If you have been reading my blog, you are most probably familiar with
this title. Well, my travels continue with no struldbrugs, Lilliput
or Blefuscu, but with some adventures that might equal these as far as
a teacher is concerned.
Today, I visited some places that maybe no one in my position would
really be interested in. I went to a Presbyterian church, a Catholic
church, a police station, a court, a fire station, the Indian
reservation, a culinary school and to Spring Training baseball game.
I wanted to see what a police station looked like; I am a TV watcher,
and I see a lot of Law and Order, without a trace, CSI and I could say
all series including investigations. So, my concern was to see if a
police station was the same as the idea I made out of watching these
series. Well, not really. The station was very small, the reception at
least was. Around were locked doors, so I assumed that behind the
doors the real work was taking place. The police officer was very
nice and let me tour the place and take some brochures.
I went later to a court not far from the same police station. Could
you believe that I went into a court room and attended a trial with a
real judge? I did that, I liked it. The court rooms look much like
what I see in "Boston Legal" with the area for the jury, the judge's
area and so on. I might seem crazy, but I have always had this love
for court rooms and judges, this is mainly one of the reasons behind
my taking law studies three years ago. I might change my career and
become a lawyer one day.
The Indian reservation was something that I particularly wanted to see
because I did not at all understand what it was like and why those
reservations were there. Anyway, I went there, the fields are huge and
are owned by Native Americans. I don't know how I should look at these
things but I just felt that those reservations might be something
good. The Native Americans are now leasing and building and making a
lot of money out of this. So, after all, this might be not really to
their detriment. There is a huge casino owned by Indians, and they are
making millions of dollars out of it; with the money, they started
building nice houses, upscale schools and fancy hotels. I liked the
open spaces, the rural areas and the stretches of the either deserted
or ploughed fields.
After that, I went to the fire station in the Indian Reservation. I
talked to a man working there and he explained to me how they operate.
All the Indian houses were one or two floors, but with this new
development of the whole place and the building of 9 floor
Condominiums, the firemen are going on a lot of training. Jason, that
was the name of the fireman I talked to, was so nice and accepted to
take a picture with me after calling his Native American Indian
colleague to be in the picture too.
Later I went to the culinary school. A very big place with a lot of
French written here and there. I peeped into some classes and saw
students studying or preparing something. I could eat anything at that
time, had they only offered me something. However, I saw some of the
students in the hall eating sandwiches and crackers. They might be
very tired of eating French dishes! I wanted to eat there as there was
a restaurant but I discarded the idea after having a look at the menu
and saw that the prices were a bit expensive.
My trip went on with a long visit to a Presbyterian church and a
Catholic church. The first one was rather simple with no statues or
paintings and there was no one in the church. The second one was
rather colorful, and it looked exactly as in films. A lot of people
were there as this is Easter and a lot of praying was going on. I
toured the church and had a look at all the statues and left. I
believe more and more that we should stop pinpointing each other's
differences and focus on similarities. Religion is a matter of free
choice and if we dig a little deeper, we will discover that human
beings all worship an omnipotent omnipresent God who is there for us
when no one else is. So,it shouldn't matter if you are Muslims,
Christians, Jewish, Buddhists or if you choose to adopt any other
religious belief, what we really need is just mutual respect and
esteem of differences.
My trip ended by one of the most beautiful experiences. I went to
Spring training baseball game. The place was just gorgeous. It was
like a festival: people eating, drinking and chatting. No one was
really concerned about the game as this was only training. I guess I
can confess to you that I have no idea what the rules of baseball are.
This is an exclusively American game and so Americans like it. I am
not very much interested in any sport except aerobics because I play
it and I enjoy myself performing the steps and the dancing. However,
I was very much interested in this game because I like to discover
things I don't know. So I stayed there for sometime and tried to
figure out how the game was played in vain. I bought something to eat
and went back home.
It was a very interesting day for me as my adventures are still going
on and my understanding of things and people is perpetually on the move.