When going on a journey, you always have stories to tell. Even more interesting if whuffles stories come from the Golden State.
H
ello there!
In April, we finally got the opportunity to travel via EF, my organization. We could choose between Hawaii, New York, California and Canada as our destinations. At first I wasn't sure about going at all - such a long flight to wherever and all these expenses. Eventually, I decided together with my parents to go to California. On April 5 the adventure started.
First my host dad dropped me off at the airport - I had to go through security alone. But in the terminal I found a pleasant surprise, one other German exchange student was flying to New York and had the same first flight. It was nice to see her again and I had somebody to talk to. Off, off we go!I flew to Chicago and from there to San Francisco. There we gathered in a group of 100(!) other exchange students. Because we were that numerous we split into two separate groups. And finally we entered the gates of San Francisco. From the very beginning, I loved SF. It is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen and I actually consider moving there sometime in my life. SF isn't very warm but neither too cold, we had to wear a coat but also felt comfortable in hoodies. The streets are all cricket and steep and you easily lose your breath when walking them. The houses are beautifully worked and colored in different shades of red, blue or green. SF lies on the water; therefore, got a pier with little stores and clam chowder, which is a fish soup. The parks are big, green and wonderful and water there tastes a whole lot better then in Bradford. We had our hotel rooms pretty close to the airport so our sleep was disturbed by night flights. But we didn't care - sleep isn't important when you're in California!!
Now I've walked SFs streets, although my jeans are not torn into pieces.
After our sight seeing tour on the first day we went to China town, the "gay street" with all its Rainbow flags, the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. China town was nice; the gay part of the city was even nicer because there I got the best ice cream ever! We walked over the Golden Gate Bridge, which was loud but awesome. When we started walking the bridge was sunken in clouds, when we arrived on the other side the sky was blue and the sun came out. Good thing the Rock is not a jail anymore!Alcatraz was very interesting as well - and very scary. I understand why the inmates turned crazy. The city isn't more then a mile or two away, and between you and your freedom lays just some water. But there is the tricky part, the ocean isn't as calm as it seems and many prisoners drowned while trying to escape. For everybody who doesn't know Alcatraz - it's a very famous prison island, where the hardest of the hard had to be. There was this one saying: "If you break the rules, you go to prison. If you break the prison rules, you go to Alcatraz." However, It was closed down many years ago and is a tourist attraction nowadays.
The Rock - no one ever able to flee from there successfully.
While we were walking, we listened to an Audio Guide and so listened to doors fallen shut, interviews with real former prisoners and other very real sounding noises. San Francisco was amazing and I felt really bad when we had to leave for Los Angeles. But that's a story I'm going to tell you next time.
Cya
Magi is 17 years old and lives in Bradford in the US state of Ohio since summer last year (yes, this high school exchange student thing). On WOOLING.NET she tells you about the daily routine over there. Have a look at what she already published.
Fotos: Toni Kretzschmar (2), Magdalena Schreiber (1)
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Da der Microsoft Internet Explorer nicht den weltweiten Web-Standards entspricht, wird WOOLING.NET im Internet Explorer bis Version 6 noch fehlerhaft dargestellt. Alle Fehler konnten wir noch nicht beheben. Das betrifft vor allem Textausrichtung, Linien und Abstände. Um WOOLING.NET in voller Schönheit genießen zu können, legen wir euch ans Herz, den Internet Explorer zu aktualisieren oder am besten gleich kostenlos zu 
