Nadiah's Travel Blog

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Students Exchange to USA


  • Leaving Ramallah:
On Friday 6/4/2007 at 5:00 am we left Ramallah to Jericho Bridge, in which an officer met and hosted us in his office till all of our documents were finished.

  • Arriving in Jordan:
At 11:00 am we arrived in Jordan after easy procedures, my uncle was waiting for us, he hosted us in his home for two days in which he and his family took us in tours in Amman, we spent great time shopping and hanging out visiting different places.

  • Flying to Los Angeles:
At 1:40 am we flied for the first time!!! It was great experience to check bags in, to follow procedures in airport, to answer people when they wondered why we were going to USA, and to notice admiring in their eyes.
We flied to Paris and from there to Los Angeles.


  • Los Angeles:
1st Day:
At 2:00 pm, a lovely, nice and pretty lady (Bozena) welcomed us in airport, and joined us to Hotel which was good. We took rest for the rest of the day.

2nd Day:
  • During this day we visited RELIEF INTERNATIONAL OFFICE, we met the staff there starting from Farshad the CEO, Michelle, Martin, David, Brooke, Aida and Bozena for sure. They were nice people who took us in a tour in the organization departments.
  • We updated our online blogs on Wikispaces.
  • Students filled surveys about education systems in their schools.
  • We were assigned to perform a game called “Scavenger Hunt” which is a Diversity Appreciation game we applied in a moll where we met different people from different backgrounds.
  • Farshad, Brooke and Bozena kindly took us for lunch in a nice restaurant called “California Kitchen” where we ate different delicious and strange dishes!!!
  • Brooke and Bozena took us in a tour in UCLA; it was a great university, all of its students are committed to it and they have strange loyalty to it, the annoying thing there was lecture against Islam!!!!

3rd Day:
  • Camp Josepho in which our students met their American fellows who are participating in an after school program at Red Cross, different Ice breaker games were organized from which students learned more about leadership skills and team building, in a practical way not the ordinary lecturing method.

4th Day:
  • We arrived at Red Cross where we took Diversity Appreciation Training given by a lovely Moslem Lady: Hakika. One annoying thing happened was that Asil ate Pork by mistake since she was so hungry to ask about what is in pizza as usual, Hakika talked to her in a great way about Islam Roles.
  • Students had free time they spent in shopping and visiting special places in Los Angeles, for me Brooke kindly took me to the beach that was the first time in ten years to see sea!!! I cannot forget that moment.
  • We had special dinner in which Farshad talked to students about what he expects from this exchange, and students presented what they gained so far from exchange; Asil presented with a guy from Tajikistan called Evganey.


5th Day:
  • Students took training by Red Cross staff about Leadership, Decision making, Project Management and What to do in disasters.
  • We visited Santa Monica Pier, beach and fun land there, it was so cool!!!!

6th Day:
  • Public speaking and presentation development training
  • Practice speech making

7th Day:
  • We spent the whole day in a tour of Los Angeles, we visited Hollywood Street, Mexican area, and we watched some performing in streets, did some shopping, ate Mexican food, and walked on Venice Beach.



San Francisco:
1st Day:
  • Whole day trip to San Francisco by Train, it was great and long trip keeping in mind that it was our first time in a train and we passed by a lot of various natural views.
2nd Day:
  • Visit to Just Think organization; media literacy presentation, youth and Media around the world, this was great chance to visit this organization since we learned how to present and how to make your idea stick in people minds.
  • Visit Golden Bridge!!!!

3rd Day:
  • Visit to Zeum in which our students learned how to speak in front of camera and to practice journalism, students created their own materials, from writing the script, choosing background and music, Ala and Asil’s material was perfect they presented together, and Ala could not prevent herself from singing and dancing in front of camera , everyone liked her performance and they tapped her.
  • Visited Art exhibition in Zeum prepared by Palestinian and Israeli youth from Jerusalem about peace, it was nice and educational one, after that I was asked to be interviewed in the National Radio about this visit
  • Visit to Bay Aquarium where we found variety of sea creatures and we touched some!! This was great adventure J

  • Shopping and shopping…..

4th Day:

  • Visit Plug and Play organization, which has the same principle as PICTI (Palestinian Organization) , many successful organizations were started there like Google!!!, we started our visit by taking a tour in the company departments and labs, then a successful story of a company called MiDoMi was told by the head of this company, after that the Head of Plug and Play Mr.Saed talked to students and shared his experience with them.
  • Visit College Track, which is an after school program where minority students learn to be prepared for school and university, there are a lot of facilities for entertaining students to express their selves and their talents. Students are so active in social life and they are interested to communicate with our GCEP students, and to be a partner for Palestinian school

5th Day:
  • Visit Global Catalyst; it is great company with nice view, warm welcome, meeting started by Mr.Kamran presentation, he shared his experience with students, Asil and Alaa were so active in discussion, Successful Palestinian experience was Dr. Bassil Hantash, he was great, clever Palestinian doctor who is going to work for benefit of humanity, he talked about challenges that faced him as Palestinian and Moslem in the west, we were so proud of him. Sally Osberg from Skoll foundation talked about the foundation and the social entrepreneurship, We chatted about Ghandi's Project, and Asil talked about her personal experience with Ghandi project. Then students from both countries presented one presentation, Alaa from our side presented she was very good and honest.
  • We visited Stanford University, where they prepared presentation about Social entrepreneurship and Innovation, and we took a tour there.

6th Day:

  • This was my favorite day on which we visited GOOGLE Company, it was completely a dream came true, it is magnificent!!! How it is like a state with its 26 huge buildings, with that big campus, how was great to meet Oona from Google.org, the philanthropic and humanitarian wing of Google, who was our guide there, we had couple of presentations about everything you may ask about Google; from the basic idea when it was born, founders, progress, development, products, quality of service, competition, failures, employment, how do they take good care of their employees, how they invest in employees, colors of the logo, every single detail, Alaa was a star in giving ideas for new products for Google; like Google Alarm, Google School. It was inspiring how Larry and Surgey determined to make their dream come true despite of all the obstacles and the best evidence for that is the Dinosaur Replica!!!! A great place was the huge cafeteria where you can notice that Google is a small world since you can find people of all of Nationalities, religions and backgrounds consequently you can find a huge collection of food from different places in the world, one important thing to mention is that all of the food and snacks are for free!!, while moving between offices you can notice massage chairs, and entertainment rooms, rest and relaxing rooms, and snack shops. Google .org is a going to work on Global Development (poverty) , Climate Change and Public Health, they noticed my interest in climate change, so I was invited to attend a Tick Talk about Climate Change around the world which was organized then.
  • Shopping again

7th Day:
  • Flying to Washington DC, this was the best flight since we flied with the whole group and it was fun on plane.

Washington DC:
1st Day:
  • Global Campaign for Education for All, this was great experience in which we learned how to advocate for something, how to engage people in your plans, how to convince them with what you are advocating for, how to manage your time to achieve your plans.

2nd Day:
  • We continued with this campaign, group were assigned their meetings, Asil and Alaa were in two different groups, they started working on their meetings with Senators and Congressmen.

3rd Day:
  • We went to Capital Hill where each group went to their interview to advocate for education for all, I was supposed to go with Both Asil and Alaa for different meetings, but unfortunately one of Tajik Students was ill, her Chaperone had to take her to hospital and of course I needed to stay with the whole group!! So I went to no meeting!!!

  • In the afternoon, we rode the Metro to Alexanderia, where we met the Browne Academy Staff, Students and their parents, it was warm welcome, they prepared great barbeque and we ate in a hall where our flag was hanged, our students met their hosting families for the first time, they were so kind. Paul, the American teacher talked a lot about partnership between his school and Palestinian one, he is so interested in what he saw in my presentation about my work.

4th Day:
  • We visited George Washington home with the American school; it is nice museum, with all of the sound effects during film shows.
  • We visited Forum one organization; it is an IT development organization.
  • Visited Voice of America; from where AL-Hurra channel broadcasts
  • Visited Different museums; Dinosaurs, rockets, Art and Native American
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> 5th Day:
  • We visited the Holocaust museum
  • We had a tour in the city, saw the white house, Washington monument
  • Visited Women’s organization, where we had meetings with women of different organizations that use IT to achieve their objectives

6th Day:
  • Presentation in ECA about us, GCEP in Palestine, and about the exchange, what we gained here, and we are going to do.

  • went Bowling
7th Day :
  • Back to home, I think Goodbye was the saddest and hardest thing we did we could not stop crying, they became so dear to us. I love all of them, we tought them Arabic, and learn from them, we showed them the real Palestinian people.

To Sum Up:

  • Positive things:
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** Met great, nice, and professional people there like: Bozena, Brooke, Aida, Farshad, Martin, Allie, Zohre, Rustam, Raji, Zoya, Anna Musman, Anderia, Lauren, Noah, Aurther, Oona, Mohammed Omar and Bassil Hantash.
    • Gave perfect impression about us, GCEP, RISOL, Palestine
    • Visited great organization from which we learned a lot
    • Promote partnerships between schools here in Palestine and America
    • Noticeable positive effect on our personalities, and attitudes.
    • Start the first steps in Youth project which is Global Club for Youth Philanthropists (GCYP) as a result of all what we learned, this club will be led by youth who will solve the issue of education by starting student to student tutoring aiming at educating children who drop out schools and cannot afford going to schools and to help students who cannot cope up with several subjects at schools, this will be achieved by using RISOL Centers and ILCs after school everyday during the week and during weekends is dedicated for teaching women to raise women literacy, this is to be done in Palestine, Tajikistan and America, and students will exchange their outputs by internet and wikispaces.
    • This was our first time to travel alone, and for me it is not alone but also responsible for two teenage girls, it was educating for me and developed hidden sides of my personality.
    • Asil and Alaa were perfect, and you couldn’t feel that they are minority there they had the impact of more that the half.
    • I participated efficiently in making this exchange successful.

  • Negative things:
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** Issue with Flying Company on our way back from USA
    • People we met were saying you brought three girls from Palestine without a chaperone! I needed to make my self taller and say hay I am the teacher here , I am old, am not a student!!!!