How I Spent My Summer Vacation Essay 200 Words In English

[Michele Firmasyah]

Ihad no idea about this place, so I had to look it up on the internet; Malindi is a town found in the South-Eastern part of Kenyan and along the Kenyan coast. A place that is famous for its chain of tropical beaches that is dotted by many hotels and resorts anyone can choose to stay in.

We chose Malindi as our summer vacation destination after we read that Usain Bolt the famous 100 & 200 Meter record-holder had adopted an abandoned 8-months cheetah in Kenya. It was so touching, and he even went further to name the cheetah Lightning Bolt with a pledge to pay $3,000 a year after he had paid $13,000 as adoption fees.

We arrived in Kenya a week later after the summer vacation had started, and we headed straight to our hotel room to relax and be ready to get started early enough the following day. We took a small walk in the evening with our tour guide just to familiarize ourselves with the vicinity and interact with the locals.

Everyone was so lively and hospitable, and we felt at home. Back at our hotel, we spent a better part of the night talking about what we saw and planned the places to visit come morning. By the look of the serene atmosphere around us, right from our hotel, it promised to be the best two weeks away from school, home, and in Malindi too.

All in all, it was a road trip to behold, and we were filled with unimaginable happiness that could last for ages. We went to the beach, and we had beautiful and fantastic moments sailing on the hand-crafted dhows that make the beach exceptionally beautiful. At the beach, we got a chance to eat seafood lunch, drank mnazi-a cocktail made from coconut milk, explored different beach places, and so much more.

Damn, the food and the drinks were so traditional and sweet to sample we even bought some for our supper. We also got a chance to snorkel at the Beach as we interacted with the locals who taught us new African dance styles.

Next, we visited the Watamu National Marine Park which is a marvelous place to visit. The breeze blew against our bodies, as we walked through the aqua park that has almost 1,000 different fish and other aqualife species. The park is built on beautiful coral-reefs grounds that have beautiful gardens all around. Along the shore, our eyes were mesmerized as we spotted all species of birds, on top of the amazing turtles and dugongs. We feasted our eyes on a lot, as much as we could and once we got satisfied we headed to the sandy beach to sunbathe, water skiing, and windsurfing just to end the eventful day on a climax.

The last days of my summer vacation with my family in Malindi were spent visiting all the places we could manage to go to. We resolved to maximize the value of the last days of our vacation. Also, it was supposed to end on a high note and compliment the excitement we had since we arrived.

My best site visit was the Falconry of Kenya that gave us a chance to be in close contact with a vast collection of birds of prey and other wild animals. I even saw a tortoise that was 200-years old! The falconry boasts of falcons, peckers, owls, and goshawks; we took turns petting, feeding, and playing with some birds. Additionally, the site shelters crocodiles, green mambas, cobras, lizards, monkeys, and pythons.

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The Summer of COVID was filled with the daily death and infection counts from the global pandemic that was killing people in every corner of the world. The ever-present counter on the CNN screen was tallying the death toll like the tote board of a dystopian telethon.

Newscasters brought us stories of senseless murders of black Americans at the hands and knees of those who were otherwise sworn to serve and protect. And while the vast majority of them honored their oaths with distinction too many of their fellow officers snuffed out too many black lives, each of which mattered.

This summer we mourned the passing of the field marshals and foot soldiers of the civil rights movement at a time when their voices and leadership would be needed more than ever. The deaths of Rev. Joseph Lowery, Rev. C.T. Vivian and Rep. John Lewis extinguished the lights lit by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. And with the loss of those iconic human rights leaders the nation would wonder what new voices would replace their silenced advocacy.

Our economy became one of the costliest victims of the Summer of COVID. Our unemployment lines reminded us of the lines at depression era soup kitchens. 50 million people lost their jobs or were furloughed. Food banks saw lines of cars that stretched for miles with people who used to drop off donations but who were now looking for a box of food to get them through the week. Countless families and individuals lived in fear of eviction and foreclosure.

Migrant families and asylum seekers became the target of Gestapo-like squads of Federal agents who found new sport in separating children as young as one-year old from their families and caging little ones like animals in squalid conditions.

Retail stores were shuttered along with bars, restaurants, gyms, hair and nail salons. We became a society dependent on home delivery from Amazon, Walmart, and other retailers. And local restaurants could feed us only by home delivery or curbside pickup.

Even as the summer was only half over parents had no idea how their children would be taught when schools were supposed to re-open. In person? Online? A combination of both? No one knew for sure and the anxiety of families was off the chart.

Worshipers could not congregate in Churches, Synagogues or Mosques. Their only ability to join in communal prayer and connection was from their home watching a livestream on their computer or television.

This was the Summer of COVID and Labor Day, the traditional end of the summer season, will not bring an end to all of this. It will extend into the holidays we celebrate in November and December. And we may even be denied the pleasure of sports to distract us from our troubles. It is uncertain what the fate of college and professional football will be. The shortened baseball season may not even be able to complete its shortened schedule.

These are the low lights of the Summer of COVID and my remembrances of how I spent my COVID summer vacation. It was and continues to be a grim and worrisome time for all of us. But the human spirit still has a way of fighting back against evil like the hoped-for vaccine that will eventually fight off COVID.

Despite all of the darkness in what should be the sunniest time of the year we still find ways to prevail. We still find ways to be of help to our friends, family and neighbors. We still find ways to make the best of terrible circumstances. We still look out for ourselves and those we care about and even those unknown to us. And most of us work hard to find ways from sinking into the depths of depression and self-pity for the losses and inconveniences we experience. But sadly not all of us.

The lesson of the Summer of COVID is to find ways of being grateful for the blessings we enjoy even in times of great challenge and difficulty. We also need to remind ourselves that even at a time of scarcity and loss there is still much that we can give to soften the pain of others.

I learned that lesson in my childhood when our home was ravaged twice in thirteen months by flood. We were taken in and cared for by our neighbors. They helped ensure that we would weather the storm even though the actual storm had passed. And that is the lesson that has been embedded in me through my entire life. You see it all the time in natural disasters. You see it in times of unimaginable violence and mass killings. You see the indomitable power and strength that can be offered to those who are suffering even by those whose own struggles are real.

The Summer of COVID has been one of the most devastating periods any of us can remember and certainly one we wish to never experience again. But it was not without its lessons and it has taught us something about ourselves. We have overcome. We can overcome. We shall overcome.

Gratitude for what we have in our lives far exceeds the despair we might feel for any sense of loss we may experience. An attitude of gratitude can be a soothing balm for the wounds of a broken spirit or troubled soul. But as with most medicines, gratitude only can reduce our pain if we make use of it.

This is the first of a series of blog posts which will share images, videos, and impressions from my extensive lecture tour this summer across Europe. I think of these posts as the equivalent of a scrapbook. For me, they are a way of consolidating my impressions on what were truly transformative experiences and encounters. I am hoping for the reader they will function as one part travel guide and one part overview of some key figures and developments in Europe around the topics which I regularly cover here.

Over the course of ten weeks, I ended up giving more than 30 talks and visited 12 European countries at a moment of tension and transition within the European Union. As someone commented on my Facebook page near the end of the trip, "Now everyone in Europe has had the chance to hear Henry Jenkins speak at least twice."

In almost every case, it was the first time my wife and I had visited those places and so we engaged with each with curiosity and excitement. I had never really been able to spend significant amounts of time in Europe before, having not had the resources to be a foreign exchange student in high school, to do the Junior semester abroad programs as an undergraduate, or to hitchhike across Europe after graduation, all the stereotypical ways Americans get to know Europe.

As Convergence Culture began to be translated into many European languages, I felt a very strong desire to visit Europe in a more substantial and systematic way, to engage in conversation with the people who were reading the book, and to learn more about how its themes were playing out in a European context. But, the trip kept getting put off as I struggled with my decision to leave MIT and then dealt with the transition to USC, and so this summer was the first time I could make this dream into a reality.

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