Richmond West Virginia

A place I have traveled to that has affected me in a positive way is Richmond West Virginia. I had gone there for a family reunion in the blazing hot summer of 2009. While I was there I did a lot of fun and interesting things. I was there for three days and two nights. The first day I arrived there was a meet and greet at my great grandmothers house which sat on a huge hill and smelled of sweet potato pie. This is where all of my family members came together and introduced themselves to one another. A lot of my family I had never met or hadn’t remembered like my great aunts, uncles, and cousins. There was family from all over. There were some from California, Ohio home of the buckeyes, New Jersey, and Alabama.
The second day there all of the younger generation ages ranging from 13-18 at the time went shopping at the mall and to the movies. This is where we got time to get to know each other a little more and have fun. I remember shopping with two of my cousins like there was no tomorrow. We hit just about every store there was buying clothes, shoes, accessories, you name it. We were living it up. At the movies I had gotten the biggest buttery bucket of popcorn I have ever had. It smelled delicious. It had that rich buttery smell to it. The rich smell that will make your head hurt if you inhale too long. The others who stayed back did their own thing. A lot of the older folk stayed back at my great grandmothers and reminisce on the past. They talked about us kids and how we had all gotten so big since the last time they had seen us. They also laughed about old memories from previous reunions. Later on that night back at the hotel we went swimming until the pool closed. The water was ice cold and felt lovely especially after a long hot day of shopping. Then we went back to the room and watched movies until we fell asleep.
The last day there we woke up that morning and had a big family breakfast at some pancake place that smelled of maple syrup. Can’t remember the name of it but it was awesome. After breakfast we laughed and played some more over my great grandmothers house for the last time. Some of us played video games while the others played outside. We weren’t outside too long before the sweat started rolling down our foreheads. A lot of my aunts and other female relatives helped her prepare a big dinner for us before we left. we had crunchy fried chicken, cheesy macaroni and cheese, greens, sweet cornbread, fish, cake, and pie just to name a few. We had everything you could think of. After dinner was over we all said our goodbyes and headed home.
West Virginia affected me in a positive way because it helped me appreciate the word family even more than before. Going to Richmond taught me the value of family and how coming together brings about so much love and peace. Lastly that trip taught me how important it is to not take your family for granite and to have fun while you can.

The Power of Travelling - Diaolou

The Power of Travelling
I remember that when I was 10 years old, my cousins took to see the Diaolou. In that time I lived with my aunt’s family in Kaiping, China. In the summer holidays, my cousins invited me to visit Diaolou.
Diaolou is a very famous place in Kaiping. Their construction time was between from 1644 to 1912. The idea of the people built Diaolou was some Chinese lived in Europe and they came back to China to build Diaolou. The heyday of Diaolou time, there were about 3000 buildings of Diaolou and now they only have about 1800 left. Diaolou is shaped like a fortress. Some people called it a defensive Tower. It was designed to live and Intrusion Defense bandits needs. Local Diaolou’s architecture was masonry. Masonry is the main material to build Diaolou. The main idea the people built Diaolou were observation and shooting holes and used primarily for self-defense, as well as against the flood of functionality.
The weatherin that day we went to visit Diaolou is very hot. We need to drive about two hours to find Diaolou. Diaolou was not built in one place. I saw a lot of Diaolou when I took the bus in Kaiping. When we find Diaolou we can get in to see the inside and we need to pay about $5 Chinese Dollars. I saw a lot of things the people used in that time. Diaolou was very tall. The lower part of Diaolou was no windows, only the door. In the upper part there are a lot of windows. I think the people in that time they used the windows to see far a way to see do they have dangerous. I took some pictures in Diaolou and the outlook of Diaolou. When I saw Diaolou’s design, I was much admired of the people can build Diaolou that strong. Diaolou let me learn about no matter what things happen, we should listen to other. We can only think about ourselves we need to think about others too. Like Diaolou’s idea was come from the people in Europe and they came back to China and they built the Diaolou.

Nairobi Kenya

My favorite place that I had a lot of fun is Kenya, because that was my first traveled, I was happy also all my family were there and when my father told me that we are going to visit Mombasa i was verey happy and Mombasa is second capital of Kenya and is it really nice place. Most of the time we used to live Nairobi and Nairobi is the capital city in Kenya.
Mombasa is beautiful city and it is has too many trees and when we are came there I was so happy and kept asking my parent when we are get there in Kenya. The time I came Mombasa I meet money people from a different country such as Indian, Ethiopian, Europeans, and American, I got some friends from those countries. Mombasa has a nice weather and many beautiful things like zoo farms rives ocean and more places some my family life there still. I learn more languages like Kiswahili

The green city in the sun

Travelling is one of my favorites and its something that helps my soul to be relaxed. Is not only just a fun but its gaining wisdom and becoming more familiar of different kinds of people, cultures, countries, and social networks at any time I travel to a different place. And what I mean by gaining wisdom is that when we meet people who have different way of their lives and point of view we learn new things and with education and that new information is what I call wisdom! As the great Somali poets said, “A man who travels has more wisdom than one who doesn’t.”

I have travel to Niarobi Kenya which is located in east Africa and the country shares a boarder with Somalia. The city is know as the green city in the sun. Nairobi is also the largest capital city in Kenya.

Nairobi has beautiful parks one of them is the Nairobi National Park. The place was very magical field with beauty that would capture the attention and hearts of any human beings. People come here with their families to have fun and relaxation but to me it was my daily routine. I have no other word to tell how important and valuable was for me but only a little piece of paradise in this world. Some times when I am at the mosque and the imam is telling stories relating to heaven I am imagining this place in my mind. Because there is no violence at all, and isn’t that what paradise is going to be? Truly you are just seeing my body beside you but my heart is way back my second home in Nairobi Kenya.

Travels to Ukraine

Although I am from Ukraine I still travel back there every year to see my grandparents and the rest of the family. Ukraine overall impacts me in a positive way every time I go. Everything that I have learned from my family is reinstated every time I look around. The way I was taught was the same for everyone for the most part and when I look around I start remembering all of those details. Every time I travel to Ukraine I always end up helping my family. There is always something to be done and always someone that needs to do it.
Since my grandparents are old I end up helping them with a lot of things that are hard for them to do. They need help around their apartment. Other days they need help around their summerhouse and on the garden. On days when I am not helping them I am with my old friends.
I remember all the good times we used to have before I moved. I would always go over to my friends’ house in the morning. We would play video games and spend time on the computer. Later in the day we would all get together in our neighborhood and we would all go out and go to city center. We spent our time just talking in city squares with the hundreds of other people that were there. We would usually come home late but we really enjoy it every time we do that. It’s not everyday that we get to do that now so we are really happy to do that whenever we get the chance. We all try to relive those moments while I am still back there for the month or two. I always end up meeting new friends year after year. My friends introduce me and we end up getting along and now there is another person to hang out with day to day. It smells like nature when my friends and I go out to my summer house. Not the nature that someone can smell here, but the nature that you can smell when forest is all around you and you see nothing but green and the closest city is for kilometers. We all remember our good times very well.
Although I am have lived in Ukraine for 7 years and go back every year, I am still learning the culture and traditions. There I always something new that I learn each time that I am back there that I take back with me and remember for the rest of my life. Every time I thing that going back to Ukraine will be the same, it never is. There is always something new to learn. There is always something that I find interesting and I know that will continue every year I go back.

Trip to Argentina

I traveled to Argentina this past summer and stayed for over a month. I spent a couple weeks at my dads house in Santa Fe but we also visited the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires and spent a weekend in Punta De leste. It was very cold when I was there in August because its winter there when its summer here. Santa Fe is a lot like a Ohio, a lot of families live there and its a nice place to raise a family. Buenos Aires is just like New York City, they have the best restaurants, the best shopping, and a lot of plays and shows. Its very busy city and nothing/ no one ever stops. Punta De Leste is the hot spot to be during the summertime. My father has an appartment there and usually spends January and Febuary in Punta. It has one of the best beaches in Argentina and the most popular clubs in Argentina.

I spent a lot of time with my father and little sister and grew a lot closer to them. I usually hung out with my girlfriends during the weekends. I lived in Argentina till i was two and I would go back every summer to stay with my dad so I've maintained my friendship with my friends and i'm still very close to them. They took me out to dinner and to parties so I met a lot of new people and its fun doing things in Argentina with a group of friends because its so different than when I go out with my friends here.

I had some issues with my passport so I ended up having to stay a lot longer than I planned and ended up making the best out of my trip. I got a lot closer to my father and went down to Buenos Aires and went to a couple of tango performances and got a lot of shopping done. We made a little trip to Punta and it was fun but it wasn't warm and everyone else was in school so it wasnt the same as it is in the summer time but it was a relaxing weekend and I had a lot of fun with my family. I plan on going back to Argentina this summer and hope its as much fun as last summer!

On a recent trip that my grandparents took my cousin and I to Disney world for a week. While we were there we visited all the parks. When we were Epcot, which is one of the parks where they have special buildings for the future and buildings from things that happened in the past. In this park they have buildings around this lake representing buildings from all over the world. In the United States building they had these machines that looked like real people that did a play. It started with the wild wild west and ended with the 9/11 attacks. These plays were amazing because the machines would come up from out of nowhere and start doing their scene.
Being that my grandpa’s side of the family is from Italy we went to the part where they had Italy buildings. The buildings in this section were set up like a little town in Italy. We ate at the Italian restaurant called Tutto Italia Ristorante. When we walked in to the restaurant it made you feel like you had traveled over to Italy. The food tasted like you were in Italy. The restaurant made all of their pasta and other main dishes from scratch.
The waitresses and staff were all from Italy. Our waitress had a story of her own. She grew up in a small family. She graduated her high school and went off to college to study abroad. She was working at Disney for an internship for the summer then in autumn she would head back to Italy to finish up her schooling. She spoke very good English but she was very fluent in many languages. My grandpa and her talked for hours, my cousin and I didn’t mind cause in that day we learned more about the Italian culture than we would have ever learned. In meeting her she made me realize that even though you are from a small town if you have dreams you can accomplish them and make something of yourself.

When I was 12 years old my family and I went on a cruise in the Caribbean’s and one of the stops was in Jamaica. Jamaica, which is located in the Caribbean, is a very popular tourist destination. I love Mother Nature and just experiencing some of the world most beautiful scenery. The Dunn’s River Falls, is the most popular waterfall attraction in Jamaica. Luckily this waterfall was built with large stairs made of large stone boulders, so many tourist come to travel the 1,000 foot long journey up the waterfall. My family and I went to this waterfall while we were in Jamaica and climbed the routes where tourists were allowed. It was one of the coolest experiences of my entire life and I will never forget it.
There’s one guy I remember on the trip and his name has Rick. He was our tour guide on the trip up the waterfall. He taught us everything about the waterfall and about a lot of exotic plants during the climb. I loved the scenery so much. I can still remember the huge amount of clear blue water pouring constantly down on top of the huge stone boulders used for steps. The surrounding exotic plants and trees with an abundance of bright green colors were home to many native colorful animals and very loud birds. The smell of the crisp clean water and the smell of the great outdoors will never leave me, to this day. Just seeing Mother Nature’s at its best truly did remind me how grateful we should be for the planet we live on. We live in a society today that is slowly killing our planet, whether it’s with trash or slowly cutting down rain forest and killing animals natural habitats. We should start preserving more of our land that we still have because I think Mother Nature has made us some of the greatest wonders of natural scenery and I think it’s a life changing experience. For example, when I went to the waterfall in Jamaica I had a huge eye opener about how much beauty earth has and how excited I ‘am to one day travel and see more of Mother Nature’s natural scenery.

A journey to pilgrimage

On November 2008 I traveled to Mecca in Saudi Arabia in order to fulfill hajji or pilgrimage which is a religious duty that must be done once in lifetime by Muslim people who can financially afford to do so. Mecca is a place that is holy to many Muslim. When I got to al Masjid al Haram “the holy mosque” and saw the spirit of millions of Muslim people from the entire world praising the one “Allah” god, chanting in unity and walking in circle with two white pieces of fabric which strips them off any title designation, I have felt emotionally drawn to the whole event. In Mecca no matter what class, culture, and race you are everyone is equal.

People go there for one and only one reason, to worship the one Allah “god”. And by just looking at the people who left their homes and some of them their children just to pay their respect, show loyalty and how much faith they keep in god left me speechless. When I was inside the mosque and going around the Kaaba 7 times which is something that everyone in there is supposed to do, there was nothing in my mind except god, love, hope, belief and confidence. It was an experience of a life time for me.

Everything about the city was beautiful and overwhelming the dessert, the houses that made out of dirt, our prophet’s birthplace, my god it was beautiful. What is most interesting was sometimes when it gets very late and we couldn’t go back to the hotel we used to camp out in the dessert with a millions of people with different culture; race and language yet felt like we were brothers and sisters and understand each in some ways. It was a very moving a spiritual and a journey of a life time for me. I believe that there is no other place even the most beautiful place on earth could give me that kind of feeling and I hope I could go back there one day if god wills.

Travel

Traveling on Kenya

I traveled to the Capital of Kenya, Nairobi, about two years ago. I was there a couple of months. If you don’t know Kenya is a country in East Africa. It has the highest mountain peaks in Africa. It is a beautiful country. I visited different places while I was there. The weather is hot mostly. Kenya has been popular for wild animals such as lions, elephants and tigers. It has many different zoos. Each zoo has his different animals then other zoo.

When I was in Kenya, I used to walk around the city and visit relatives. I had many problems with the language of Kenya. The funniest day was the day I went grocery store by my self to get chicken. I couldn’t find the chicken section, so I carried an egg to the cashier. I said excuse me, do you have the mother of this? The cashier laughed and showed me the chicken section. I go back home and I told what happened to me at the grocery store. Everybody was making fun of me. After that day I start learning Kenyan language. It was really easy for me to pronounce it right, but it was not easy to write it down. By the time I was going back to the United States, I knew the magic words.

While I was in Kenya, I met my old friend Ali and his mom who lives in Kenya. They were surprised to see me again. Ali and his mom have been in Kenya a decade. They liked Kenya and decided to stay there. Ali and I went to elementary school in Somalia together. We used to help each other in the school. We haven’t seen each other since elementary. Ali was my best friend of the school. There wasn’t much to do in Kenya. But it was good traveling there.

Traveling To The Land of Success

Traveling

Just like the nomads who herd camels crossing border lines in search for grazing land and water wells for their prized camels that they depend on, I too traveled just like them but in search of a refuge from a civil war. My search took me to different countries in search of a better life and it finally landed me here the land of the Americans. In this land I was able to put my mind at ease knowing all my worries were behind me and the possibilities seemed endless. I was able to start school at grade level 8 up till I graduated from high school and now attending college. In this land the race of the people is mixture from all walks of life and somehow coexist with each other without any problems. Unlike other parts of the world I have been to where you are singled out because of your race or color of your skin. In the land of America what I couldn’t seem to adapt to is the cold weather and the snow. Other than my dislike of the weather, I can honestly say it’s the one place that shaped my life on positive way that would have an effect on me. It provided me with the necessary skills needed to survive on 21st century life style. With the education provided to me I am able to compete in the job market knowing am equally educated like those seeking the same position as I am.

Jinja, Uganda

This country is located at East Africa and was colonized by Britain.I have visited the Following main tourist attraction sites. The Mabira forest, which is the largest forest in the country. The Nalubaale Power Station, which provides hydroelectricity to the country, Nalubale Dams. The White niles, which is the longest river in that country or the whole Continent,. And Owens Fall. Rafting the Nile was the coolest experience of my life.

The guides were very professional. My family and i met Jacob, And he was about 25years old. He was a friendly, and a funny dude. Jacob talked us through each rapid before we rafted it and we felt very safe. The equipments we used were excellent and the lunch was delicious. We flipped four times, but it was exciting rather than frightening and the adrenalin rush is quite incredible. The size of the rapids is amazing, and you find the raft dropping over huge waterfalls and getting in large wave trains.

Another thing i learned was that some of Mahatma Gandhi's ashes were scattered into the source of the White Nile. And i also learned that the Nile goes through 3 Countries.

Kakuma the refugee camp

one place that i traveled when i was a young kid is Kakuma, and place is where the Turkan people leave and Turkan is Kenya people but they have different language and also they speak Swahili,too.
In kakuma is the place that you can see too many of trees and also they have a good air and always the weather are same.
when i fist when there i sow Turkan people and they wasn't wearing cloths and i was so surprised because they didn't wear no cloths and kakuma is refuge camp and all refuge people leave there when we are first went there i was so excited i thought it was such beautiful country but when we went there it was so hot and tell turkan people was not wearing no cloth.
Once i went there i felled so sad because those people were ancient people and there's some kids they used come our house and we used give to them food and staff like that that it effected my a positive way to help those people they were hungry.
i meet with Turkan people and they are such a nice people and they always welcome you when they see someone new in the town,and also they always sing when they come to you.I learn about this traveled was the best because i learn so many things and before when i was in Nairobi i used hear about Kakuma and i used think about the day i will visit there and when my mother told me when we are going there i was so excited about it.

Toronto, Canada

There are so many places that I had been visited but there is one especially place that I liked or I memories always and I dream about it. That place is Toronto Canada and it is a beautiful place and I would like to visit there again if it’s passable. It is wonderfully place and it’s good to visit during the summer.

The special places I get the chance to see were CN tower and Easton mall. There are many other places we had been. However, I really liked those two areas I was pleased to see it was amazing trip and it was a beautifully places and I remember it. I encourage every one who has enough to go vacation to visit Toronto Canada because I get experiences from there especial the Easton mall I saw different cultures in there.

It have beautifully CN tower and it was a very tall building I never seen like such building before. It was beautifully, it is kind like statue of Toronto, and so many people visit there. Too many people from different countries came there and most of those people were from America it is a good creative building it has nice stuffy in there and it is good for the history.

It is beautifully place and we get pictures at there I memories and also I like the Easton mall that mall is a big mall and it have everything in there. It have a food places, a dress places, games and moves and it have every countries cultures showing on their cultures no matter where you from you will see some stuffy from your culture very amazing it was a wonderfully mall that you can see everything. I really liked to go there and visit again those two wonderfully places or other places that I saw. I saw Somalia culture that I never saw it before it is that is the place I had been visited and I liked it my family lives there too in Toronto.

When we went there I learn my family because some of them I never saw them before by time we went there they make us welcome party it was so fun and we learn each other we enjoy together it was such a good time.

kakuma

My best traveled that I won’t forget was in Kenya. I was leaving Nairobi to kakumo. Open by refugee build the Kakuma Refugee Camp since 1992 its biggest campus of Kenya. Kakumo had lived many people that come from different place and they had different culture. This compass had so many refugee who left their country because of the war they had in their homes.mosly of people are somlia,sudan, Ethiopia, Burundians, Congolese, Eritreans. The averages of refugee are more than the average of the residents.

In kakuma life is so head and mostly of people hoping that they will take by other country. Such as USA and Europe. Most of the African refugees that come to America are come from the kakuma. What I learn was the living conditions of these refugees are an unhappy or uncomfortable. In order to live compass people has to follow their rules.

Although that I learn so many things in campus but one thing that unique to me was the people can’t live without peace. That is why they left their country. Evan they had bed condition in the campus they wouldn’t live with .kakuma is the best place I won’t ever forget. And I had the amazing memory. Until now I had family member that still live there and I call once a month and I ask them that kakoma are the same. And I learn that people love kakuma even they not have a good condition. part that scared me was I when out with my uncle we was buy some food and I saw that the resident people didn’t wear a cloth because of their culture . I was so shock and never see a person waking in the middle of market and necked at same time. People live their they aren’t bothering because they get use it and don’t see anything wrong with it.

San Diego

During my time in San Diego, I went to different places; many people would call this cite seeing. I had a adventurous uncle who was fascinated about the place and also wanted to see every corner in the city. I had no other choice but to follow and do everything he was doing.

From the moment we got off the plane, we started our journey. My brother in law, who was suppose to pick us up from the plane, was running two minutes late so we rode a taxi and headed to the world famous San Diego Zoo. I asked him what the rush was for and he told me, "If you roll with me, you're not going to have any chance to say hi to family members".

Through out my trip in San Diego, we went to Balboa park, Sea World, and many more. But none of these trips was compared to the trip me and my uncle had to the highest point in San Diego.

One morning, around five am, me and my uncle we to see the highest point in San Diego. We borrowed my brother in laws car with out permission. You can see the downtown from miles away. It took us at least twenty minutes going up the hill. There is this little balcony that you can climb. As soon as I climbed this balcony, I felt like I was on top of the world. The air was so amazing and you can hear the birds chirping. The feeling was so great that I was enjoying my self. Truly this was the highlight of my trip to San Diego.

snapshot two

Last summer after I graduated high school, we went to New York to update our passport. This is the first time we go to New York, so we all feel confuse inside this big city; we don’t know where is the consulate, so we decide to get a taxi. New York is a Modern and diversity city, it's alot of people in the street and you can see tall building any where. In New York, we see many people from different country and some people from my country, they speak different language, but many people can speak English.

We went to Manhattan for the next two day. Manhattan is the most densely population area in New York. it's also a major financial ,commerical and cultural center in the world. we went to the Wall Street and the Lower Manhattan. In afternoon, we went to a traditional Chinese restaurant and we ate many food, there are many Chinese Restaurant in Manhattan, the one i went in a Cantonese restaurant, they have many tasty seafood and even some northern food in China. The employee and the customer is all Chinese people, everybody speaking Chinese to each other, this make me feel like i was still in China. Before we go to New York, we rent a room online in New Jersey for two day and it is cheap. We thought New Jersey is very close to New York, so we want to go there by taxi, but no one want to bring us to New Jersey, because many of them never drive to New Jersey before. But finally, we arrive to the hotel; it has one Television, one bathroom and two beds. We left the hotel in the next day, because the area only has a few stores and restaurants. In afternoon, we go to the New York harbor; we saw the Status of Liberty. Many time, I saw the status of liberty in the TV, this is my first time to see that on real. The Status of Liberty represent freedom and justice , the place have been close since 911 event happen. In the coast, we can see the status stand far in front of us, it is sacrosanctity . The torch represent freedom, the law book represent justice. The Status of Liberty is symbol of New York and America. we talking some photo in the coast and then we get the passport. We left New York at night, it very beautiful when you stay in the plane on the top of New York. In this journey, I meet many different people, I also saw many new thing I never seen in Columbus before. New York is a diversity city; people accept each other’s culture and they living together. These elements combined make the New York City become more unique and wealthy.

National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennesee

One of the greatest trips I ever took was to Memphis.  I started by goign to Graceland, which is the home of Elvis Presley, the famous American rock n' roller.  But what really  moved me in the trip was a journey to the National Civel Rights Museum.

Gabrielle Giffords

Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford who was shot in the head during a public meeting in Tuscan, Arizona is able to move her legs and open her eyes for the first time since the day of shooting. According to her doctors she seems to be making a remarkable progress and struggling on her own. Although the doctors stated that 10 percent of head wound injured patient survive, but they believe that she will come through one day because she is really a strong person who is trying her best to recovery. They also said that they would not upgrade Gifford from now on. What makes me sick is that knowing there are people like Jered Lee Loughner in this world who will shot someone like Giffords who was deducting her life for a public service and seeing to what is best for her people. So the least we can do is pray for Gifford and her family and hope for a miracle, which could happen any time. This is tragedy for all who were involved, so let us also pray for the victims and their family.