Free Essay

West Coast

In:

Submitted By Apple2016
Words 1403
Pages 6
West Coast Trip

West Coast of the United States is a well-known coast as a place to visit for the East Coast people to take a break or run away from the frostiness of snow during winter. Over winter break, I decided to spend two of my five weeks break at West Coast. It was a precipitous decision that I made because I was planning just to spend my winter break in Columbus, Ohio, because I didn’t have that much cost to go to West Coast, but then my friend forced me and she decided to sponsor my trip to west. It such a blessing to have that kind of friend in today’s selfish world. I was such a mess during Fall semester. I really need to fully use winter break to discover myself and see what I am capable of. Besides, I need to understand life as aging keeps hunting me and I have to learn on how to tolerate with people because the world has trillions of behavior in different person that I have met, I am meeting and the person that I am going to meet in my future. Before the trip started, I clear my mind from all the negative thoughts that I had in mind and brought only positive vibes with me. During the trip, I got to learn a lot about myself, learn to deal with complicated people and realize that we always need to be prepared.
On the first day of my journey, I started to learn something about myself. It started with taking a flight to San Francisco. This is my first time getting on a domestic plane, alone. Actually it was my second time, but the first time was a flight from Chicago to Buffalo which my intention wasn’t for travelling. I stayed at the airport for eight hours before boarded. I used that much time to observe people around me and see myself. As I waited at the arrival door, I see there were few families were waiting for their relatives. Some of them even brought a hand-made welcome back poster for their relatives. I thought to myself, ‘It is really wonderful if I ever get the chance to be that person who her family is waiting for her with such welcoming words’. The clock was ticking telling me that the time now is 3.00am. I didn’t slept at all, and the airport was starting to get unfilled, the only sound that I could hear was the ticking clock and a few people cleaning the floor. I talked back to myself, ‘Why do I need to feel what others feel?’ I have given myself so much happiness. In life, we never get enough of it, so we need to learn to be grateful of what we already had and still have. We never know, behind the warm welcome hugs, that girl was actually sick or something else. She needs her family to make her happy. I have a healthy life and could do things all by myself. Even though we all need our family or friends to cheer we up, why don’t we struggle by ourselves to live happily? Be independent. Knowing yourself is something that you always need to treasure just like how you treasure the world.
Other than that, I also learned on how to deal with complicated people. My flight touched down San Francisco at 5:30pm. I had to spend another 16 hours in the airport to wait for my friend and the other two friends of her to come. I made use of that time to explore the airport, from terminal 1 to terminal 3. The next day, I met my friend and her friends. That was the moment we all became friends. On the first day of trip, it was fine and I felt happy with them. Two days of the trip, I started to see something in them that made me uncomfortable to be a part of that group. One is bossy and they liked to make fun of others and made others felt naïve. We were talking about Mexico, and I asked them “Where’s Russian people in the world’s map? I thought their culture are not that much different with the Mexicans?” and then they laughed at me and gave me a sarcastic answer. For me, they weren’t supposed to do such things to other people because it dragged people down with their knowledge. You can just answer it nicely and explained it to me just like how teachers did. In fact, they weren’t seem to be any more knowledgeable because if they were, they won’t do such things. Things got worse when one of them, only knew how to have a beauty sleep and didn’t give us a hand when we need help. The only thing that he knew was taking us out of what the navigation showed, and sleeping. I took a lot of patient to deal with these kind of people.
Last but not least, always be prepared for something that we never know will happen to us. A quote from Howard Ruff, “It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark”. This quotes clearly saying that we need to always be prepared no matter in what situation. What your heart feels, listen to it. After spending three days in San Francisco, our next destination was Los Angeles. We decided to be on Highway 1 to enjoy the magnificent view of Big Sur during sunset. We had no idea how lonely the road was. Four hours on the road, we were almost out of gas, we haven’t had our dinner yet and it was almost 12:00am. It was raining lightly and we could feel the serenity with the sound of waves on our right side. Few hours on the road, the rain started to drop heavily. There was no signal for our phones. Land started to slide. In a second, our driver accidentally crashed on a big rock to avoid a car that was right in front of us. Our car got leakage and we couldn’t move it by pushing down the gas pedal. It was our luck that we found Coast Gallery & Café, only few feet from where we stopped the car. The café was closed, but when the owner saw us, he offered us some help. It turned out that we actually didn’t apply for the car insurance. They started to blame each other and I told them that we should all be thankful that we found this family and not to fight during this kind of situation. The incident really thought me that no matter how safe you think you could be, always be prepared because we never know what will happen to us.
In conclusion, this event has taught me a lot of things. I started to know myself and changed myself for the better. Two weeks in West Coast, I continued my plan as I had another three weeks of my winter break in Columbus. As I learned a lot during my West Coast, I went to Columbus alone. Not having a car was never a big problem because we always have public transportation. Few weeks in Columbus, I found another me, who is actually a little bit attached to her friends, real friends. I cried a lot the moment I had to leave my friend in Columbus because they stayed at the bus station, waving hands to me until the bus disappeared. I was thinking, I haven’t drop even a tear when I left Seattle, but leaving Columbus was different. They were being too nice towards me like taking care of a little child. Everyone cared about each other and everyone was helping each other. I think again, maybe I need more time to know my West Coast friends because I didn’t know them that much before travel. Jaime L. Kurtz, a psychologist mentioned in her article, If You Really Want to Get to Know a Person, “It’s been said that if you really want to get to know a person, travel together”. She said that it was kind of revealing time when you travel with them because when something happen, as an example, the accident that happened to us, we get to see who can stay calm, who will starts to blame others and who will say nothing to help.

Similar Documents

Free Essay

West Coast Ports

...Labor issues at Long Beach and Los Angeles ports are causing major headaches for supply chain managers. Again. A volatile labor environment, record-setting volumes, and ever-larger containerships are delaying ocean freight, especially at our already strained West Coast ports. Shippers may have sighed in relief when the February 2015 ILW slowdown/lockout issue was resolved, but who thought we would be facing the same issue again just two months later? Last Friday, April 24th, a Teamsters-affiliated group, Justice for Port Truck Drivers, called for a strike vote over the weekend, with results to be announced on the following Monday, April 27th. Drivers ratified the strike, launching a job action that may restrict flows at the nation's two largest ports for the second time in 2015. Concentration of demand All this trouble comes back to one fundamental issue, and that is the concept of specialization. We have chosen to concentrate our shipping through Long Beach and Los Angeles because LA provides some of the very best, lowest-cost, and most convenient alternatives for shippers importing cargo from the Far East. Today, LA-area ports handle 60% of US West Coast container volume and over 33% of all US container volume. Vessels calling at these two ports disgorge over 15 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) a year into the greater LA area, filling trains, and trucks with hundreds of billions of dollars in cargo. These loads move eastward through the U.S. logistics...

Words: 867 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

West Coast Education In Canada

...Education on the West Coast. In this part of Canada for example ”… immigration was the primary factor in shaping the mass schooling movement, but it did so in ways quite different from those on the East Coast of the continent”( Historica Canada, 2015,np ). Religion and Minority-Language Education form one of the fundamental themes in the history of Canada’s learning society -A high level of educational dispute and disagreement has involved religion and language. The founding of schools brought local training under official examination and forced communities to accept the recommended standards of basic instruction which did not agree with the reality of a multicultural society. For example,” …religious groups did not always agree on the desirability of nondenominational Christian curricula, and their protests led to the growth of parallel Catholic and Protestant school systems in Québec, the provision for separate schools in provinces such as Ontario, and a completely denominationally based school system in Newfoundland (Historica Canada, 2015, np). The higher levels of Asian immigration and rising prejudice developments continued to form one of the fundamental themes in the history of Canada’s learning society, schooling developed somewhat differently on the West Coast than in the rest of Canada. One noteworthy...

Words: 1109 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Ryan Friedliinghaus

... Shravan Manna Ryan Friedlinghaus Ryan Friedlinghaus is the founder and CEO of the world famous car customization shop West Coast Customs (WCC). WCC repairs and re-builds cars mainly for rich people and celebrities. The customers provide Ryan a basic plan for how their car should be looking like, and from there on his staff customizes the cars with a little taste of WCC. They are specialized in every part of cars, from electronics to metalwork and interiors. All the different parts are done by teams who are specialized in their jobs, and mostly they are not just working on one car but a few. They also have a strict deadline for when the car should be modified and finished. Ryan started the business by himself in 1993 originally located in Orange County, California, then he moved to Los Angeles in 1988 to the outskirts of Compton and the current location now is in Corona, California. He had a capital of 5000 dollar which he earned by working in his dad’s liquor store, when he opened West Coast Customs. From what he earned by working is now a world famous car customizing shop, and he is very successful. When he was 15 years old he customized skateboards and bikes for other kids, and after some time he started to work with cars. His first customization work was a Mazda pickup truck which was his, also at the age of 15. West Coast Customs also got more famous by a television program that was showing on MTV, called Pimp My Ride. All the cars from the show were modified...

Words: 1021 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Influences of West Coast Ports Stalemate

...Can Xu BUSML 3380 Thomas J. Goldsby February 24, 2015 Influences of West Coast Ports Stalemate Beginning in May 2014, dockworkers in west coast ports started slowing their work and therefore causing cargo delay significantly. As a main ports area of United States, it links Asia and West Coast, unloading thousands of tons of goods every day from fruits to manufacturing parts. A number of producers rely on west coast ports to supply their production. However, disruptions in 29 west coast ports have delayed productions and affected the U.S. economy. Finally, on February 20, the negotiations between west coast ports’ dockworkers and their employers were ended up with a tentative labor agreement, while the story doesn’t finish. This paper mainly focuses on impacts the conflict has on logistics as well as on related businesses. On the one hand, the slowdown in west coast ports currently causes a longer lead time for both shippers and customers, forcing them to find alternative ways to handle the difficulty. Jackie Northam, a correspondent in National Public Radio reported that, because of the stalemate in west coast ports, some producers have diverted their imports to ports in west Canada and East Coast (2015). The fact is that, however, these ports don’t have the capability to transport and unload such a large volume of cargo as those in west coast ports. Therefore, people need more time to get their products even dockworkers at other ports work an excessive time. Moreover,...

Words: 937 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Effect of the West Coast Port Gridlock

...Erik H. Shirreffs Professor Harris IHR 380 17 March 2015 Effect of West Coast Port Gridlock From May 12, 2014 until February 20, 2015, the Pacific Maritime Association was in negotiations with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in an attempt to come to an agreement on a new contract, which will keep the west coast port facilities in operation. The Pacific Maritime Association represents 72 cargo carriers, terminal operators and stevedores that operate 29 major U.S. ports spanning the west coast from Washington to Southern California (Pacific). The International Longshore and Warehouse Union represents approximately 42,000 members, which includes the 20,000 West Coast dockworkers that process over 340 million tons of cargo per year. This cargo represents over 12.5 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product. The contract in dispute between the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union expired on July 1, 2014. Since that time, the port facilities had continued to operate without a contract, but as time passed, pressure from both sides increased in order to reach an agreement. The Pacific Maritime Association claimed that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union had been engaged in a work slow-down that had increased the congestion at west coast port facilities. Although other factors such as increased holiday shipping demands and a shortage of trucks and trailers contributed to the congestion, according...

Words: 1673 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Reasons For America's Migration To The West Coast

...There were several reasons why Americans decided to settle towards the West. Americans had a desire to get rich, seek religious freedom, and also to improve their health. From the 1830s to the 1860s, 500,000 individuals traveled to California and Oregon on the Overland trails. The trip from the Missouri River to the West Coast was nearly two thousand miles. The first movement of the settlement was with the Gold Rush of 1849. Prospectors (someone that searches for specific mineral deposits) made the first gold strikes along the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. This created a huge “mining boom” and started a pattern for other possible strikes in other regions. (P. 387) Many hoped to “strike rich” in gold and silver but others had no intentions...

Words: 629 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Drugs in Popular Culture

...Relationship between marijuana use amongst teenagers and the popularity of West Coast Rap Music Introduction Marijuana has been around for hundreds of years and the use of marijuana has been becoming more and more popular especially among teenagers (Lee, 2012). Music has also been around for a very long period of time, in a vast aray of genres. What has changed in music however, is the references to drugs (specifically marijuana) especially in rap music. Marijuana references in rap music have increased by 27% percent from 1979 to 1997 (Herd, 2008). Since the main audience for rap music are teenagers, listening to this music can have a possible effect on teenager’s substance use. Marijuana refers to the leaves, flowers and stems from the Cannabis Sativa or Cannabis Indica plant. This plant contains the chemical delta-9-tetrahydrocannibol (THC). When using marijuana there are both short and long term effects on the brain. Short term effects include: altered senses, changes in mood, and impaired memory (Hall, 1998). A study done by Meier (2012) showed the long term effects of marijuana. This study showed that people who started smoking heavily as teenagers and continued use of marijuana lost an average of 8 IQ points between ages 13 and 38 (Meier, Caspi & Ambler, 2012) US West Coast rap music is rap music that is created in the West Coast of the United States of America, mainly referring to California. West Coast rap started in the 1970’s but didn’t become popular till the 1980’s...

Words: 1317 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Twain Analysis

...Luis Aldana Professor Snowberger AML2020 February 6, 2013 Cultural Division Between The East and West Coasts in the United States Mark Twain uses a great deal of satire and humor in his literary writings. In “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” Twain pokes fun and brings to light the grand cultural divide in which the United States was experiencing at this time. “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” highlights several differences of late 19th century American culture and society. The culture clash introduces the theme of the overall story in which Twain makes fun of and challenges the stereotypes that the Western United States had for Eastern people and to this day, some of those stereotypes still exist. In the story “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” Twain depicts many aspects of the East and West, the settlements in which the main characters were set in, and the language that each one uses. The story was published in 1865, during the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the United States. Most of the economic development had begun in the East Coast, but despite the increasing amount of growth westward, Americans still had a psychological divide between the eastern and western parts of the country. During this time period the West was thought to be rough and populated by survivalists. The East on the other hand was assumed to be more advanced, educated, and polite. Twain uses language and punctuation to highlight the...

Words: 763 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Expansion and How?

...steady in our sales. There is no reason why we cannot expand and grow our business. There will be some qualitative pros and cons during this transition but the outcome will be worth it. We are going to be adding distribution centers all over the world to aid in this growth. With a product like ours that has held up through the economy falling, we really have no limit to our success. In this transition, we are going to be able to provide timely deliveries to our customers. We will need to strategically place these locations to maximize our ability to deliver on time. We will also be able to provide these deliveries at a reasonable price, which we were struggling with in the past. When we were shipping from the East Coast all the way to the West Coast, we were losing money and making our customers unhappy with untimely deliveries and higher cost shipping. This may be an inconvenience to our suppliers having to ship to us internationally. If this is so, we will need to adjust pricing where we have our costs rise but more business for us means more business for them. In the end, this is going to make our customers happy, which will in turn; bring in more sales for all involved. We will face some obstacles in this transition. When we decide where to place these distribution centers, it is important to make sure that there will be a good pool of people to staff these locations. We will need to make sure that the wages we will have to pay will benefit our company as a whole...

Words: 2320 - Pages: 10

Free Essay

Project Airline Industry

...destinations at first * Product range: In order to gain profit and high revenue, we also want to consider at the same time using cargo (on the same plane) and also offer our clients an extraordinary service of being able to take freight with them (of course contrary to payment) * Aircraft equipment and provide customer with special service(at same time USP) * conference room (incentive travel) * reception lobby * lounge, bar, gambling possibilities * extra gambling room * sleeping place = seats for landing & take off * restaurant * Wifi access * Offer passengers max. 2 possible packages ( package 1: West coast to east coast; package 2: east coast to west coast; each have different cities) * Starting points are East coast Boston/ NYC (not sure jet); West coast LA/ San Francisco * 2-3 Planes will be flying from one city to another, dropping passengers off and flying directly to next city and 1-2 planes will be flying in opposite direction (same route) 3. Cities, Routs & Maps: In the first 1-5 years we want to try out 2 packages (maybe a third package after the 4. year). Short term planned basis: Package 1 Cities: (Anna has the Cities) Package 2 Cities: (Anna has the Cities) After hopefully succeeding with the first 2-3 packages we might want to expand our product range in bigger route packages in the 5th to 10th year. Long term planned basis: Packages (Mike has them figured out!!!) 4....

Words: 322 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Emergent Land Forms

...examples of raised beaches on the west coast of England. The town of Stonehave is built on one. Relict (fossil) Cliffs A geomorphological feature which was formed due to previous processes and climatic change. They can be found at raised beaches and a good example is in Canada in a place called Nova Scotia. Coastal Plains An area of land which lays adjacent to a sea coast and is low-lying. During the cretaceous period Large areas were covered in shallow sea which disappeared as the land began to rose. The best example is located on the south eastern American coast. Submergent Rias Rias are caused by a rise in sea level or a fall in coast levels (due to tectonics) maybe both this cause a previously dry area of land to become permanently submerged. Examples include Portsmouth, Plymouth and Southampton. Fjords A long narrow inlet with steep sides or cliff faces. They are created by previous glacial movements which form a U-shape valley due to the ice forcing its way through the land. Once the ice melted it leaves the U shaped valley that become fjords. Fjards Fjards are rocky inlet of the sea, usually found along relatively low-lying coasts. Formed by the submergence of a glacial valley, fjards are characteristically more irregularly shaped than the fjords. Like fjords, they may be quite deep and may have thresholds at their mouths. Fjards are often connected by mazes of channels but are not typically river-fed estuaries. Dalmatian Coast These form when valleys run...

Words: 381 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Cumberland Island

...Cumberland Island is one of the Sea Islands of the southeastern United States and is the largest in terms of continuously exposed land. It is located on the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the U.S. state of Georgia and is part of Camden County, Georgia (30°51′N, 81°27′W). Cumberland Island constitutes the westernmost point of shoreline on the Atlantic Ocean in the United States. The island is 17.5 miles (28.2 km) long, with an area of 36,415 acres (147.37 km2 or 56.25 square miles), including 16,850 acres (68.2 km2) of marsh, mudflats, and tidal creeks. There is no bridge to the island; most visitors reach the island by the Cumberland Ferry from St. Marys. ------------------------------------------------- Ecology The island has three major ecosystem regions. Along the western edge of the island there are large areas of salt marshes. One will also see gnarled live oak trees covered with Spanish moss and the palmetto plants at the edge of Cumberland's dense maritime forest. Cumberland Island's most famous ecosystem is its beach, which stretches over 17 miles (27 km). The island is home to many native interesting animals, as well as non-native species. There are white-tailed deer, squirrels, raccoons, nine-banded armadillos, wild boars,American alligators, as well as many marshland inhabitants. It is also famous for its feral horses roaming free on the island. Welcome to Georgia's largest barrier island and one of the most spectacular natural habitats in the Northern Hemisphere...

Words: 611 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Business

...you develop the skill of application. Virgin loses West Coast mainline franchise Since the privatisation of British Rail the UK Government’s role in the running of the railways is to provide strategic direction. They franchise the running of the UK’s passenger train services to train operating companies of which there are 16, including Virgin Trains. When Virgin lost the West Coast mainline franchise Richard Branson issued a press release that included the following statement. “The Government decision to award the West Coast Main Line Franchise to FirstGroup is extremely disappointing for Virgin, and for our staff that have worked so hard to transform this railway over the last 15 years. We submitted a strong and deliverable bid based on improving customers’ experience, increased investment and sustained innovation. To have bid more would have involved dramatic cuts to customer quality and considerable fare rises which we were unwilling to entertain.” “This is the fourth time that we have been out-bid in a rail tender. On the past three occasions, the winning operator has come nowhere close to delivering their promised plans and revenue, and has let the public and country down dramatically. In the case of the East Coast Main line, both winners – GNER and National Express - over promised in order to win the franchise and spectacularly ran into financial difficulties in trying to deliver their plans. The East Coast is...

Words: 736 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Coastal Sedimentary Environments, Geomorphological Processes and Landforms and the Economeic Aspects

...COASTAL SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENTS, GEOMORPHOLOGICAL PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, THEIR EVOLUTION AND THE ECONOMEIC ASPECTS INTRODUCTION: The coastal zone contains the near-shore area together with the entire continental shelf and the resources of the overlying waters as delimited by existing international agreements. Both play a vital role in the coastal environment – offshore and onshore. Coastal zone is the transition area between the land and the ocean and is an area of complex, dynamic and delicate environment. External factors influencing the coastal zone are the sediment supply by the rivers and the coastal processes. Shoreline is one of the most rapidly changing landforms of the coastal zones, geomorphic processes such as erosion, deposition, sedimentation, periodic storms, flooding and also sea level changes are continuously modifying the shoreline. The accurate mapping of the shoreline is therefore very important for planning conservation measures such as protection of human life, property, and natural environments. The coastal zone is receiving an increasing attention because of the pressures of increasing population and industrial developments. Also erosion is caused by shifting of river mouths and spits. Protection of natural resources, the loss of habitats, severe coastal erosion, sedimentation in ports and harbours, and municipal and industrial pollution are major concerns of the coastal zone managers. Conservation and management of the coastal features requires...

Words: 3814 - Pages: 16

Premium Essay

King Valko Compare And Contrast

...and sunny day near the South Coast of Florida, there lived the king of the Atlantic Ocean coasts and his two sons. The family lived in an underwater castle where all the coasts intersected. The castle is white with very large poles standing at the front like the White House in the water. The father and two sons are the only ones who live there. Their names are King Valko and his twin sons are Andrew and Inko. King Valko is the father of Andrew and Inko, and he is the King of all the coasts. He is a very strict and a very powerful God. His sons are his pride and joy, and he is very protective of them. He is a tall, older man with a grey-colored beard that reaches down to his feet. Brown eyes hide under his long shaggy brown hair, like a hat. Andrew is 16 years old and a fraternal twin to his brother Inko. He is the son of the mighty King Valko. He is very competitive, conceited and self-centered. He believes he is the best at everything and better than anyone. Andrew is short and has fine brown hair and hazel-green eyes. Just like Andrew, Inko is 16 and a twin to Andrew and son of the God Vilko. He is also very competitive, yet he isn't conceited. Inko will accept any challenge someone throws at him with no doubt. He is tall with long blonde hair and light blue eyes....

Words: 862 - Pages: 4