May 29 /
YES Students and the Spirit of Yosemite

by Fion Ten Ern Teo, Malaysia 08
hosted in Los Altos, CA

The earth is a really nice place to live in, we have beautiful sceneries, kind people and creatures. For our final YES trip, we decided on a trip to one of the prettiest places on earth, the Yosemite National Park, California. We were there for five days with Dina Mohamed from Egypt, Khairrurijal Adhar from Indonesia, myself and Jean McQuady, Cluster Coordinator and her daughter, Dawna Sallinen from Ft. Bragg, California.

These five days brought us really close to Mother Nature. The bad weather did not hinder us from exploring this beautiful place. It was raining and the temperature was rather low. The beautiful waterfalls were worth stopping for photos. Gentle flowing river takes us away from our stress. Half Dome makes us gasp for a few seconds. John Muir said, “everything is flowing in Yosemite. The so called lifeless rock, animals and water, all of them are flowing.” Yosemite took us away from the buzzing city and showed us the green ribbons of life.

We learned about the Miwok Indians on this trip. They lived a really basic life and produced lots of artistic products. We learned about their traditions, such as food preparation, obsidian shaping and basket weaving. We were lucky to have the chance to see a real demonstration of necklace making by one of the Indians in the Museum.

Apart from Yosemite, we went to Columbia State Historic Park. It is a Forty Niner Town featuring the largest gold-rush-era brick buildings. Columbia was an interesting place to visit, especially for exchange students like us as we got to see what America was like about 150 years ago! America has changed a lot since then. From the lively city of San Francisco to the high-technology Silicon Valley, which shows the change of the face of America since the Gold rush era.

This five day trip taught us a lot. I believe everyone of us appreciates nature more after this trip. Isn’t it better to spend time with nature and form friendships rather than throwing bombs at each other? Time for peace to be with us.