(Marcus is the one in the middle with the locks in the picture)The preparation took longer than they expected, “To raise the money for the trip we did fundraisers like bake sales, asking for donations at the Diamona Coura performance, and some people asked for donations from family, friends, and they collected money at their churches”, Marcus explained.

To prepare for the trip the students had to do a series of tasks to raise the money. Marcus said, “My experience for the preparation was hard because we had to think of all the things for the trip such as the clothes, toiletries, money. Also, at the Diamano Coura, [a well known dance company], performance we had to ask people for donations.” They also performed at the show.

Marcus left for the airport on Sunday to meet his class at drop-off; Marcus said the trip to the airport, “was pretty much normal, nothing really special about it.” The students had to wait until about 8:00 pm to leave. “When we were waiting outside for the time to go to the gate, it felt good because we were surrounded by everyone.”

Marcus said heading to the plane was “rushed" because they had to hurry up and get to the gate, so they could get ready to board. On board the plane Marcus liked how the plane took off really fast and how they got complimentary sodas. But, he didn’t like how the transition from the ground to the air felt, it made him feel weird.

They finally made it to Washington, D.C. early that morning, “I was thinking what the first sites we were going to see and what was it going to be like”, Marcus said. After the plane ride they headed to their hotel rooms at Carlyle Suites, and then off to the sites. The sites they visited included BET Headquarters, African-American Civil War Museum, Ben’s Chili Bowl, Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Smithsonian Museum, Jazz Concert, Howard University, The White House Visitors Center, Mary McLeod Bethune’s Home, Georgetown University, Left Bank, The National Zoo, and Fredrick Douglass’ home. Marcus said, “The Smithsonian was my favorite site to see because of all the different exhibits, like the 20 foot long octopus.”

In Washington, D.C., the students had the experience of seeing new things, some great and bad. One of Marcus’ great experiences was he got to have a tour of what goes on behind the scenes of the televisions company, BET. He got to see what it takes to create a show and all the people it takes to help the company run. Even though Marcus had great experiences, he still had some bad ones like facing the wind chill factor while walking from site to site.

“Washington, D.C. was pretty fun because I got to see what Washington, D.C. actually looks like, and not from just pictures”, said Marcus.

Even though they were having fun they had to leave. “The preparation for leaving was very long because we had to get everything ready the night before leaving and we had to pack everything except the things we needed in the morning.” On the way back home to Oakland they had some difficulties and it was a lot longer than before, “It was a long flight back home because we had to make three stops because one of our planes got knocked off course because of the weather, our flight was delayed. So we had to get 3 flights because without those 3 stops we would all be mixed up and arrive at different times”, said Marcus.

They returned home on Saturday, April 11th, Marcus said he was happy when he finally was back home because he could finally relax and he was very glad to see his parents because he hadn’t seen them in awhile.