Home for the (Summer) Holidays

As many of you know, last month I took a few days off in order to go to America to spend some time with my parents and grandparents. It was a pretty exhausting trip because I didn't stay in one place for very long, but it was well worth it. I really miss my family and friends when I am in Tokyo and far away from them, so it was good to go back and visit people places that I hadn't seen in a long time. Today, I'd like to show you some pictures of my trip:


The day after I arrived in Portland, Oregon (my hometown), I got back on another airplane and flew to Idaho, where I visited my grandparents at their home in a very small town called Aberdeen. I took this picture while I was on the plane. You can see a large mountain called Mt. Hood in the center of the picture and you can see a few other mountains from the Cascade Range in the background. Mt. Hood is one of Oregon's most famous mountains. Isn't Oregon beautiful?!


This is a picture of the main street of my grandparents' town. The main street, can you believe it? There are no traffic lights and very few cars. On this street you can see three banks, a post office, a grocery store, a gas station, and a couple of other buildings, and that's about it. There are less than 2,000 people living in this town, so everybody usually stared at me because they didn't recognize who I was. But I have visited this town many times in my life; I feel very comfortable there, and even though I don't think I would enjoy living in a place like this, it is an excellent way to escape the busy lifestyle of the city for a little while.


While I was staying at my grandparents' house, I decided to make them sushi. My grandmother cooked a very traditional American meal of roast beef with carrots and potatoes, and then I made tuna-mayo sushi! Everybody tried it, even though some of them had never seen it before. They even said they liked it, so I was pretty happy. Do you think my sushi looks delicious?


After a few days, I returned to Portland, but this time I went by car. We had to leave very early in the morning because it takes about 13 hours to drive back to my hometown, but the best part was that we got to watch the sunrise and see a lot of blue sky and open fields while we drove. I think Idaho is pretty beautiful, too.
After I got back to Portland, I spent my last few days in America catching up with friends. Do you remember Atsuko? She used to study at Kaplan, but now she lives in my hometown. We spent one Sunday together with my mom and had a lot of fun. We even went to a Japanese grocery store together! (Atsuko wants me to say hello to everyone!) I also was able to spend time with some of my very best friends.

Even though I was really tired when I got back to Tokyo, I still felt refreshed. It's always nice to have time to catch up with good friends and spend some time in your favorite places...especially when those places are as beautiful as my hometown!


▼▽▼▼【講師】Melanie先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【A Connection with the Past】2009.07.17 (Fri)