My day started off pretty good, I woke up early at the early time of 5:30 am. After I got ready and grabbed all of my things, I got in the car with  my mom and off we went. We first stopped at Stewarts though so I could grab a pair of headphones and a water. After Stewarts I went to school and got on the bus. On the bus to Rensselaer I sat in the back right corner with Alex in front of me and Brian to the left of me. The bus ride was pretty uneventful because everyone was tired.

When we got to Rensselaer we just sat around in the train station, waiting for the train. This was when I discovered I did not bring my phone charger, I didn’t really care too much but it wasn’t great. When we got onto the train I sat next to Alex. I didn’t do much on the train either, I just talked to my friends, looked at my phone, and listened to music. 

When we finally arrived in New York, we had to go to our hotel which was a few blocks away. At the hotel we waited in the lobby for awhile. The lobby was very hot, and quite dark and it was honestly quite uncomfortable. When the teachers got us registered, we attempted to go to our room but the elevator needed a key card to go up which was stupid, so we had to wait to get our cards. After the elevator conundrum was solved we all put our bags and stuff into the room and we then left the hotel to do some tourism.

The first place we went to was Bryant Park. I was gonna do the ice skating but me and Vanessa realized while we were in line that we wouldn’t have enough time to do it. So instead of ice skating we just walked around and bought some waffles from the Wafels and Dinges stand. After Bryant Park, the group walked two miles to the High Line which we walked through to the end. We then walked along the water to the 9/11 memorial which was very cool. After the 9/11 memorial we went to dinner at the Italian restaurant where we met up with Christian Hines. After we ate dinner we went to Times Square and did some shopping. Nothing there really interested me, but those people in the costumes were really weird and creepy. When we were finished in Time Square we headed back to the hotel and I passed out on the bed.

When we woke up we tried to get breakfast at the hotel but apparently the price was different than what they told the teachers so we didn’t end up getting breakfast there. After that disappointment we headed to Columbia University.  At the University I looked at the schedule to see what classes I wanted to go to. For my first class I went to Photoshop Tips and Tricks, I sat next to Brian for the duration of that class. The Photoshop class was quite enjoyable and I learned how to remove the background from photos and how to darken bright lights. The next class I took was “Confessions of Former Journalism Nerds.” I didn’t really care much for that one because it didn’t really interest me too much so I don’t remember what they talked about. 

After that class was the lunch break. For lunch I bought a waffle from the Wafels and Dinges stand, it was very good. After lunch my next class was visual storytelling, In that class we learned how to make an impactful video and how to use clever wording and imagery to intrigue audiences.  My fourth class was “How to be more Creative.” That one was pretty funny and we learned about ways that people can fuel their creativity such as taking breaks and even napping. My final class was called “Election 2020 and Beyond.” This class taught us about what it’s like to be a journalist at political events and rallies. After that the group all met up and I bought falafel from a falafel stand.

After the expo we walked back to the hotel and got our stuff, we then walked to the train station to wait for our train. While waiting I got Jamba Juice and it was very very good.  We ended up having to wait an extra 45 minutes which stunk but we lived. The train ride back was uneventful, i just listened to music, same as the bus ride back. That was about everything that happened on the trip and I rate it a 10/10.