California

Every year in PLP we take a trip to somewhere that connects with our unit. We are just finishing up a unit on how technology has been a disruption throughout history. Our main focus was on the tech giants such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft. For this unit we went to California because it is the home to the Headquarters of almost every big tech company. To prepare for this trip we learned about the definition of disruption, how certain companies have been a disruption, and how many of the companies started. Of course with every trip there a couple of projects we have to complete while away. One of the projects was to make a book about the trip. Everyone was given an outline for the book which told us what we needed to get each day. We often needed things such as pictures, interviews, audio recordings, and a little writing. Everyone filled out the book as we went on the trip.

Our plane left for California at 6:30am which meant we had to get up really early. The plane ride was short and I napped the whole time because I was exhausted. When we arrived we got our rental cars then went for lunch. After we had eaten and regained our energy we went to Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. It is a beautiful park with the rarest pine tree in America. We went on a hike there and the views were stunning. After that we went to La Jolla Cove which was a beautiful beach with lots of seals. We played frisbee there and took lots of pictures of the sunset. After that it was time for dinner which was delicious. After dinner we went to the hotel and got ready for the next day.

On our first full day we went to the San Diego Safari Park. It is owned by the same company as the San Diego Zoo but the safari park has much more open habitats and less animals so it is a lot nicer for the animals. We were very lucky while on our tour because we got to go into the elephant habitat and watch a training session up close. The elephants were all in pens so it was safe for us to be in their habitat. Seeing a training session was a really cool experience and I am really grateful that I got to be there. While we were there we watched the cheetah run which is where they have their cheetah run almost full speed on a 100m track.

The safari park is the only place you can see that in North America and it was really cool. I much prefer safari parks to zoos now because they have lots more space for their animals and they focus more on research and helping the animals.

The next day we went to the USS Midway. It is aircraft carrier that is no longer in service and has been turned into a museum. It is an extremely big ship that was like a town on the ocean when it was in service. We went on the audio tour which was cool because we got to choose where we wanted to go and still got to listen to all of the information. The aircraft carrier had almost everything a regular town would have including a jail. All of the people working on the midway had worked on an aircraft carrier which was awesome because they loved to talk about what it was like. They were very friendly and told some amazing stories.

The next two days we went to High Tech High. HTH is a high school that uses project based learning. PBL is when the students learn information then show their learning through projects instead of tests. PLP is also PBL but it was really cool to see a whole school doing it. HTH isn’t just high school, it is all grades. It also isn’t just one building, it has many buildings for different grades and slightly different schools. For example there is HTH international and HTH Media arts. We spent our two days at HTH media arts. It was so cool to get to spend two days at this school because the way they learn is so much fun. They talk about the important issues in the world and the projects they do are amazing. On the first day I was paired up with two girls from HTH, Bryah and Ajok. They are really nice, cool people and I had so much fun hanging out with them for two days. I would love to go back and visit HTH soon.

After school ended on the second day of HTH we flew from San Diego to San Jose. The first day in San Jose was the first day we got to visit some of the tech companies. We started off the day at google. We got to see all of the android update statues which are each a different dessert. We also got to go in the google store which was cool and had lots of cool stuff to buy. We walked around the google campus even though we technically weren’t supposed to. They had tons of stuff there including a library truck and tons of google bikes. After google we went to the Apple visitor centre at Apple Park. It was an amazing building with a huge store. It was really cool because they sold some merchandise that you couldn’t buy anywhere else. It also had a cafe and a structure of Apple Park that you could explore on an iPad. We went on a short tour and it was really nice then we got to explore the centre by ourselves for a bit. After Apple we made a quick stop at the Intel museum before our dinner. At dinner we got to talk to two really cool guys who have worked in Silicon Valley for a very long time, Scott and Brandon. Scott was on the team that made the first iPhone and he even got to work with Steve Jobs for a little bit. They told us a lot about Silicon Valley and what it’s really like. It was a very interesting conversation and I had lots of fun. After dinner we went bowling which was also really fun.

The next day we started off at the Computer History Museum. To be honest I was not excited about it at all because it sounded really boring. I was pleasantly surprised with how interesting it was. The tour was great and they had so many cool exhibits. They had some extremely old computers from when they were made to punch wholes is paper and when they were the size of rooms. They also had some exhibits that showed cool things computers can do today such as MRI’s. After the Computer History Museum we went to the garage that HP was started in. Next we went to Stanford. I was so excited to visit Stanford and I was not let down. It is an amazing school. The architecture is stunning and the students seem to really enjoy going there. We went on a tour led by student named Chase. He was a really nice guy and gave an amazing tour while he told us what it was like to go to Stanford. Stanford is defiantly now my dream school even though I probably won’t go there.

The next morning we got up early to visit the garage that Apple was started in. After that we got on a train and headed to San Francisco. When we arrived we waited for a bus for about an hour which put us behind schedule. We had to be at twitter for a certain time so we had to skip lunch. Twitter HQ was really cool. We went on a tour led by David, Blair, and Dorothy. They are all people who work at twitter and they gave us a tour while telling us what it was like to work there. Like many of the other companies we visited twitter is really chill and a fun place to work. These tech companies want you to enjoy working so you do your best work. After twitter we went to the Golden Gate Bridge which is stunning. We were there at sunset and it was absolutely beautiful. After that we had dinner which was amazing because I hadn’t eaten in over 12 hours.

On our last day we went on a walking tour of San Francisco. It was by a company called Wild SF Walking Tours and it was amazing. Our tour guide was Wild Wes and he knew so much about the city. On the tour we went to Height-Ashbury, The Castro, and Mission. After the tour we went to Alcatraz. I was most excited for Alcatraz because it was such a famous prison and I wanted to see just how impossible it was to escape from it. We went on an audio tour there and it was the best audio tour ever! They had the voices of actually prisoners and guards talking about what it was like there. They also had really cool sound effects and it was a very entertaining tour. After the tour we got to see a demonstration of the cell doors opening and closing and that was really cool.

They were really loud and that was what the prisoners heard everyday, twice a day. To end off our amazing trip we spent our last night riding the trolley around town and getting ice cream. It was the perfect way to end the perfect trip.

Flying home was both sad and happy because I was sad it was over but I was happy to be home. It was by far the best PLP trip I have ever been on. When we got home it was time to put all the projects together. I was most excited to work on the book because I got to look back on the trip and remember everything I learned. Here is my Book.