A Day At The Beach

I woke up early this morning, ready to experience my first day out of class at Brown University. Originally, my plan was to go to Newport on a bus provided by the Brown Summer Program. After I discussed this plan with others, however, we decided that we wanted the freedom to leave and return back to Brown anytime throughout the day.

At about 9:30 AM, Ynah, Romina and I left Brown and headed to Thayer Street. We thought that from there we would be able to find a bus to take us to a beach. Unfortunately, we had trouble even finding a bus stop, let alone the right bus. We finally stopped inside a Starbucks and ran into some other people from the Summer Program also trying to go to the beach. We joined their group, and after a little research a smartphone, we found both the correct bus and bus stop. After a short walk, we were on a bus and headed to the ocean.

After a very long and crowded bus ride we arrived in a town that was just a 20-minute walk to the coast. We strolled through a beautiful residential area and just as our feet were starting to get tired, we saw the beach. I was especially exited to go to this beach because, before today, I had never swum in the Atlantic Ocean. Once we arrived, we immediately laid out our towels and ran into the water. I was surprised at how warm it was, and I probably could have stayed in the water for hours if it wasn’t for the huge amount of red algae that stuck to everything.

After swimming, many of us read our assigned readings for the weekend. It was both relaxing and productive. It was nice to know that we were managing our time well while also having fun. At about 4:00 PM, we decided to check the bus schedule. We figured out that a bus reached our stop every half hour and that since it was about an hour and a half ride back to Providence, we should leave the beach by 4:30 PM to arrive back before nightfall. We rushed back into town and barely made the 5:00 PM bus.  After another long bus ride we finally made it back to Providence and had to catch yet another bus back to Brown University.

Overall the day was amazing, but I also learned an important lesson. Our day would have been much more enjoyable if we had done just a little more research ahead of time. It’s great to be spontaneous, but it’s also important to plan ahead. We were lucky to make it to the beach and even luckier to arrive back without any transportation problems. We would have avoided a lot of pointless walking if we had just researched where to go beforehand. Next time I go on a trip like this, I’ll do my research ahead of time into order to ensure the outing runs smoothly.