California here they come!

Aya had booked a flight and trip with a company that deal specifically with exchange student organizations “Explore America Tours”, I didn’t even know there was such a niche in the whole entrepreneurship world.

http://www.explore-america.com/

She is very excited since she will be able to visit California, her ideal state she had hoped be a part of during this exchange program stay. Sorry to say – but how it works is there are a whole lot of exchange students trying to find a placement in the United States (where they go isn’t a choice for each student, they get placed where there is a spot available, which would include a school district that is willing to accept them).

She has been updating me on other student within her organization and from her country that are having issues with their respective host families. Sometimes they get put in to families, not able to deal with hosting a family, though they signed up to be one. Sometimes the host parents and siblings have dislikes about personal interactions are and are not willing to make sacrifices. In other cases, a temporary family is found just to place a child into a home; in order to buy time to find a permanent family that will receive the student for 1 full school year. (I digress)

Aya told me she has a cousin who lives in Los Angles and wants to be able to meet up with him during the trip. I am thinking it will be difficult, since this is a tour group and where they go is dictated by the organization and not by the individual.

Her trip excerpt will be similar to this:

--------------------------------------------------

“There is so much to see in our time in Los Angeles and our tour will take us to some of the most famous sights. We will visit Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Santa Monica and Venice Beach, Hollywood Boulevard and Melrose Avenue (the best place in Los Angeles for fun fashions). And tonight, after dinner, we see a live theater production.

We will spend our last day LA day riding the thrilling rides and exploring the attractions offered by Disneyland.

We will visit the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park and watch an IMAX show that teaches us about the Park's history - and we will have a chance to see both the Sunrise and Sunset over the Grand Canyon. We will grab our cameras and hike some of the trails around the Canyon's South Rim to photograph the Colorado River, which rages through the Canyon's floor.
We will venture into Las Vegas for an exciting tour of America's favorite playground.

Downtown Las Vegas with the Fremont Street Experience is always a student favorite.
We will drive and walk the "Strip" and explore many of the thrilling sites and attractions Vegas has to offer, from its glamorous casinos to its huge shopping facilities and roof top roller coasters.
Our days in Vegas will end with dinner and a Vegas Show.
· 1 night is spent sleeping on the bus from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon.

---------------------------------------------

I am thinking that last note can’t be too much fun, falling asleep on a coach has got to be uncomfortable to say the least.

I suppose I can say I am a little jealous, as I lived here all my life and have not had time to go L.A. or even the earlier Niagara Falls in up state New York - sad how jobs and life styles dictate where we go and what we do. I think more of us should take the time and stop and smell the roses before the only roses we smell are the ones laid on our coffins. Life is too short to live to work, see Aya get to do all these things along with her fellow students from abroad has brought to me another light.

Having said this I want to organize the time and make time with my own family to go on trips we've dreamed about but somehow couldn't save enough or get the time off to go to. We only live once and one of us could be gone tomorrow and never get to live for today, I wonder how many people say this and never have the opportunity to fulfill their dreams.