A Day with Mr. Raines - Essay Example

The paper "A Day with Mr. Raines" is an outstanding example of an essay on English.  Last weekend, I decided to interview one of my uncle’s friends, Mr. Michael Raines. He used to work with the United States Marine Corps. He left the service in 2009 and has been to Asia such as Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. I decided to interview him for this assignment because I would like to know his experiences on that side of the world.
Mr. Raines was able to live in Japan because he went to boot camp for the United States Marine Corps in that country. He had just graduated from high school then. Japan made a big impression on him. It was then that he became interested in Asia. Eventually, he married a Filipina and lives in the Philippines for three years. During his stay there, he and his wife were asked assigned by their employer for six months in Thailand. It was this trip that gave him a chance to go to Cambodia and Laos, which were reachable by land travel. For employment and purposes, Mr. Raines was required to go to the two countries to process his visa. He only stayed in the two countries for one to two days and regrets not being able to see the famous sites there.
Mr. Raines said that his experience in these Southeast Asian countries were eye-openers because the cultures were very different from American culture. For one, he shared that families find it pleasing to live together in one home. Unlike in America where children are eager to live on their own once they reach eighteen, sons and daughters who are twenty and above can be found still living with their parents and this is not looked down on. Another new experience for him was how people shared dishes together. In these countries, it was the norm to order or cook two or three dishes for sharing.
It took a while for Mr. Raines to get used to all these changes. However, he said he would not trade them for anything else. He said his interest in Asia gave him the best gifts – his wife and two children.