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As my family piled into our car for our four-hour drive, I sincerely hoped my brothers wouldn’t ruin the best chance that we’ve had in a long time. They were already arguing about who got what video game, and were not making my mom and dad feel any better about going. We were going to Illinois, to Chicago, to be even more specific. Chicago was the city I’d been dreaming about visiting for a long time. (Well, that and New York.) I could not believe that my parents were getting out of their comfort zone and taking us to a big city.
The whole thing started out on August 27, two days before we were to take the trip. Mom spent the entire morning looking up ‘hotels around Chicago’ because she didn’t want to stay directly in the city. She sat at her computer screen for hours, until she finally narrowed it down to three different places. The rest of the day was pretty much normal; Mom had done this before, last year, made plans to
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go to big cities and then never followed through with them because she was too scared of a big city. I was aching for a new experience, though. The last time I’d been out of state, or even close to the borderline of Wisconsin, was when I was three or four years old. We went to Minnesota for a wedding, and I don’t remember any of it, except for a graffitied McDonald’s drive through, for some reason. So you could see that I wanted to go somewhere, anywhere but here, with all my heart. I think that my parents saw this too, and that’s why they decided that it was about time we should go. We left on August 29, my parents checking and rechecking every safety measure possible: tinfoil to hide credit card numbers, passcodes on their phones, folding their wallets to protect against pickpockets. We closed up the house, unplugged everything, put our suitcases in our car. So off we went. The skies were hung with slate gray clouds.
It had been raining all of yesterday, and there was still an occasional drizzle now and then. The world looked rather two-dimensional, strange and different. During the car ride, I listened to my music the entire time, the one thing that keeps me from car sickness, and looked out the window. I had never seen anything like it before. Flat land, as far as the eye could see. No houses, fields, or anything but short grass. Combined with the flat gray quality of the sky, the view was rather surreal, a little bit like being on the moon. Sometime after 5 pm, we crossed the Illinois-Wisconsin state line, which was a special moment for me, my first time being over the state border in a little under ten years. The scenery got a little strange again, because we had just got out of the extremely urban area of Wisconsin, because that is our “down south.” But we were now in Illinois’ “up north” area, which consisted of acres of pine forests, dotted with an abundance of biker bars and boat rental
shacks. Finally, we started getting into the urban area of Illinois, with my brothers asking every three seconds whether we were in Waukegan, where we would be staying for the night. Our plan was to go into Chicago in the morning. When we arrived at the hotel, the first thing we noticed was the open, empty space surrounding it. Acres of flat grassland stretched out southward, but to the north was all highways and buildings. This was peculiar, being as we were in the heart of a very populated city. Upon seeing our room, my brothers’ first reaction was to shout “Yes! This place is awesome!”, but in the next few hours we would come to hate it. Little pieces of food kept turning up everywhere (half-chewed gummy bears, graham crackers, potato chips). There were unidentifiable stains on the sheets and the sofa. After assessing all of this, we just wanted to get out of there. So we went to a place called the Peacock Family Restaurant. It was actually a really delicious place. I had french toast, the best I’ve ever eaten. When we got out, it was around seven o’clock and already dark. Dad nearly got lost, even though we were less than a mile away from our hotel. When we got back, we took showers and slept the best we could. Next morning came too slowly. We were truly going to Chicago! It was still about an hour away from where we were staying in Waukegan.
The drive to cross the Kentucky border had taken hours and hours of strenuous patience to finally arrive in another state. The view was by far country like as hints of cow manure could be smelled far from a distance. We drive through small towns, half the size of our hometown of Glen Ellyn had been the biggest town we've seen if not smaller. The scenery had overwhelmed us, as lumps of Earth from a great distance turned to perfectly molded hills, but as we got closer and closer to our destination the hills no longer were hills anymore, instead the hills had transformed to massive mountains of various sizes. These mountains surrounded our every view as if we had sunken into a great big deep hole of green pastures. Our path of direction was seen, as the trails of our road that had followed for numerous hours ended up winding up the mountainous mountains in a corkscrew dizzy-like matter.
Wisconsin Dells was better than Six Flags because my family stayed longer. We were in Wisconsin Dells for four days, but we were only at Six Flags for two days. Because we were in the Dells longer, my family was able to create more memories. Six Flags may have had more attractions inside the park itself, but I felt rushed and did not enjoy my time there as much. The length of time my family spent in Wisconsin also gave us the ability to experience the numerous attractions found outside of the park.
I wonder if I should I start calling Las Vegas, Nevada home now. I’ve traveled back and forth from California to Las Vegas since I was a child. I can remember at the age of thirteen my family and I would take family weekend trips very often. By the age of seventeen I was forced to move to Vegas for 6 months right before my senior year of high school started. Since it was my last year of high school my parents decided to let me go back to California for the last three months and graduate with my friends. Since I wasn’t eighteen yet, I forced to go back to Las Vegas right the day after graduation.
The origin of the love of the game is hard to pinpoint specifically, but nevertheless my story begins 14 years ago. I was 7, learning new things and questioning every thing I saw. At the age of 7, we really don’t have the best understanding of how the world works nor do we understand our placement in it, but from that age with the little help of a game I began to understand thoseaspects of life more. The game is baseball, and from the age of 7 I have been completely immersed in it.
The suburbs of Detroit--1968. It’s a muggy summer day, with children running through sprinklers, chasing each other, but I am not out there. I am stuck in this silly, house that is marred by disease. My mother and father constantly fighting, but mom is only getting sicker. The scary doctors keep telling us that our mother will get better, but I know better. I am living with mom constantly, watching her wither away to nothing. My brothers are whining because they want to go get Ice cream. I don't want to, my biggest wish is to be a normal kid again
“Let’s go see the long-neck asaurus!” exclaimed Kae Lynn, while Tristan’s eyes lit up as she excitedly said “Yeah!”. Which led to a weekend in Rapid City. My Mom would be taking us to Rapid City, because she didn’t have work. Consequently booking us a room at the Ramkota. We then decided on picking up Kae Lynn first, since she lived in Eagle Butte, then we will pick up Tristan in Dupree.
To be a Chicagoan is to be a witness to the beauty of adversity, amazing food, and impossible diversity. Growing up in Chicago has engendered my passion for community organizing, and the importance of traditional and holistic education.
My two friends and I had a very fun time at Rapid City. After planning for about a week now, we had a rough start. I waited for approximately 45 minutes for George and Michael to get to my house, and I was really tired. I couldn’t sleep well last night, and it was raining, too, but eventually it cleared up. My friends finally arrived, so we could get going. I was really shocked that they came here by foot, since they could’ve taken a vehicle, and our houses weren’t that close to each other.
From a very young age I knew that I was going to move out of my hometown Guadalajara, Jalisco for the rest of my life, after all, my parents had given me a very unique opportunity, a U.S. nationality. My goal was to finish high school in the U.S. and one day enroll in an American college, however, my parents were not willing to let a 17 year old girl move thousand of miles away on her own, with only the support of her older sister, that lived in Washington State. My mother was the one in opposition to this idea the most, every time I mentioned even the smallest comment about me moving away, she would instantly change topics, turn the volume up, or just say she didn’t want to talk about it, I would always insist, until she was willing to hear
America, Almost every single person on earth has a dream of living in a country full of freedom, liberty, and opportunity. The United States has been providing these benefits ever since it was founded a few hundred years ago. So when I found out that my family would be coming to America, I had already started planning my future of growing up here. Just like any other person, I was feeling enthusiastic and a little nervous of leaving my native country and coming to America to start a better life. I was completely lost in my thoughts of happiness, that I became unaware of all the difficulties that my family and I would face once we step into our new lives. Among these difficulties were the change of language, change of system, and the variety of different cultures.
My heart was pounding as I boarded my flight leaving the Bangkok International Airport. A flight attendant in a grey dress with a red bow draped over her shoulder announced; “Welcome aboard flight AA350 to the United States.” My journey began that day.
My teammates, Alex Wu, Andrea Palate, Namara Haq, and I rode the bus, went to city hall, visited the Brookside biking path, Arbor Villa Tennis Court Park, the Plaza, McGonigle’s Market, and KC Community Gardens. The experiences I had visiting these places helped me connect the concepts to the material I learned in class. First, we walked over to Brookside where there was a place to rent bikes to ride on the trail. The Brookside area is an older part of Kansas City, but is well kept and modernized.
I step out of my apartment, no car keys in hand. I watch the 11:49 MTS route 44 bus drone loudly away as I continue to stand at the top of my stairs, having just locked my door behind me. Rather than sit and wait for another to come down Linda Vista in thirty minutes, I head out on my journey, depending on my feet to take on travel. I walk along the sidewalk with many others coming in and out of the line of stores parallel to the main road. The speed of the cars whipping up the flaps of my jacket and strands of my hair as I make room for other passerbys, and notice a consignment and massage store tucked behind my regular tasting room, and was shocked I’d never seen them before. Across the street I go, my footsteps matching the beep beep beep
I went to Chinatown on a Saturday afternoon, and it was a very lively atmosphere. I had several learning opportunities to find out more about the Chinese heritage. Everything that I saw in Chinatown had significance and meaning to the people who lived in Chinatown. I thought that it was really fantastic how people care so much about their culture and keeping their heritage alive. From the food I ate, to the streets I walked down, and the shops I went into, Chinatown was an amazing experience that I will remember!
This area of the world is so foreign to my Oklahoma life; it infuses me with awe, and with an eerie feeling of being strongly enclosed by huge mountains, and the mass of tall trees. However, when my foot first steps onto the dusty trail it feels crazily magical. The clean, crisp air, the new smell of evergreen trees and freshly fallen rain is mixed with fragrances I can only guess at. It is like the world has just taken a steroid of enchantment! I take it all in, and embrace this new place before it leaves like a dream and reality robs the moment. As I turn and look at my family, I was caught by my reflection in their impressions. The hair raising mischief in the car was forgotten and now it was time to be caught up in this newness of life. It was as if the whole world around us had changed and everyone was ready to engulf themselves in it. The trickling of water somewhere in the distance and the faint noise of animals all brought the mountains to