Greetings From Rhode Island!

I got no sleep on the night of July 4th, not only because of the fireworks but because I knew I wasn’t going to get any sleep. Rather, I made plans to catch up on my sleep during my 6-hour plane ride to Rhode Island. I spent the whole night packing and mentally preparing for my journey to the East Coast.


The meeting place for my cohort was El Cerrito High School. My mom, brother, and I arrived at around 3 AM, as the shuttle was expected at 4 and we still needed to receive loaner items from Don. However, two other people were there before us: my friends Vincent and Jaskaran. They got up at 2:30 and drove out to EL Cerrito just to say goodbye to their De Anza friends!

As we boarded the shuttle and said goodbye to our friends and family, we realized there wasn’t enough space for one of our fellow flyers, Ms. Madeline Kronenberg. She ended up finding a way to the Oakland Airport by the generosity of Mariko’s parents.

After checking in our luggage and a quick breakfast, we boarded Southwest Airlines just as the sun began to rise from the horizon. This was my first time on a plane since last year, and I admit, about 80% of my time was spent with me looking out of the window fascinated by the clouds.

At 4 PM, we finally arrived at Rhode Island. The first thing I noticed, for unknown reasons, was the fact that the airport was carpeted. The next thing I noticed was how incredibly humid it was outside. One could feel the moisture in the air as they breathed in, and unlike in the West Coast, hiding in shade wouldn’t make the temperature any cooler. After a small incident involving a change in rental cars, we were on our way to our hotel, Hotel Providence. It’s the fanciest hotel I’ve ever stayed in, and Cynthia, Rebecca and I had the honor of staying in the Samuel Mark Twain Clemmens Suite.

An hour after arrival in the hotel, we met up in the lobby and headed out to Capital Grille, an elegant restaurant in Providence. There, we met and dined with two admission officers of Brown University and our Women and Leadership teacher, Kisa Takesue. I had the meal of champions: Lobster bisque, Filet Mignon, and side orders of Lobster Mac’n’ Cheese, a medley of mushrooms, and potatoes au gratin.

We’re back in the hotel now, and after our first meeting with our chaperone, the girls and I shared our opinions and insight of what happened today. It’s been less than 24 hours, and after bonding in our pajamas in the lobby of our hotel, I look forward to spending 3 weeks with my fellow Brownies even more. We all have different personalities and different ways of expressing humor and comfort toward each other, but we all get along extremely well and there is no doubt that we will all be like sisters by the end of this trip.