Staying over night at Mike’s house, which was an awesome time because I had good time talk with Mike’s mother and father. Then after that, Mike and I caught up with the old news. Going to bed at midnight then bearing to get up at 5:45am the next day. Mike’s mother drove us to Southbury to stop at Dunkin Dounts, I got a strawberry coolatta that time because I needed something to keep myself awake and keep my body energized from the sugar.

Arriving at McDonald’s because Anne and Nancy had to pick us up to head to the JFK airport but during that time, we had to pick up Kangni. While going on the highway, we had 2 hour traffic jam; we were so paranoid that we would miss the plane! Once we picked up Kangni, we took off to the airport because we were afraid we were running late. When we got to the airport, we had an hour and half to do everything. We did our luggage and I broke the record of having 49 pounds as the most heaviest and Mike was the most lightest of having 30 pounds of luggage. After finishing checking in our luggage, we had to run to our gate and it was on the other side of the airport. It took us 20 minutes to walk to our gate. By the time we arrived, we only had 15 minutes left of the boarding time, we were so lucky we made it on time. We took American Airlines. The flight was very smooth. It was 5 hours and 25 minutes flight. While we were flying, we saw the Rocky Mountain, the Nevada Desert, and the fire from Lake Tahoe. Everything was so fascinating and interesting. During that time, Anne was talking about the stories about WW2 and Holocaust; we all were captive to the stories.

We did land 20 minutes later than the scheduled time and the landing was very bumpy. When we were landing, I was so fascinated to the city of San Francisco view, the bay, and the bridge. They had one bridge that looked like it was over mile and half long, it was so huge. I saw some of the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was so hard to see that time because of the fog in the sky.

Once we got our baggage and everything was settled, it was a whole different world when we stepped outside. Everything was so different, people were driving the speed limit like they don’t do in Connecticut, they had palm trees from Florida, 5 lanes highway, more business work, landscape and weather change. It was 60 degrees outside. The gas price here was $3.21. Connecticut is charging $3.39. Wow, what a huge change between two states.

It was 45 minute drive from the airport to CSD. While Charise was driving, we saw so many different things to compare from Connecticut and I just realized that the West and East coast are very different from each other.

When we arrived at CSD, my jaw just dropped because everything was so huge. The campus was unbelievable. They had a track and field, soccer field, bigger dorms which are called cottages.

After settling in and getting everything prepared, we went to McDonald’s for dinner. I was surprised that it was the same price from Connecticut because I would think it will be more expensive, but really it was the same price. Then we went back to CSD and started our journal work like what I’m doing now.

I am really looking forward for this trip and learn so much from everything that I will see. This trip will be worth my experience and a lifetime to remember with my friends and teachers who I love the most.