TFIG Day 1 and Day 2 (Part 1)

Day 1: Arriving at the airport after a five-hour flight from Washington, D.C. was a great relief. After recent events in the news about flights to California, my anxiety about flying alone for the first time had increased a bit. However, the flight was average and I immediately felt warmly welcomed to California by two women in bright pink Girl Scout tee shirts. They eagerly chatted with me asking about my flight and my hometown. All of us who flew into San Francisco took a charter bus with our counselor to our final destination. Upon arriving I immediately began snapping dozens of pictures to contribute to my “summer ‘10” scrapbook. The backdrop of our temporary home is scenic with tall, strong trees and a vast open sky, a postcard-worthy image. We began with an orientation and a few games, eventually getting the chance to unpack. As we slowly got to know one another, I realized that people had traveled from every corner of the country to take advantage of this opportunity. We took part in some activities primarily led by an engineer who works on satellites and focused on communication and teamwork.

Day 2 (Part 1): This morning we had our first session of soft skills with one of the counselors. The focus was on manners and etiquette in our own communities and elsewhere. We wrote in our journals about how important word-choice is, and how people may perceive us by how we choose to exploit our vocabulary. A team member from the Alliance for Climate Education also came in to share a very animated presentation about the science behind climate change and what we high school students can do about it. I picked up a variety of interesting statistics, for example: An American teenager takes up twenty-one football fields of space per year! In addition, if every country consumed as much as the United States, we would need a grand total of five Earths to sustain us. Those are just a couple of the truly interesting pieces of information that I obtained while viewing the presentation. Later the entire group will be taking a really fun yet cold field trip to the beach. I look forward to taking tons of pictures of what I’m sure will be a picturesque view.

- Alyssa