It's a Small World
For Christmas 2010 my family and I went to Europe. We did what we called “the Driving Tour of the Alps.” Our plane landed in Munich, Germany, where we spent a few days wandering through the fabulous Christmas markets. Every booth had something different to sell. There were nutcrackers, fancy glass ornaments, simple straw ornaments, and candies of every kind. We drove to Salzburg, Austria, stopping at a few towns on the way, like Oberammergau where we had the BEST ham sandwiches ever! They were made of thick slabs of ham, heated and put on toasted croissants. Yum! It was beautiful as we wandered through the market; light, fluffy snow was falling and carolers were singing. We also stopped in Mittenwald where they had the largest selection of nutcrackers I’ve ever seen! There were short ones, tall ones, nutcrakcers with beards. There were even nutcrackers from different stories like The Wizard of Oz. We saw at so many castles it was crazy. They’re all over the place, rising majestically out of every hill and cliff! Some of the restaurants we ate in served food that we would call American,hamburgers and fries, and they had waitresses like ours (except for the fact they spoke German!).
In Austria we went and visited some of the places that were in The Sound of Music. There were schools having field trips there. On the first night we were there, my family and I went to see a Mozart concert in a hall where Mozart had actually played! The room had white walls and gold decorations everywhere. There was even a crystal chandelier! It was so beautiful. I looked around and saw several nationalities in the music hall all listening the same music.
After Austria we traveled to Venice, Italy. “I will never forget experiencing Venice for the first time. It feels like you are transported to another time - the art, music, food and pure romance in the air is like no other place,” (Elizabeth Berkley). That quote pretty well sums up my feelings for Venice. No writing can do it justice. While it rained most of the time we were there, it was enchanting. For one hour each day the entire city flooded. Teh city was wet, but that made it even more fun to go exploring. Though the floods usually happened in the afternoon, we had no way of telling when the water would roll in. We went to many different markets and there were so many different people all of them shouting in various languages. They were different nationalities and races and yet they were all there to see the beauty all of us have heard about.
After Venice, we traveled down to Parma, Italy. There my family and I stayed at a Bed & Breakfast. The owners had a daughter who was a couple years younger than me named Georgia and my parents told me to go talk to her. I went over and brought out my stack of Uno cards. I asked in my hideous Italian, “Do you know how to play?” She looked puzzled, so I mimed playing Uno. She laughed and said in English, “you said ‘do I own any pants?’ ” We both started laughing. It turns out she was an excellent Uno player and later that night we had fun building card houses.
My family and I left Italy and traveled to Switzerland. In Appenzell, Switzerland I learned how to downhill ski. On the ski hill there were so many different people. Different in age, gender, nationality, race, and experience level. We were all skiing together on the same hill. At dinner that night it turned out we were sitting at a table next to a couple from Texas. We chatted through the whole dinner. It’s really amazing how, if we were sitting next to the same couple in Chicago or New York, we wouldn’t have spoken or even noticed they were speaking the same language as us. But because we shared the similarity of being travelers, we became friends.
After we left Switzerland, we went back to Munich, Germany. It’s funny how a foreign country can seem familiar after you’ve been to many other places.
I came to realize during this trip that people aren’t so different. Sure, we like to say that because we’re American or French or Japanese we’re better than the rest of the world. In reality we share so many things the only difference is where we live. I noticed that even the languages are similar. Okay, Japanese is a stretch, but some words sound similar! As Linda Ellerbee said, “People are pretty much alike. It's only that our differences are more susceptible to definition than our similarities.”
I improved the flow of this piece. I worked on increasing ideas and voice.
In Austria we went and visited some of the places that were in The Sound of Music. There were schools having field trips there. On the first night we were there, my family and I went to see a Mozart concert in a hall where Mozart had actually played! The room had white walls and gold decorations everywhere. There was even a crystal chandelier! It was so beautiful. I looked around and saw several nationalities in the music hall all listening the same music.
After Austria we traveled to Venice, Italy. “I will never forget experiencing Venice for the first time. It feels like you are transported to another time - the art, music, food and pure romance in the air is like no other place,” (Elizabeth Berkley). That quote pretty well sums up my feelings for Venice. No writing can do it justice. While it rained most of the time we were there, it was enchanting. For one hour each day the entire city flooded. Teh city was wet, but that made it even more fun to go exploring. Though the floods usually happened in the afternoon, we had no way of telling when the water would roll in. We went to many different markets and there were so many different people all of them shouting in various languages. They were different nationalities and races and yet they were all there to see the beauty all of us have heard about.
After Venice, we traveled down to Parma, Italy. There my family and I stayed at a Bed & Breakfast. The owners had a daughter who was a couple years younger than me named Georgia and my parents told me to go talk to her. I went over and brought out my stack of Uno cards. I asked in my hideous Italian, “Do you know how to play?” She looked puzzled, so I mimed playing Uno. She laughed and said in English, “you said ‘do I own any pants?’ ” We both started laughing. It turns out she was an excellent Uno player and later that night we had fun building card houses.
My family and I left Italy and traveled to Switzerland. In Appenzell, Switzerland I learned how to downhill ski. On the ski hill there were so many different people. Different in age, gender, nationality, race, and experience level. We were all skiing together on the same hill. At dinner that night it turned out we were sitting at a table next to a couple from Texas. We chatted through the whole dinner. It’s really amazing how, if we were sitting next to the same couple in Chicago or New York, we wouldn’t have spoken or even noticed they were speaking the same language as us. But because we shared the similarity of being travelers, we became friends.
After we left Switzerland, we went back to Munich, Germany. It’s funny how a foreign country can seem familiar after you’ve been to many other places.
I came to realize during this trip that people aren’t so different. Sure, we like to say that because we’re American or French or Japanese we’re better than the rest of the world. In reality we share so many things the only difference is where we live. I noticed that even the languages are similar. Okay, Japanese is a stretch, but some words sound similar! As Linda Ellerbee said, “People are pretty much alike. It's only that our differences are more susceptible to definition than our similarities.”
I improved the flow of this piece. I worked on increasing ideas and voice.