As junior Stephanie Almasy walked through the halls of D.C.’s museums, she gazed in wonderment at all the history of culture around her. With Culture Shock Club, students like Almasy got the chance to take a step back into the past and immerse themselves into the cultures of America.
Members of the Culture Shock Club went on a field trip to Washington, D.C. on April 23 to visit the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of the American Indian.
“I decided to go on the field trip because I think learning about different cultures and looking at all the artifacts in the museums from a long time ago are really interesting,” Almasy said.
Sophomore Lindsey McCumber wasn’t able to attend the field trip, but she is part of the club and helped plan the event. “We [Culture Shock Club] do fairs and events in honor of specific cultures and history, usually about the time that the month is honoring them,” McCumber said.
While at the National Museum of American History, students had the chance to visit the African American History and Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello section. There were also exhibits about the “1939 American presidency, the first ladies, power machinery, and musical instruments,” Almasy said.
After visiting the National Museum of American History, students walked over to the National Museum of the American Indian. There, students ate lunch at the Mitsitam Café. “Mitsitam” means “Let’s eat” in the native language of the Delaware and Piscataway peoples.
“The only thing I didn’t like was the price of lunch. It was crazy. You had to pay nine dollars just for a burger and a drink,” Almasy said. However, eating at the café gave students the chance to experience foods of the Native American culture like buffalo burgers.
After lunch, the tour guide presented an overview of the museum’s history and galleries. The guide touched on some special points of interest, like 300 uses of corn and artifacts made of stone, bone, ceramic, gold, and coral.
The tour had to be cut short to make it back to the buses on time, but that didn’t affect the students’ overall experience.
“I think overall the trip went very well. There were many people that went on it and I think we all had a very good time together. You got to meet people from different grades you don’t normally talk to and the bus ride was a blast,” Almasy said.
The purpose of the trip was to give students “background information on the cultures of American Indians and African Americans. In a way, [the trip] was based on the two cultures we’ve really studied this year,” McCumber said.
“I learned so many new facts on this trip and I would definitely recommend joining the Culture Shock Club for fantastic field trips like these,” Almasy said.
Stephanie Meadowcroft is a Lifestyles Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.