By Eri Furukawa

I participated in an English study tour during this summer vacation. This tour was a part of class called British and American studies. The study period was from August 5 to September 3. There were about 60 participants this year, and our leaders were Professor Hideto Hamada and Professor Hiroyuki Kageyama. We studied mainly in Boston. Afterwards, we went to New York, Washington D.C., and Las Vegas. This was the first time for me to go to a foreign country, so when I saw the scenery in the United States I was impressed with it. I had never seen anything like it.

I stayed in Boston for three weeks. I did a home stay while studying in a language school on weekdays. Every weekend we took short trips to places like Plymouth and Salem, which are famous historic towns.

The town where I did my home stay was Winthrop, and it is about 40 minutes from Boston. This town is near the seashore and every place in this town has a leisurely, suburban atmosphere, so I liked this town.

It took about 40 minutes to get to the closest station on foot, but I walked every day. My host family was very nice. There are four members in my host family; father, mother, and two daughters, but the father was out of town because of his business. Therefore, I lived with three people. My host mother was a good cook. On some weekends, I had dinner with my host family, including my host mother's parents who live in another part of the city, and sometimes the family of the daughters' friend also ate with us. I could understand what the American life style and neighborly ties are, and it was a good experience for me. I profoundly appreciate my host family.

The participants of our group were not in the same class at the language school. We had a test on the day before the first class, and were put into different levels as a result of the test. The level of my class was comparatively high. The content of this class was similar to the one at SU, but it was very hard for me because the teacher spoke only in English. I didnﾕt like homework, which interrupted my sleep hours, but I liked the classes. I was especially glad that I could make friends from other countries in this class. Most of my classmates came from Italy, but there were other students from Germany, Spain, Brazil, and Venezuela, too. Even if we couldn't understand each others' languages, we could communicate in English, so I really appreciate the value of English.

After school, I always had lunch with my group members, and we went shopping and to various places, like the Aquarium, Boston Common, the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, and so on. We could see show-pieces in the museum for free once a week, so we went there once. I was particularly surprised at the wonderful Japanese art collection. Also, we visited Harvard University. I was surprised at the number of announcements written in foreign languages that were on the bulletin board, and at the atmosphere of the campus.

I enjoyed going on day trips every weekend. On the first weekend we went to Plymouth, which has a beautiful sea shore and a natural environment. This is the place where the first immigrants called "Pilgrim Fathers" came to America and settled in 1620. At Plymouth Plantation, you can see how people lived then. The staff communicates with not only their appearance, but also with their language, knowledge, behavior, and things like the immigrants did in 1620. When we visited, the staff worked wearing thick clothing like the immigrants would have had despite the high temperature.

On the second weekend I went to Salem, which is famous for its witch trials. A woman was executed as a witch because some girls had entrapped her. Thereafter, many people were executed as witches. I also visited the Salem Witch Museum. In this museum, the audience listens to the narration while studying in the middle of a room surrounded by mannequins which tell the witch stories. These stories are too cruel. In the streets of Salem, I found many stores which sell goods related to witches, such as ornaments, stationery, and so on.

After Boston, we stayed in New York for three days. The hotel in New York is called the Wellington and is on Seventh Avenue, which is near Times Square, so it was convenient for visiting Manhattan. Our group visited the Statue of Liberty, the Metropolitan Museum, and went to see the musical "Beauty and the Beast." The most impressive place for me was the Statue of Liberty. It was much bigger than I imaged and it was very powerful. Next, we stayed in Washington D.C. for a day. We visited the center of politics in America, such as the White House, the Capital Building, and so on. Finally, we stayed in Las Vegas, which has various peculiar hotels, for two days. We stayed at the Monte Carlo, which was designed like Monaco. I could realize the change of Las Vegas between the day and night when I went outside with members of the group. Also, we went to various events. Every event was very powerful and wonderful.

Finally, all participants left America and returned to Japan on September 3. This trip was for a month, but it was gone in a flash. Now, I hope to study abroad and make good use of my experience of this English study trip. I would like to make more and more effort to realize my dreams.