Winter Break

By Bhakti Shah

Two semesters of this graduate program are over and I cannot imagine how fast time passes. It feels great when I look behind. Now after a relaxing and wonderful break we are back for our spring semester.

I am sure everyone had a nice break with no stress and workload after a busy fall semester. I too had a wonderful time during this break. I have been living in USA for 2 years, but this was my first Christmas vacation spent in the US. I was excited before the start of the winter break, as I had planned a Florida trip.

I visited Tampa, Orlando and Kennedy Space Center near Titusville in FL with my husband. We had also planned to visit Miami, but due to a sudden weather change, our plans changed. I liked the calm and pleasant beaches, entertaining and enthusiastic theme parks in Orlando and informative and exciting Kennedy Space Center. After seeing the technological advancement in this country, I was stunned. I liked the creativity in the theme parks. I think designing an amusement park is not easy. It includes a very good site planning, landscape designing, architectural design, product design and most importantly designing of different rides. Apart from amusement rides, we a got chance to see live performances of nationally recognized and awarded ice skaters which were organized for Christmas week. The performances were simply mind blowing. I did not get chance to visit all the theme parks in Orlando but I can say that each of the four parks I visited was unique and rich in creativity. I visited theme parks such as Bush Gardens in Tampa, Sea world, Magic Kingdom and Universal studios in Orlando. Magic Kingdom is definitely the world’s best example of Fantasy Architecture. All the parks are entertaining. One can easily forget his/her work stress and other life problems. Also, in Tampa I visited a small town called Madeira beach. It was full of colors and various shops there had different designs for railings. No building had a common widow, staircase, terrace/ balcony railing. I also experienced Parasailing at this beach and I can say that it was the most thrilling experience of my life so far.

Kennedy Space Center was one of the best places I visited in my life. It was so fascinating to see the advancement in technology and intelligence and man’s excitement to explore the universe. I saw the Launch pad and informative shows of all the Apollo missions.

I am looking forward for another chance to explore such wonderful places in this great country!