Southwest trip was incredibly awesome for me. Although our trip got off to a late start because of airplane trouble, I had much more fun time as if there had been no trouble. Extension Students went to New Mexico and Arizona. I learned fascinating culture, visited appealing towns and experienced the magnificent nature.
First, I learned about wonderful Southwest culture. Extension students visited Acoma Pueblo. The Acoma Pueblo is known as Sky City because it sits on top of a high mesa. Native American guides showed us around it. Although Acoma Pueblo is in the US, I felt like that it is in a different country. That's why, the buildings, houses and languages differ there from Spokane completely. The buildings and houses stand on not concrete but on soil ground. In addition, most of the buildings made of sandstone, and there are some ovens made of sandstone outside houses. People use them to make bread and meal. The oven is called "horno" in Spanish. Also, guides' pronunciation was different from what is usually here. In addition to the horno, there are a lot of peculiar names and almost of the names are derived from Spanish. Because the city was controlled by Spain in ancient times, they had a sorrowful history. Acoma people who were treated as slaves built the church, which I visited. Because of the fact, the church wasn't destroyed during Pueblo Revolt. I experienced tremendous culture in this place.
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| Fascinating Miraculous Staircase |
Second, I went to an attractive city, Santa Fe. Santa Fe means "holy faith” and I thought the city still has rich history. We visited some churches and buildings, and went shopping. My favorite place in Santa Fe is the Lorreto Chapel. Actually, I researched the chapel before I went on the trip in the class, so I really wanted to go there. The Loretto Chapel is famous because of the miraculous staircase. Because the staircase has no nails, no central poles and we do not know what kinds of wood it is, the staircase is well known. Although, it was beautiful on the internet, I saw the actual staircase, and the beauty of the staircase moved me. The staircase is amazingly fabulous. In addition to the staircase, there is beautiful stained glass. I want to get married to someone in a place like here. Also, I enjoyed going shopping. A lot of merchants were lined up in front of the place of the governors and they were selling real turquoise. The building is the oldest public building still in use in the US, currently the merchants sell the turquoise jewelry witch is recognized as austenitic turquoise. I heard we could negotiate money with the merchants from teacher, so I tried to bargain. I was able to discount! They were very kind and talkative. The negotiation of money was for the first time for me and I was little nervous. I really enjoyed the city of Santa Fe.
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| Amazing Grand Canyon |
Finally, Grand Canyon is a fabulously marvelous canyon. I was really looking forward to visiting there. I cannot explain how beautiful and magnificent it is. I was able to see the amazing landscape every where. Also, I felt like I was very small. I was surprised the age is five million years old, and there are many kinds of animals and birds. Also, Grand Canyon showed us several faces. First, I went to see sunrise. Although I have seen it in Japan, the sunrise in Grand Canyon cannot be expressed in words. It was very beautiful to see the sunrise from darkness. Next, I walked around Grand Canyon National Park. In the park, people can ride the bus for free, so I used it and visited several places. There are some museums, hotels, and restaurants. Lastly, I was able to see the sunset. The position of the sun going down was attractive. Many people came to Grand Canyon from several countries, such as Japan, Germany, China, and of course America. The Grand Canyon is not the largest canyon in the world, but I understood their feeling by people from all over the world and people are fascinated by its beauty and spectacular landscape.
As you can see, I really enjoyed this absolutely fantastic trip. I was able to visit several fascinating places, and I experienced different culture and nature that is not in Spokane and Japan. The trip is my one of the treasures.
