Trip to Boston - Première OIB du 3 au 8 avril

Itinerary

Wednesday, April 6th 2005

The day began with the usual delicious Amerisuites breakfast, allowing us to begin with the balanced nutrition we needed for the long day ahead. Little did we know the amount of walking that awaited us. We set off with Santa Jack ( our wonderful bus driver) at the helm, guiding us to another day of adventure.

We were dropped off on Boston Common, and continued on foot thanks to Boston's famous Freedom Trail, stopping in yet another graveyard along the way! We were given a spare hour to kill or, in some peoples cases, to shop until we could drop ( interesting to note that Massachussetts and New Hampshire don't have any taxes on clothes, a fact which greatly pleased certain female members of the group. ) Continuing our walk, we headed towards Faneuil Hall. Certain members of the party were in heaven as they saw the vast array of shops which lay before them, others decided to take advantage of the various places serving lunch. Following this, we were entertained by a superb street drummer which we had seen earlier.


Once again, as he has done so many times on this trip, Santa Jack let us rest our tired legs and drove us across town to visit the Isabella Gardner Museum. This amazing building which boasts an impressive amount of valuable art such as paintings by Rembrandt and Sergeant, as well as original copies of books written by Dante took our breath away.

We moved back to the Freedom Trail and continued our walk along it with the promise of food our main motivation. As legs became weary and complaints became louder, we arrived in the North End, Boston's Italian quarter. After a brisk walk around, we met up in La Dolce Vita, a delicious italian restorante which was made all the more enjoyable by the fact that we all ate together. Yet we did miss the presence of Walter who was forced to leave us earlier in the day to join up with his family in Paris.

We left the North End with our hunger subdued and the prospect of bed looking extremely appealing. The Mr.Thacker saga continues...

James O'Sullivan

Tuesday, April 5th 2005

On tuesday morning we started off  with Mr. Thacker complaining about a stroke of genius on the parts of some anonymous students. It seemed he had recieved a 5:45 AM wake-up call. Once on the road,  after some small delays, we traveled to Salem, Massachussetts. We began by touring the House of Seven Gabels which inspiried the book of the same title by Nathanial Hawthorn. Right accross the street was the oldest candy shop in the United States where we all got hold of some sugar and such.

We then moved on to the Salem Witch Museum where we learned about witches, the Wiccan religion, and what witches are like today.  For lunch, we headed to Gloucester where we ate at a small restaurant by the sea. Following lunch, we moved down to the beach to kill some time while waiting for teachers to finish. Afterwards, we all climed back on the bus as a friend of Ms. Emmerling, Mr. Hogan,  gave us a guided tour of the fishing town and its history. We then headed to Rockport where we had some free time to walk around and browse the small shops lining the streets. Unfortunately it was a virtual ghost town where there wasn't much else besides art galleries and ice cream shops.

At about 6 PM we arrived back at the hotel where we were all free to eat dinner where we wanted in walking distance of the hotel. This may be the last letter posted on the website as we must check out of the hotel early tomorrow morning (Thursday).

Philip and Adam 1ES1 OIB.

Monday, April 4th 2005

We started off the morning by going to Minute Man National Park where we learned how the colonists rebelled against the British in April 1775. Then, we went to see Walden Pond. It was absolutely beautiful! I am not surprised why Henry David Thoreau wanted to live there. We also found the remains of Thoreau's log cabin and a replica of his house. By looking at the size of the house, no one can doubt that Thoreau lived with the essentials. Then, we had lunch at Concord. After lunch, we went to see Orchard House, which is the house of the Alcotts, and Concord Museum. Finally, to cnoclude a very long day, we explored Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

Selma Khenissi



SO Let's talk a little about Concord, MA. Walter Dubois and I spent most of our lunch hour trying to find out whether Concord was the capital of Massachusetts or not. When we asked a man walking into Sally Ann's Bakery, he laughed, gave us a look and said "That's the capital of New Hampshire, kids." Oops. (For all of you who are still clueless to what the capital is, it's Boston. duh.) Concord is just about the most all-american, white picket fence town you could imagine. It's the perfect town to retire in: it's rich, has beautiful scenery, great food, and the drivers stop for pedestrians at all times (there was not ONE stoplight in all Concord.) BUT WAIT: Have you been saying "ConCORD" all this time? Well, you are wrong my friend. To pronounce Concord, it's the same as "conquered" as in "I came , I saw, I conquered." We learned that tidbit of information at the Concord Museum, just as we learned how to pronounce "Thoreau" which is like "thorough," as in "that was very thorough." Turns out the Concordians are very touchy about that, like their rivalry with Lexington, MA after the war. Our tour guide of Louisa May Alcott's house looked as if she was part of the scenery, and when Sullen Simon (Mr. Thacker) decided to touch an unknown object, he was the only one all day to have been yelled at. Then James O'Sullivan led us to what we thought was Sleepy Hollow the Cemetary, but we ended up to be in some random cemetery down the road from Sleepy Hollow. Good one buddy. But we finally got there and found many graves with the name "Lucy" engraved on it. Coincidence? I think not. Hoping today is as educational as the last ones

Stephanie Chapman

Sunday, April 3rd 2005

We woke up around 5 am after springing forward, thus losing a precious hour of sleep, right Ms. Churchill?! After waiting for Pauline, Nadia, Adam and MS. CHURCHILL, (lol) we finally all left school at 6:15 to drive to BWI. After checking in, on Southwest Airlines, we embarked, and arrived at Providence, Rhode Island around 10:15. Our day was about to begin….

After meeting up with our Santa Jack (Claus) we headed out toward our first adventure: the Newport Mansions. First, we went to the Elms, where we followed along with a hearing aid (lol). Then we went on to have lunch in Newport. Early in the afternoon we visited the Breakers, house of the Vanderbilts, where a tour guide showed us around. These two ostentatious summer cottages reflected the Gilded Age and the Conspicuous Consumption of the era. The first generations of house owners were so wealthy that they could afford to keep up these houses even when used only six to eight weeks a year. However, maintaining these houses became more difficult and costly for the subsequent generations. In fact, the first generations did not have to pay taxes. Therefore, the later generations eventually donated these houses to historical preservation societies.

After longing to be a bit richer, we walked along the Breakers’ yards, following the shoreline. It was quite windy, but very refreshing.

We then drove to the hotel, AmeriSuites, settled ourselves in, then went to dinner in Harvard Square, where we split up in different restaurants. We went back to the hotel and fell asleep a few hours later.

By the way James O’Sullivan was really funny… wasn’t he, Mr. Thacker???