One year in the USA: A little trip to Burlington


Burlington, aka a city a bit more urbanized than Middlebury.

During Orientation Week (right after Early Arrival and before the beginning of classes), not only did we have to choose our courses but we also had plenty of activities, including a trip to Burlington, the most-populated and urban city of Vermont and one hour away from Middlebury (sic). I thought that like at the airport, a Middlebury College van would bring us to the city. Surprise, it was a bus! THE American yellow bus, the one that you always see in movies, video games (The Sims!) as well as cartoons (The Magic School Bus! Ah, goold old times). Back then, the weather was warm and sunny, whereas today was awful: rain, wind, coldness, I have had it all.


THE American school bus!


Isn't it exciting to be in a yellow school bus?

Inside...the school bus.

As you may have already noticed, this article is more of an illustration of Burlington through tons of snapshots, rather than a long text describing what life is like at Middlebury College. Taking as many pictures as possible to remember this trip was therefore much obliged.
It was the first time I got out of Middlebury, and since I will seldom have other opportunities to do so, I jumped on the occasion. Being quite stuck in the middle of nowhere as well as not having a driving license is one of the cons of Middlebury, although this definitely has pros too.


Trees and little houses: typical Vermont scenery.

An hour later, we found civilization again.

The Pedestrian Street.

Unfortunately, we only had two hours to do whatever we wanted Burlington which was a shame because it was way too little time to really discover the city. I did not do any research about it prior to my visit, something I have just remembered my mother would not do. She likes to print pages and pages of information about what to do, what to explore in a specific area. She would even do it for me, see how helpful and involved she can be! I decided to go to the Pedestrian Street, where a lot of international well-known brands are located. You have guessed well, my intention was to go shopping. After all, from what I have seen so far, Middlebury’s reputation is not based on its fashion sense. This was the unique opportunity to enjoy a girly activity, so it was now or never!

I entered Macy’s, a mall. For some unknown reason, I really like mall’s atmosphere. Is it because it is so huge yet so comfy? French ones seem to be narrower, having less space and thus more crowded, and few benches. GAP, Hollister, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, Aeropostale, Pac Sun, and so on and so forth. A refreshing change from European brands! I ended up buying quite a lot of stuff, justified on the fact plenty of them were on sale and nice. Moreover, I probably will not have the opportunity to go shopping before a while, so why not seize it when possible?