Forest Park

Happy Monday morning, Fontbonne!

Frankly, it’s not too much of a “happy” morning because of the dull, humid weather, but if you’re happy anyway, that’s awesome! I am actually pretty sleepy during this type of day, but I try not to go there.

I just want to mention yesterday’s Culture Crawl, generally known as the St. Louis Tour with the international students. Every year, the International Office organizes a tour around St. Louis for students from other countries to learn about the city and to visit the best places. Our student organization, FISA (Fontbonne International Student Alliance), also sponsors the trip. It was my first time on the trip, so I definitely learned A LOT, and I’ve lived here my entire life! I’ve never even seen these amazing areas, but thank goodness I got the chance to.

In the tour, we visited Forest Park and its beautiful spots such as the Grand Basin, where we took pictures. Then we went around to the Art Hill area and took more pictures, past the Art Museum, the zoo, the Science Center, and many other fabulous buildings. Unexpectedly, our bus driver actually became our tour guide when she found out that we had international students on board. Her name is Teresa, and she did an awesome job! She knew so much about St. Louis.

Afterwards, Teresa took us to the Downtown area. Since we had some time, Teresa was able to show us the Soulard Farmer’s Market (which was not a part of the tour but it’s a bonus!) and told us its history as well. Next, she took us to the City Garden, and we took pictures near the interesting “waterfall,” then we walked towards another fountain that had green water flowing out (too cool). Behind the fountain we have the Old Courthouse. It was beautiful and there was so much history within the courthouse. I got to see a few objects that people used from the past, such as an old automobile! Very nice displays. Everyone took many pictures everywhere we went.

Next stop, the awesome Arch! I’ve been to the Arch many, many times, but I never get tired of it. It was pretty fun when we got to the very top. I took so many pictures and everyone loved getting their pictures taken together. I love it. By that time, we were pretty hungry so we went to Bar Louie for some lunch. Good stuff! But at first, we had to wait for them to actually set up the tables for all of us even though our dear president, Izzy, already called ahead of time that we were coming. Oh well. We all ate, and off we went to the Cathedral. I was speechless when we arrived there. I must have been so oblivious to the great things we have here. The Cathedral is absolutely beautiful, inside and outside. I don’t think I’ve ever been inside of a building that made me felt so humble. I really appreciated and admired the place. I got a little chance to thank God for the wonderful trip and the chance to meet so many people. We all had a great time.

Of course, we were coming to an end of the tour. Teresa took us all back  to Fontbonne, and I was able to get a people to buy our FISA t-shirts! Well, they paid ahead of time because I need time to paint them myself. Even so, I’m just so happy that I went on the tour!

Tagged as: FISA, Forest Park, international, St. Louis, St. Louis Arch

{ 0 comments }