Assignment 3 - Bhoomi Shah

   Traveling is something that I've always wanted to do, however, have not really experienced much of throughout my life. There are only really two trips that I have been on with my family which I consider extremely influential in expanding my knowledge of different cultures. The first was a long road trip from Lexington all the way to Montreal. Before coming to America, my dad lived in Canada for a couple of years and made sure to make my brother and me Canadian citizens. Along the way, we stopped at many places including Washington, DC where we visited Lincoln's memorial and the White House. These places were interesting, however, it was easy to get bored really fast. When we made it to Montreal we only spent two days there. In that time span, we saw the CN tower and did some other touristy activities. Again, it was fun but not that different from DC.
   My second big trip was when I went to India this summer. There, I experienced a huge cultural shock. The first thing was the trash piles everywhere, it seemed like every city we went to was littered with garbage. The roads were also not particularly safe, with both my uncle and cousin bearing scars from motorcycle accidents to prove it.  The other thing I noticed while in India was the huge disparity between the rich and the poor. Beggers were practically lining each street harassing individuals until they coughed up 5 rupees.
   On the other hand, I was really surprised by the brotherly affection everyone in India showed for each other. Shopkeepers did not, in most places, show that sort of fake affection many salespeople in America show to their customers. Yes, there was a lot of advertising and haggling, however, if something did not look right on you, they would be the first people to let you know. I appreciated their truthfulness and easygoing attitude.
  All in all, I hope my time spent in these places cause me to want to explore more as I grow older. I've always been interested in studying abroad, and seeing that I like to meet new people and learn about old traditions, really means that it just might be the best thing for me to do when I enter college.