Hi everyone! This is Carlos, Rudy, Elayne, Darren, John and Bob. We are leaving for Europe and YMCA 175 Global Youth Conference tomorrow! How do we feel? Nervous, excited, hyped and ready. Some of us have never flown. This is our first international trip. We’re excited to experience new cultures, meet new people and try new food. Not too excited about time changes though. Follow us as we take a travel adventure of a lifetime as young people discovering our world. See you tomorrow as we get on our flights. London, here we come!
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Airport Chaos
We started off our adventure with us driving through traffic and we started to feel the feeling of queasyness. When we reached our destination we didnt know where to go because this is a first for most, so we just followed Bob. When we checked in we found out that Rudy packed 27 pounds of luggage and Elayne having the lightest luggage of 19 pounds. After that we had to walk through TSA and we had to take off all of our items including our shoes which was interesting. When we started to eat pizza we had drinks and John knocked his water over and it spilled all over the table. Lucky for us the equipment was not on the table or near the water. After we’re done eating we are going to wait for our plane wish us luck!
Fun and Jet laggedI’ve never been so tired and excited at the same time in my life! The whole team is tired, but we are meeting so many new and interesting young people. We met young people from these countries: Spain, Finland, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, Scotland, Germany, Romania, Pakistan, Iceland, Australia and Peru. But our best friend is Lucas from the Sioux YMCA in South Dakota. We are interviewing young people asking them how they make change in the world. It’s interesting how young people have similar problems and are doing interesting things to solve them. Also the Chicago YMCA youth joined us for dinner and a fun game of cards. Shout out to Sokthea Phay our very own staff for being the flag bearer for the USA delegation. Some of the things we’ve learned so far at this conference are that other YMCA’s have similar issues and they strive very hard to solve them. We realized how lucky we are to be in the Youth Institute because other youth mentioned that their programs do some of the things that we do, but not all such as Wilderness Retreats, Youth advocacy, Outdoor sports and film making. They don’t get as many opportunities to actually run their program like we do.
Filming madnessBeing at the conference for 3 days has become an interesting experience for everyone. Elayne and I have filmed many people of many races. We filmed a group of of YMCA kids from London, China, Richmond, Virginia and more. It was cool for us to interact with them because we would have never known that they were more similar to us then we thought. The most crazy thing that we did today was getting the chance to get interviewed by Viacom. It was crazy how we were almost filming the same thing as them because we were both trying to show what changes us youth want to see on the world. It was nice to see other people have the same mission as us but on a greater scale. Every thing has been fun but filming has been a challenge because it takes a lot out of you. From running around the whole conference to just carrying gear on your back. This has been an unforgettable experience meeting so many youth from so many countries. I want to end it off with how great everyone has treated us with such open arms and respect.
Today started off mellow as we waited for Darnell, a former Long Beach YMCA youth, to show us around Paris. It was inspiring to see a youth from traumatic backgrounds, which we normalize, break out of the norms and become such an accomplished adult who left everything behind to start a new life in Europe. He treated us to lunch and we shared stories of his journey to success. This opened up our minds to taking risks and thinking about the possibilities that the world has to offer. After lunch we headed to the Arc De Triumph to catch a bus tour around Paris. we saw many historical sights and beautiful architecture but we were also caught in a CRAZY rainstorm. We were all soaked but were determined to finish the bus tour. After a long and tiring day we headed to our house for the night and ate pizza till we were stuffed. Darnell had to leave and we had to wind down for the night but we are really looking forward for Darnell coming back tomorrow and showing us another great time in Paris, It has been amazing so far and there is still so much more to experience but until then we will rest and reflect on this amazing adventure!Today’s crazy adventure was a surprise by Darnell, it was up to us to find out what it was and the only hint he gave us was, “don’t eat too much”. As we were approaching the location, we saw carnival rides and a ferris wheel, it was then clear to us that we were going to a carnival. The rides at this European carnival weren’t anything like your ordinary American carnival rides. We went on some of the coolest rides including FreeFall, FlumeRide, BoostMaxx, and Slingshot, which were exhilarating. After all it was nice to finish our day by looking at the breathtaking view of Paris from the Farris wheel. Shoutout to Darnell Williams, Old School YMCA Youth, for welcoming us to this beautiful city with open arms and making this trip so memorable and enjoyable.
Uber FailWe all had to wake up bright and early today because we all needed to get our tickets from the train station. When we arrived there we had to wait 2 hours because we arrived really early, so to pass the time we had breakfast and just chilled. As time past, our train had finally been called up so we all ran and pushed through the crowd who were also trying to get on the train. When we finally reached our seats we found ourselves in one of the best seats in the train because we almost had the whole cart to ourselves. Most of us feel asleep on the train while others watched movies to pass the time. As we arrived to Geneva Switzerland we were greeted with open arms by Myktos who was a local YMCA Staff in the area. He was great because he gave us directions and a free car ride to our YMCA apartments. The only downside was that we had to split up because Myktos couldn’t fit everyone in his car. The other group who got split up was Johnathan, John, Elayne, and I. We had to wait awhile. The reason for this was because every time we requested an Uber it got cancelled. When we gave up we just called a taxi and went straight to our rooms. When we got there it was amazing because we all finally were able to get our own rooms. We got to chill for a couple of hours but it was starting to get late so we wanted to get dinner. So we all took a cab to the restaurant, and it was really amazing because it was right next to the lake. The view was amazing. After eating we went for a night stroll where we saw swans and a huge pipe of geyser shooting out of the lake. After all of that we went back to our rooms where everyone knocked out.
Swiss Mointains, Swimming Pools and Fondue!We started the morning grocery shopping and then we were off to the cable car up to Burneuse! A huge mountain top above Leysin. We took amazing picture of the Swiss Alps and then went down to have a sauna and swim at the Olympic Hotel. Then us youth got to go shopping alone and bought Swiss Army knives. The highlight was going to dinner at Prafandaz! The restaurant is in a 200 year old chalet on top of a mountain. The view was unbelievable! The fondue came in two types, mushroom cheese and old fashioned cheese. Yum! Then we made a campfire at the lookout and some Swiss campers gave us marshmallows and tea for lighting their fire! Swiss Mountain life is really cool. Bob knows everybody here! He hooked us up!
Seven trains in One Day!Today was a train marathon. We bought food the day before and got up at 5:30am. Then we caught the Leysin Mountain train down to Aigle. Then we caught the Aigle train to Lausanne. Then we caught the Lausanne train to Bern. Then we caught the Bern train to Basel. Then we caught the Basel train to Frankfurt. Then we caught the Frankfurt train to Wichtenvachtwn I think??? Then we caught that train to Rotterdam! Over 16 hours on trains! Even Bob said he broke his old Europe train hopping record by TWO TRAINS!
Now we sleep in our chalet outside Rotterdam! Big presentation tomorrow with VOPAK! VOPAK and Rotterdam!Big day for all of us! Today we presented to Royal Vopak representatives and Board Members from the WeConnect Foundation. We talked about the YMCA 175 conference, and the videography work we did there. Then we showed them the VOPAK safety video that we had been working on for VOPAK Los Angeles for quite a while and they loved it!
They were really impressed by our work and our presentation and hoped to collaborate later on in the future. Huge thanks to Vanaroth Samrith for connecting us with Vopak and allowing us to do this project. Shout out also goes to Vopak and their group for being huge sponsors and supporters of the Youth Institute! The afternoon was spent touring Rotterdam and seeing all of the artistic buildings and beautiful water areas with a YMCA friend, Martin Vosjan. Martin took us to the Marketplatz where we were amazed by the architecture and ate fish and chips Dutch style! Busy and adventurous day. Many new friends in Rotterdam! Amsterdam Adventure!Today has been one of the funnest days of the trip around Europe. It started off slow and normal as we ate breakfast and talked around the table. Most of our group had decided to go to Amsterdam for the day, while Bob and Carlos stayed back to do our laundry. The rest of the group went to the train station to figure out how to get to Amsterdam. We all had a fun and troublesome experience exploring the station as we looked for our train. After about an hour on the train we arrived in Amsterdam. Next we had even more problems figuring out which local train to take to get to the Anne Frank Museum. When we arrived at the museum we found out the museum was over book and so was the Van Gogh Museum. But instead of giving up we asked locals for advice on where to go. The first stop we took was to a local bakery to buy stroop waffles. As we were walking there we were able to admire the history of the city and its unique architecture. The first bite of the stroop waffle was a complete unexpected and delicious taste. From there we decided to go towards the river and get onto a canal tour of the city. On the boat we were informed of the various historical sites in the city. Going down the canal showed us a different perspective of the city and its people. Before we went back to our apartment to pack up for the next day. We all wanted to go to the gift shops around the city to buy souvenirs for ourselves and our families.
London in a Day!Woke up in London! Decided to tour as much as we can in one say. Bought the Big Bus Your. Toured Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, The London Eye, Lunch in Covent Garden, Buckingham Palace, Round Theater. Tower of London, Tower Bridge. We bought souvenirs and took a boat ride down the Thames River from the Tower of London back to Parliament! Headed back to our place and went out for some on fire Indian Food! Great last day. A little sad!
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