Discover America: The Start

1st of July, Wednesday

Today was the day! The day I've been waiting for for the last year! The start of the Discover America bus trip!!

I got up at 4:45, and I carried my luggage downstairs, which I finished packing the night before. I said goodbye to Kim, and Mike drove me to Henrietta, to the Wegman's parking lot, where the meeting place was.

  We met a few exchange students there already, and the bus came soon too. Before I knew it, we were all on the bus, packed, we said our goodbyes, and we were on our way! Everyone was so excited.

  I obviously knew the kids from my district, but we met with the exchange students from the neighboring district to the West. I had trouble remembering the names, but thankfully we soon got lanyards with the names and host countries. 

  We made a couple of stops, and after a few hours, all 116 of us were crammed into two travel buses. It took us around 7 hours to get to Washington DC, where our first stop was. In that time, Mike Wilcox took the opportunity to tell us the rules of the trip. I wasn't too happy about most of them, but I understand why they're necessary. Like always being in groups of 4 or  more. 

  We left the suitcases in the hotel (mine turned out to be one of the smallest of suitcases, everybody packed giant bags), and we went into the city! In DC for the first time!!!

  We stopped at the Capitol building for a quick photo, just before sundown. The socializing and talking was constant. We were meeting newer and newer people every 5 minutes!

  The most common questions of the day were: "What's your name?" and "Where are you from?". Everyone tried to remember everybody's name and country, but it was almost impossible. Being the only Hungarian, I guess I was more memorable than the others. Most kids are from Brazil, Germany, France and Belgium. 

  After 20 minutes at the Capitol building, we got on the bus again, and we saw some of DC quickly, just to get an idea of where's what for tomorrow's planning. 

  We had dinner at a mall, and we walked around a little bit. Back at the hotel, we socialized and sang a little bit more. At 11, they sent us to bed. I was sharing a room with Ana from my district, and Char and  Angie from Finland and Argentina, who were both in Canada for exchange, in the neighboring district. They're all very nice girls.