East coast

My first out of two Belo USA trips was the tour of New York City, Philadelphia and Washington DC. It was scheduled for 22-29th April. The beginning of this trip turned out to be a little adventure by itself.

4/22/23

My flight was supposed to leave at around 11 am from the Memphis airport. So we left Wynne the day before and slept at a condo in Memphis. In the morning Neall dropped me off at the airport and I was at the gate in time. After some time I got a weird notification so I checked the app of the airline and noticed a weird message. It said that the flight is cancelled due to weather conditions. I was the first one to notice the message our of all the people waiting there so I asked them if they see it too and unfortunately they got the same message as I did. We waited at the gate for some time and waited for the travel agent to arrive to see what we should do. After like 30 minutes the lady arrived so a hoard of people started talking to her including this old couple from Edinburgh, Scotland that I became friends with. Those poor people did not have a phone so they had it more complicated than I did. I just changed my flight to the next possible date on the app which happened to be the next day at 6 am. 

So thankfully, my host family helped me and spent one more day in Memphis with me. During that "extra day" we went on a very tasty lunch and in the afternoon we went rock climbing with the Kings. It was my first time climbing on a big wall so I must say that I was terrified to drop down in the beginning. After more and more tries I got more comfortable though.

4/23/23

I went to sleep early that day because I had to wake up around 3:30 am. Neall drove me to the airport, which I am super thankful for, and I headed to the gate once again. When I arrived there I was happy to see that the Scottish couple was there and we greeted eachother with hugs. One man from New York that I talked to the day before was there too so I felt a little better that I am not alone in this mess. I must say that airports don't cause me any stress anymore after my crazy experience at the beginning of my exchange. This was a piece of cake compared to that.

After arriving in Newark, New Jersey I parted ways with all the friends I made along this small adventure and even exchanged contacts. Now I took the airbus to P4 station where a Belo USA representative was waiting for me. The lady then drove me to the hotel where I left my luggage and then we headed to the Central station in New York where all the other exchange students were. I arrived there at noon so I joined these German speaking guys and we had some kebab from the street vendor that we all really missed from Europe. I didn't miss too much of the trip only a short morning walk in the Central park where I went later on my own anyways, so I managed to make up for the lost opportunity.

There was 97 exchange students at the beginning, however later the number reduced to less than half since most of the people there were there only to see New York. There were 4 people from the Czech Republic including me. One was Ivana from Rotary that I already met earlier this year in January at SCRYE winter convention in Oklahoma so it was nice to have someone you already know there.

After lunch we went to the Metropolitan museum where I basically only talked to Ivana, there were some beautiful art pieces. It is incredible how big the met really is. We just kept walking and kept discovering new areas that we haven't seen before. After that we headed to the Times square. That was one of the main things that I wanted to see during that trip and we ended up going there like three times which was very nice. We made a video and posted it on this app that shows you on one of the biggest screens there so we felt like we were the biggest in the world for this short moment. Later in the day we had dinner at the legendary Hard Rock Cafe and then we headed back to the hotel.

The worst thing about this trip is the fact that you have to share a small bed with a random person and the exhaustion really adds up during the week.

4/24/23

The first thing on this days'  schedule was the Museum of Natural History. If you've ever seen the movie "Night in a Museum" it was filmed there. We enjoyed seeing the biggest dinosaur skeleton in the world and other interesting expositions. After a few hours there me and Leo from Germany decided to go to Central park since it is right next to it. It was super nice I saw it for the first time, it was a sunny day and we got to lay there for a good 15 minutes. It beautifully hides the city in the branches of the trees and you have no idea what all chaotic things are happening around you. After the museum we headed to Wall street, where we had a tour guide. We saw the memorial for the twin towers, however only for a brief moment. I also saw the building of American Express that the guy I met at the airport was the head of for a decade. We saw the oldest church in New York and the new World trade center. Next on the list was to walk across the Brooklyn bridge. We took a lot of photos and then we walked around Brooklyn. We had dinner at the hotel and I went to sleep really early because I was very tired.

4/25/23

This was the last day in New York and it was the most packed one. In the morning we went to see the Statue of Liberty and afterwards we went to Soho to have lunch and shop again. After the long free time we went to see the Empire State building. I took a lot of pictures with my new friends from all over the world and enjoyed the mesmerizing views that the building offers. After the Empire State we headed to dinner in this nice Chinese restaurant and after that we went to Broadway to see a show called "New York, New York". It was very nice and I enjoyed it a lot but the accumulated exhaustion made the show seem too long. After the play we hopped on the bus and drove through the Times Square one last time and left New York. Then we had a lot of fun at the hotel pool and lobby.

4/26/23

We said goodbye to all of our friends who were leaving and we headed to Philadelphia. We arrived around 10 am and had free time until 1pm. Like a week before this trip my host aunt Tara told me that I absolutely have to try Genos' cheesesteak when I am in Philadelphia. And so I did. Me and a group of guys had to walk over 40 minutes away from the center but it was perfect because by the time we arrived there we were all really hungry even though at the beginning we said we weren't. It was amazing. I got the classic cheesesteak with whizz, a type of cheese and devoured it in like 3 minutes. They were incredibly fast I ordered and after 2 minutes I had the sandwich in my hands. It was so good and I ate it so fast that I wasn't feeling full so I ordered some fries. We headed back to the meeting point and encoutered rain so we hid in businesses and met some wonderful people. After we met our group we hopped on a bus and had a city tour that ended on the Rocky staircase. I love Rocky so it was very nice to run up the steps just like he did. We went to see the Liberty bell and into a museum about the history of democracy. We saw the room where USA was born and it was getting late again so we hopped on the bus and drove to the last destination, Washington DC.

4/27/23

Our day started with the Lincoln memorial overseeing the Washington memorial. I watched Martin Luther King's speech "I have a dream" and stood at the very spot that he stood on. I also checked the Forrest Gump scene where the woman runs into the pool in between the Lincoln and the Washington memorial. Then we walked around the area and saw the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial and the Thomas Jefferson memorial. We took an unholy amount of pictures, had lunch and headed to Mount Vernon, the home of the very first American president George Washington. We learned a bunch of interesting information like that he was the only president that didn't live in the White house and so on. We had dinner at the restaurant right next to the area and then we left DC and went to the hotel. 

4/28/23

Unfortunately the weather on our last day was very bad resulting in a tour on a bus instead by walking. Nevertheless, we made the most out of it. Our first stop was in front of the United States Capital, it was under construction so we didn't get to see too much but it was nice anyways. After that we drove to the White House, it was raining really hard so we all got soaked but perhaps that made it even more fun. We took pictures, we were on the National Polish news and then left. Our last stop was a Space museum, where we spent some time but after the rain calmed down we went to the National arts gallery and imitated the sculptures and paintings. We even got to see a Da Vincis' painting for free. That was the last day of the trip, we enjoyed our last dinner and said goodbye.

4/29/23

I left the hotel at 8:30 am. Went through security and walked over to my gate and to my surprise there was also Benny from Italy. We realized that we both have like 6 hours at Charlotte airport in North Carolina so it was nice to have someone to talk to with all that free time. We had a lunch where I only paid like 5 bucks even though the food was worth like 20 and then we said goodbye. I left for Memphis and she for Sacramento.

I must say that I am looking forward to the next trip with Belo that will be in June and this time for two weeks.

Thank you for reading my blog, Ondrej :)