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Trip of North-East US

It's Thanksgiving break again! Time to rejoice, not because I celebrate it but because I get two week's break. I can do whatever I want and the world will not complain: no date lines, no late penalties, no surprise quizzes and test, no meetings, nothing! It's time to relax from the busy schedules of study and other club activities. So six of us decided to go on a road trip to Portland in Maine, the land of lobsters.

Everything went so well as we planned till we reached Salisbury, Massachusetts when one of our car flipped over and went below the road. Thank God! Nothing happened to us. The process of calling the American Automobile Association (AAA) and the police to access the accident took us quite a while. The car has been destroyed quite badly but I am still wondering how two of my friends managed to stay without even a very minor injury. They pulled the car up and sent it off to a workshop in Boston and we continued our trip to Portland.

It's already 1:00 am and we still have about 70 miles to cover. Six of us used one car and finally reached our hotel at about 2:00 am. We checked in and soon, everyone's fast asleep.
It's already 12:20 pm when I woke up next day. Two guys were still sleeping and the rest were about to leave. I rushed to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, flushed my face with few sprinkles of water, put on my jeans and jacket, and got ready to march with them.

Portland is not a big city by American standard. But for a person like me who's brought up in remote Bhutan, I can't help but jump in jubilation. All I need to do is remove those other American cities from my mind and it becomes a mega city. Over the period of about a week we went to the Portland Museum of Arts, Portland harbor, downtown, malls, and other tourist attractions in the town. The native cheese and beers have their own flavor. We went to watch "Quantum of Solace" and as predicted, I felt asleep. A visit to Portland or any part of Maine is not complete without having Lobster dinner. I tried to go with “lazy man” lobster (they basically remove everything for you) but decided to go for normal. Two huge lobsters and scrambled potatoes made the trip complete.

The wineries of New Hampshire and the wine they produce will make me nostalgic every time I taste a bad wine. The sales tax rate is lower than that of New York and it looks like everything is cheaper except the lobsters. The oceans and lighthouses, waves and sands, seagulls and seaweeds have their own beauty. Having been born in the mountainous country, the sight of oceans, horizon and plains are always more appealing to me than the snow capped mountains.

Once back to my station, I will be kept busy by my professors: readings, homework, projects, test, exams, and assignments. I also bought a book called "The Way of the Bodhisattva" by Shantideva, which is called "Choejug" in Bhutanese. It's a good book and I am enjoying every bit of it. In fact I should, I paid about $23.

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