During the week of Dec. 5-11, I traveled to the West Coast trip with my exchange organization YFU. There were approximately 170 other exchange students from many different countries, such as Spain, Sweden, China and for sure GERMANY! Although there were many different languages spoken, English was still the common language so that everybody could understand each other.

The first day we went to the Grand Canyon. It was awesome! I couldn’t believe that it would be so beautiful. I’ve heard a lot of stories about the Grand Canyon, but seeing it is a completely different thing. When I went to the edge at the Grand Canyon, I was a little bit afraid to fall down because it’s so high. Of course I took a lot of funny pictures with my friends because it’s such a beautiful landscape.

The second day we went to Las Vegas. We took a city tour, and we went to some casinos. They were amazing. In almost every hotel, there was a casino. That made me think “Hey, how much money must the people spend here for gambling?”

Of course we went shopping too! You really need a lot of time to go to each shop, and you need a lot of money. Las Vegas is expensive! After a delicious buffet dinner we went to a show where fake superstars like Britney Spears, Michael Jackson and Elvis performed. I even took pictures with them. That was fun!

The third day started really early because we had to check out of the hotel and had to go to L.A. by bus. In L.A. we first went to the Hollywood sign which was great to see for me. But I wished we could go nearer to the sign for better pictures. We also saw Beverly Hills. I even saw the shop from “Pretty Women” where Julia Roberts’ character wanted to go shopping, but the women in the shop wouldn’t let her in.

For dinner we went to a restaurant that was located on the top of a big tower. It moved around so that you could see the city by night with all the amazing lights. There were also rides on the top of the tower. I didn’t ride on them because I’m afraid of heights.

My favorite thing on this trip was spending time with the other exchange students who had the same experience as me. We could talk about our feelings and adventures. We also had fun teaching each other in different languages.

When I came back to Massachusetts I realized that it was so much warmer on the West Coast than at the East Coast. At the time the East Coast had a big snowstorm, the West Coast had beautiful sunshine. I would recommend everyone take a trip to the West Coast. It’s awesome!

Please check out my pictures an The Lobby Observer website: lobbyobserver.org