California trip 2018, feb 2-11
The PLP California trip was a really amazing experience that taught me a lot about Silicon Valley, education, multiple unique professions, and myself.
In this blog I’m gonna take you through day 1-10 of what we did and saw during this trip.
Day 1. First we took two planes to San Diego. Our first day we took in a breath of California seeing the beautiful Torrey pines national reserve and La Jolla cove.
Torrey pines national reserve is home to some of the last Torrey pines and is keeping them from extinction.
Day 2. We spent most of the day at the San Diego Safari Park.
Here we saw:
We also went on a hot air balloon ride that is apart of the park
At Safari park I learned that the most common factor that leads to animals going extinct is deforestation and habitat fragmentation. This disruption is what caused the three band armadillo to get be near endangered. I also learned that zoos work together to end extinction and decide the best place to put an endangered animal. The Safari park adapts the environment for different animals need and keeps them well exercised.
Day 3. Today we went to the USS midway and enjoyed the audio tour, listening to the interns who worked on the midway, and the very life like manikins.
At the midway I learned that it was full of determine young adults 17-19 who ran the ship. It’s amazing to think these young adults went on the large voyages in harsh conditions but still managed to do there job well.
Day 4. On day 4 and 6 we went to High Tech High. We got paired up with grade 9 students from high tech high, and got to experience what a school day for them was like.
Day 5. The final day at HTH we interviewed and said goodbye to our buddies.
I had an amazing experience at high tech high and learned so much from the teachers, students, and the school.
After we left HTH we took a flight to San Jose
Day 6. Today we went to google, Apple, and intel
Day 7. We spent our day at the computer history museum and at Stanford University.
At the Computer History Museum we saw examples of how technology has been creating huge disruptions throughout time.
Later we had dinner with tech giants Scott and Brendan who shared with us what being an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley and working in tech companies is really like.
Day 8. Today we had a private tour of Twitter headquarters
This tour was really cool because we saw how modern and relaxed this work environment was. It looked like a place that you would want to be and encourages you to be creative and share your ideas.
Next we took a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge and then to dinner.
Day 9. We started off our day with a Wild SF walking tour.
This was a really great tour because it talked about a lot of things we have been learning about San Francisco:
It was really cool to learn about how all of these great movements started in San Francisco because of the 1906 earthquake and fire. Because of the earthquake and fire the area became poor and had low population so the hippies were able to move in to the cheap houses. From there on San Francisco has been a place that people were free to go against American values.
Day 10 . This last day we took one last ride on the cable cars heading to the airport we’re our California journey ends.
It was sad to leave the California sun but after a week of activities everyday it would be nice to see my dog and relax on my bed