New England 1990

In October of 1990 (The year I was a Sophmore in HS), I was picked to be a participant of the Crazy Horse/Andover Exchange Program. I was so excited because I was actually heading out of South Dakota and to New England no less. As we approach the Rapid City Regional Airport, my stomach was turning because I knew that I was will be 30,000 ft in the air. Also it would be my first time flying in an airplane. My mom was making sure that my brother and I would be okay and made sure that we call her as soon as we get to our desination.

Over the Great Lakes
Our jetliner was now flying over the Great Lakes and it was an awesome site to see. The captain was explaining to the passengers about the Lakes and which one we are flying over (If I do recall, it was Lake Michigan). Being a first time flyer, I was nervous as hell and every sound that the airplane makes, I was getting worried if the plane was going to fall apart. I made nervous remarks to brother like "what if the airplane is on fire and we don't know about it" or "sounds like the engine has failed". I guess watching way too much airline disaster movies has hit me hard. My brother didn't budge or say anything. Go figure, he was probably tuning me out anyways.

Boston and Andover
Here we are, landing at the Logan International Airport, the site of the Atlantic Ocean was in view and I said to my brother, "Wow, look at the ocean!" My brother didn't say anything but looked straight ahead. The plane had landed and there was our host father and his son awaiting for our arrival. His son we kept the year before. He came down from Massachusetts to stay with us for a month. His experience at our place was great and he couldn't get over sporadic we lived.

His father was a nice fellow, he gave us a tour of the towns outside of the Boston metro area. All the houses were older than dust. Most of the buildings still have that colonial taste to them. We arrive in Andover, an upscale community located about 40 minutes north of Boston. We met our host mother and their daughters. The house was renovated before we showed up. Our parents were a delivery man for Gillette Products and the mother was a cook at Andover High School. Where they lived, was remarkable and their house is nestled near Foster Pond. Didn't look like a pond to me, more like a lake.

The first day of school was a bit nerve wrecking. It was alot of white kids who had no inkling of what Native Americans looked like or how rural we are here in South Dakota. We spent the entire day of talking to our classes about our culture and what it is like to live in a small tiny town. Most of them are intrigue by our appearance. It was cool for me for the first day because I had a two hour lunch period. So, I get the spend those two hours people watching. Like any other school, there were cliques every where. I even spotted some hand bangers, the jocks, the popular crowd, the cheerleaders and their croonies, and the nerds. It felt like I was in some movie.

As the weeks progressed, we had the chance to experience New England life like calling pop, 'Tonic" and went deep sea fishing. It was it awesome to be on the ocean. We went to Boston on the weekends to visit the landmarks like Bunker Hill and Bull and Finch (site of "Cheers"). What was my most memorable memory about my trip? Going to HARVARD. Well for a day to see the campus and visit the Native American House. The lady was nice and she's Iroquois from Canada and we had alot of chats about our cultures. She told us that only about 1% population of the students at Harvard were Native Americans and she would like to see more of us to attend an Ivy League School. That is too far fetch for me to attend a stuffy school. Later on the day, we attend their football game against Brown University. Their football stadium at this Romanesque quality to it.

During our stay, we had the chance to visit another school in a town called Lawrence High. That school was similiar to Crazy Horse School because of their multicultural diversity of students. There were African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, and alot of Immigrants like Hungarians, Africans, etc.... We discussed how they are subjected to racial profiling when they went to Andover for sports events. We agreed in what they are saying. Most of them were intrigued by our schools name "Crazy Horse". Which it was cool and we were likewise about their culture as well.

At the end of our time, we had this huge send off at a local church. All of our host parents were there to review our stay and what not.

In ending, this experience for me was outstanding and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Next time, I will write about my trip to Washington, DC (part of the Close-Up Foundation).