My first field trip: UNH, Strawberry banks and Jenness beach

Monday, October 18 2022

Today Benjamin, Paula and I went on our first field trip with Janet Hopkins (Paula's host mum).We spent an amazing day visiting the UNH, the strawberry banks museum and Jenness beach doing lots of fun activities. 

UNH University of New Hampshire

After Janet had picked us up from our homes we drove to Durham and stopped at NHM which is the University of New Hampshire. There, we met Marina, a friend of Janet and a current student at NHM. Marina gave us a privat tour around the campus and we were amazed about the size of the whole area. There were lots of different buildings for different classes. We visited the student center, the library and the Business building which all had nice areas to study. We found it extremely cool that the University has its own free Gym and an ice arena just for the students. I wish we had that in Salzburg too! 

First glimpse of the University.

Janet

Taking lots of photos.

Going through the Gym with Marina.

Yeah, still don't know how these work?

The Gym

Basketball and the ice rink

Strawberry banks

After we had finished our tour around the Campus and asking Marina a lot of questions about the university we moved on to Strawberry banks. An old US city that has been preserved and that is a museum now. The buildings go back to the 17th century and there were even actors who played the settlers throughout these years. You could talk to them and ask them questions too which was very interesting because they stayed in their role the whole time. After a short lunch break at the "beer tent" (We called it that because it looked like one of the "beer tents" we would have in Austria during "Ruperti" or "Oktoberfest" in Germany. It was actually put up for a wedding.) we stopped by the last houses and then had to move on because we couldn't miss our boat tour in the harbor of Portsmouth. 

actress (the inn keeper's daughter)

Paula, Maya and Benjamin trying their hardest 

to create something eatable. (Wouldn't try it though!)

              The store

Boats tour around the harbor

We drove over and parked the car near the sea. Then we walked over to the docks where our boat tour would be. It began to rain but by the time we set sails it had dried and the sun was peeking through the clouds. The captain drove us right to the edge of the Atlantic Ocean and around the smaller islands of Portsmouth while telling us the history of the buildings on the cost and the harbor and its submarines. One of the buildings was an old prison which isn't used anymore today. However no one wanted to be put in there because no one ever escaped. And that was because the guards were told that if they would let someone get away they themselves would have to finish the prison sentence, which often was a lifetime stay. We saw a lot of birds and even a seal in the water. Paula and Janet had their cameras with them and were taking many pictures of the animals. And you kind of benefit from their skills when asking them to take a picture of yourself. It always looks much better when they do it! ;) The tour eventually had to come to an end. 

    The prison called "The lock"

Afterwards we strolled around the shops of Portsmouth. Benjamin especially liked the store called Macro Pollo because it had a lot of funny items and quotations. I myself bought two postcard. One for my family and one for Professor Bankosegger who asked for one in our last German class. I hope I'll have time to send them! After a little bit of souvenir shopping and a visit to Star Bucks we once more got into the car and headed to Jenness beach. 

 

We loved the beach and the sunset turned the whole landscape into a spectacular view. There were a lot of waves and surfers and we took a lot of photos. It was a lot of fun. Eventually it got dark and we headed home. During the way I fell asleep and we almost got lost. But everything turned out well and Janet dropped us off at our host's homes. 

I really enjoyed this trip to the cost and can't say what was best. It was a wonderful experience and super day. I loved all of the sights and I'll always remember this amazing field trip.

Maya MacDonald