heritage Trail where walked passed a rich neighborhood with buildings with red bricks. It has a strong Europe feeling housing. After we went to Chinatown for pho and then we went on another interesting tour about the Freedom Trail. We saw the place that Boston Massacre is at and also the new not very good looking City Hall building. The tour guide dress up as a historic women and that helps us more engage into the history and she has a lot of interaction with the audience which makes the tour more interesting and fun. After the tour, we walked around in the Quincy Market and look for our own dinner and we have cannoli dessert at Little Italy. We sat at a park and enjoy our dessert and we walked through Boston Harbor and the Wharf. Today is also a packed schedule and it is a fun day to end our trip.
P.s. for myself: You almost make it with no fast food for 10 days! One more day, stay determined! -Meifeng Deng First we went to Harvard where we had a student tour around there. I was very excited to visit Harvard because it's one of the Ivy League school, which is one of the very prestigious schools that many people would like to get into. I like the environment of the school Campus because there were a lot of trees and it seemed like a very lively school because there were a lot of people on campus.
Afterward, we went back to the Black Heritage Trail where our group members, Lisa and David Yi has prepared and gave us a tour about the trail. Both of them did a really good job. After this we went to Chinatown to eat Pho. After we ate Pho at Chinatown we went back to the Boston common to have a tour on the freedom trail. This tour was absolutely amazing because our tour guide was very funny and very enthusiastic which made the tour very enjoyable. After this we went to Mike’s Pastry and bought some cannoli, which we ate at a park. -Danny Yu When we arrived at Harvard, we had not intended to go on a tour, but found the Harvard walking tour outside the metro station. The tour guide was very enthusiastic and made the tour very entertaining. The campus was very open, and even though had a historical feel, was still very welcoming. I found the campus environment very comfortable, especially with all the open space.
The Boston team then took us on a self-guided tour of the Black Heritage Trail. It led us to the Beacon Hill area. The one thing that I noticed was the short doors of many of the buildings. I was able to fit exactly into the frame of some of the doors. Beacon Hill was noticeably a well-off neighborhood. It is hard to imagine that it was once the home of the African American community and was converted to the home of the wealthy. We ended our tour at the Museum of African American History/ African American Meeting Hall. The park ranger gave us a brief introduction of the meeting hall and filled us in on other information that we did not see on the self-guided tour map. For lunch, we went back to Chinatown to have pho. Afterwards, we headed to Boston Commons to go on the Freedom Trail tour. The highlight of the tour was that the tour guide was playing a character the entire time. It was very entertaining seeing the youth so excited about the tour, where they would run and catch up to the tour guide to hear everything she was saying. The way the tour was presented was very story like and conversational. Although I learned many of the historical information in class, it was a great refresher that was more memorable. Afterwards, we went to the Quincy Market to explore and eat dinner. I tried the hot buttered lobster roll from the Boston Chowda Company. We also made our way to Mike’s Pastry in Little Italy to try their famous cannoli. The bakery was very crowded and had a very long line. There was no distinct lines, so we had to be very assertive going in. After we got our cannoli, we stopped by a nearby park area to eat. I’m not a big fan of sweets, so for me, it was a bit too much. I think it was good to share with someone else, but not for me to eat the entire piece by myself. -Diana Lin We had a lot of great tours on the last day! The Harvard Tour was absolutely gorgeous! Our tour guide Ronia, a current Harvard student, gave us an amazing tour! Touring is one of the experiences that you have to go there in person and feel the space, the weather, the architecture, the people, the sound, and the sense of learning. I cannot tell you how I felt to be in the Harvard Tour. But I can tell you some fun facts about Harvard! Harvard is a liberal arts college. Because President Lowell said you should learn a little of everything and something very well, you are required to take 1⁄4 of your classes as General Education, 1⁄2 of your classes as your major or concentration that you want to study, and the rest, you just do whatever you want. Sounds fun?
Later on we guided ourselves to the Black Heritage Trail. It was an educational and meaningful tour. Here are ten reasons why you should go visit the Black Heritage Trail: 1) You get to see the 54th Regiment Memorial, 2) You get to visit Beacon Hill, 3) You will find out all about Phillips School, 4) You will hear about the Underground Railroad, 5) You will see the Charles Street Meeting House, 6) You will know who is Timothy Gilberg, 7) You will get to learn about the history of the African Meeting House, 8) You will find out who is the first woman who gave a speech about politics at the African Meeting House, 9) You will learn about William Gear Reverson, 10) You seriously have to visit this trail because of the previous nine things I told you. -Sandy Jiang I was so excited for this day because we are visiting Harvard University! Harvard
University is my dream school, so I was so excited to learn more about it. Our original plan was to self-tour the campus but by luck when we were heading out of the train station I decided to walk the other way instead of exiting from the University side and ended up bumping into a tour group. The tour costed 10 dollars and it was led by a current Harvard Student. The student spoke in two tones, a tour guide voice and her regular voice which I found interesting and it made the tour fun. One thing I enjoy doing now is to pronounce Harvard as Harvard because the students there tends to drop their “r’s” when talking. After the Harvard tour we self-guided the Black Heritage trail, led by David Yi and me because we both took AP United States History. History is still fresh in his mind but for me I had to review since I took AP United States History a year ago. We were able to successfully give the tour to our group and through it, I was able to review and learn new information. After all the tours and all the walk we finally took a break by eating pho in Chinatown. After eating Pho in Chinatown we headed back to the Boston Common to attend a Freedom Trail Tour. I loved the tour for the Freedom Trail because the tour guide was very interactive and funny. Even though we were all tired since it was towards the end of the trip. I highly recommend anyone to attend a Freedom Trail tour at Boston! The tour ended at Faneuil Hall and we walked over to Quincy Market to buy dinner, the lobster roll was delicious! Also we were able to see street performers outside of Quincy Market. After exploring Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall we went over to Mike’s Pastry to try out their cannoli. The line to buy the cannoli was incredibly long but it was worth it because the cannoli tasted good. -Lisa Yu I woke up at 8 to get breakfast at the lobby of the hotel. We went to the Boston Public Library which is ranked top 15 in the nation. Then we had a MIT self-guided tour, and we also went to the Black Heritage Trail office for a self-guided tour map. Later on we had lunch at Gourmet China in Chinatown, and afterwards we had a tour by ACDC See Town by A-AVOYVE where we learned about the history of Boston's Chinatown. One fact that was very surprising was the age of our tour guides. Many of them were still in high school and one of them was still a freshman! After this we went to the Boston Market and walked around. Then we went to the Skywalk Bridge Observatory, which had a very beautiful view but we were only able to see half of the observatory because the other half was closed. We had dinner at Wabora an Asian Fusion Restaurant which had mostly Japanese food. Then we went to CVS to buy water and headed back to our hotel.
-Danny Yu |
AuthorYouth experience from their experiential learning trips. Archives
March 2019
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