This July, my family decided to make our annual family vacation to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. While in Disney, we explored the various amusement parks, one of which particularly stood out in my mind: Epcot. Epcot is known for its futuristic atmosphere on one half of the park. This side of the park gives insight as to what the future may hold for us globally. The other half of the park highlights a world showcase, which contains eleven different countries that one can “visit” that are all within a mile of each other.
The first country my family wanted to visit was Mexico. One of the first things we saw when arriving there was the massive Mexican pavilion containing various restaurants and attractions. After touring a few attractions, we decided to get something for lunch. My dad decided we would eat at La Hacienda de San Angel. The first thing that came to my attention was the zesty smell coming from the kitchen. My family is familiar with Mexican food, but we never experienced Mexican cuisine such as this. The ingredients they used to make the various dishes such as quesadillas and enchiladas made dinner both fiery and delicious.
As the day progressed, we made our way to a few more attractions. Sure enough, a few hours later many of our stomachs were grumbling again. This time, my cousin happened to notice a rather elegant and foreign looking restaurant. It turns out that we were in the part of the park that was replicated to be Canada. The name of the restaurant was Le Cellier Steakhouse. One of the first things we noticed upon our arrival was the extravagant collection of wine cellars throughout the restaurant. While dining there, we had some of the finest seafood, prime rib, and of course filet mignon. My uncle and father even had some Canadian wine, which they said was some of the sweetest wine they’ve ever tasted.
While I have only been outside of the country once, I can assure you this may have been the next best thing to experiencing a particular country’s culture. Although I only was able to taste the spicy Mexican cuisine and the elegant Canadian steakhouse, I would love to go back some day to explore the remaining countries represented in Epcot. I hope to use the stipend, provided by the Macaulay Honors College, to actually visit one of these foreign countries and better my understanding of culture in a global perspective.
Epcot is definitely the best place to go in Disney World. I was there twice, but both times were amazing! I like how you described the Mexican restaurant because I never knew there was one. I thought there was a just gondola ride. Is Canada one of the new countries at Epcot? I don’t remember it being there. I do remember one thing. When in “Deutschland”, I got one of those old fashioned German frankfurters piled high with sauerkraut and with mustard. I thought the franks at Nathans were good, but these were godly. Just from that one bite, my stomach got filled, but my appetite for German culture grew. Now, I am hoping to study at Berlin! Thanks for the piece because it reminded of how much fun Epcot is and that I definitely need to go back there!!!
http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/toyman70/WDW%25202006/epcot-germany-frankfurterkraut.jpg
Credits go to toyman70. Tell me that doesn’t look delicious.
John, Yes, visiting these countries will give you a real feel for their life, their food, and their culture! Try to add as many visual details as you can to your posts.
I definitely would like to travel as well with the stipend! I agree with Sam in that Epcot is definitely an amazing place. If you didn’t know, it actually stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. It’s been a while since I’ve actually been there but I found that it was really cool how there was actually a ride inside of the famous Epcot ball named Spaceship Earth. It showed various advancements in human communication and it’s amazing how far we’ve come in technology and how we can interact with people across the world. I also agree that the food there was delicious! But considering the price people pay for food, I found that to be true for most of the food served at Disney.
That’s so cool – I had no idea that Epcot had all those things, but now I definitely want to go there. Great descriptions. I feel like that’s kind of how New York City is, in a way- you could “visit” a number of countries within a 30 blocks. Which country were you most impressed with?