Liam A's Essential Question

Junior Urban Adventure is a trip that the junior class takes to find out and experience the urban life and environment in the city of Boston. My group, cultural awareness, visited several multi-cultural areas in Boston. Before we left, me and every member of the group made questions that we wanted to ask at each place we visit in the city including Villa Victoria, Jamaica Plains and China Town. The Questions concerned the experience of coming to the states as an immigrant. My question asked “What was the most difficult part about coming to the states as a foreign immigrant”. I was interested on learning how one would cope with the many problems that they confront.
The first place we went to Villa Victoria was a mostly-Puerto Rican inhabited community who actually helped the new immigrants settle in,
helping with things such as, health care, jobs and schooling. We took a tour of the newly built area and visited every thing from the houses and parks to the schools and medical centers. I was actually very surprised on how nice it was. What was once a gang and drug infested neighborhood was transformed into a facility for all the inhabitants and provided many of the essential s that they would need to start a new life. Javier Torres our guide was very nice and he showed us the whole community. When it came to asking the questions I was actually nervous but he answered everyone’s questions with great detail and we learned many things about how the immigrants settled down in this community that was built just for the people who so very much needed it.
Next we went to China town and walked around visiting many historical sites and learning about all the hardships the Chinese immigrants had to go through. Like for almost all immigrants it is very hard to find a safe a livable place to stay. There was this one story that our tour guide, Amy Cheung, had told us about how there was a newly started Asian community but how the state demand them to move because they were going to build a highway where they were settled. Things were very rough but in time they began to settle down easier, finding many great places to sell goods and start small businesses. As new members of the community they marked their presence by putting Statues and art pieces around their community including the entrance to China Town which is a great stone arch. Some of the art was amazing as well as the intriguing story of their arrival.
The Last place we visited was Jamaica Plains which was probably my favorite tour. Jamaica Plains is a Mainly Dominican inhabited area. When we arrived we went to the local medical building intending on learning about the medical care in the area, but not only learned that but learned about the history, commerce, and food, actually eating lunch with our tour guide Anna Keyla who was very nice. We walked a long distance but the whole way learning interesting facts on how the community came about. The Dominicans, as all the other immigrants did, had a hard time adjusting to the new area. Many traditional stores and restaurants were set up, and when I walked through I did not really feel like I was still in the U.S. We stopped at several small stores including a bodega, a restaurant and a couple restaurants. At the end of the tour we sat down and ate at a restaurant called Internacional which had very good typical Dominican food. The whole tour was simply intriguing.
JUA was simply a great opportunity to learn about other lifestyles and cultures. How ever how long some of the days were the whole trip was a great experience. I have to say that before we left to go to Boston I had a pessimistic attitude towards the whole thing, but later when we were on the tours I thought to my self “this actually was a pretty good trip”. While on the tours I felt that I was learning so much and that my group and I were fortunate to have such a great opportunity. Thank, You Mrs. Harpring, Mr Mundal, Anna Keyla, Amy Cheung and Javier Torres.